It’s Great to back at the Footy

All roads football led to the Sydney Olympic Park precinct on Sunday. The Giants were playing the Bombers at the newly re-named Giants Stadium, whilst across the road, the Sydney 2000 Olympic stadium hosted rugby league teams Parramatta and Canterbury – Bankstown. Traveling by train you could see an extra spring in the step of people. I met a family of Bulldogs fans at Lidcombe station all dressed in club colours and they told me it’s good the footy’s back and the mum said “I couldnt wait for the season to start” Hallelujah! I thought.Another cool sight I saw on the way to the game on the train was a group of young girls of various cultural backgrounds. A couple of girls were wearing a hijab and  Bulldogs colours, another Sudanese girl also in Doggies colours and a single girl in an Eels jersey. I though to myself, how cool is that. The banter was like any sports fan and all of the hub hub in the press about this group or that group, I thought you cant beat sport from bringing people together. It always has. Sure there have been idiots over the years with dumb comments and today they are amplified by social media, but for me the good always prevails in the long run. Those girls were super cool one of the best things I’ve seen going to a game.

Never mind the Bombers

So all of the footy pundits are calling Essendon to be in crisis, that it’s all doom and gloom. Nothing could be further from the truth. As Giants coach Leon Cameron said in his post game presser the season was like a 22 km marathon and only 1 km had been run by his side, that could well be applied to Essendon. Fact it was really HOT and HUMID on Sunday. Sure the Dons are fit young men, but if you live in Melbourne and aren’t used to the type of intense humidity that Sydney can turn on, it can hammer you. The temperature out at Homebush was around 30˚ and didn’t go under 28˚ for the entire the game. I also think the Dons are still very rusty after watching their two JLT games. They struggled to complete marks and finish up forward. They’ll be a good team once they get into a rhythm. I’m not surprised the conditions didn’t affect the Giants as they train in this weather all the time. My question about Essendon would be wondering about scouting out the conditions, weather, humidity at this time of the year because it can be brutal. Even 3AW’s Tony Leonard who I bumped into pre-game said straight off the bat, the weather was unbearable. I laughed, (I’m a former Footscray girl) I’m used to it I told him and he quipped well you’ve had 18 years to get used to it

In the depths of the “Graveyard” Essendon coach John Worsfold & support staff head to the Don’s rooms after the big loss to the Giants. Photo: Jodie Newell

A disappointing day for the former Giant Dylan Shiel result wise, but was one of the few good Dons players. Photo: Jodie Newell

Nice comeback by the Giants after a disappointing 2018 finals campaign

I’ll be honest, I thought the Giants would lose this game facing up to an Essendon team bolstered by new recruit and former Giant Dylan Shiel. Sure the Don’s JLT form wasnt good, but I still thought they’d win. I also thought, the loss of Rory Lobb and Tom Scully would affect the team balance. I’m so glad I was proven wrong. The Giants boys were switched on from the bounce. They may have lost the early clearance count 13-4 , but they were quick to take control of the game with pressure and hard tackling. Zac Williams deep in the first term made a statement about his desire by fiercely tackling an Essendon opponent, the ball was moved up forward and a goal was scored. I haven’t seen such desperation in the back half for a long time. The other pleasing thing was the amount of depth this team has and how they do things quietly.  Stephen Coniglio was amazing with 31 disposals, 7 tackles and three goals. Tim Taranto stepped up to another level and kicked some very handy goals. Then there was Jezza Cameron booting a lazy 4 goals, Lachie Keeffe with a 3 goal cameo, Jacob Hopper and how about Brent Daniels?  This kid reminds of a Hayden Ballantyne nuggety type. He shows real promise around the packs, super impressed. Sam Taylor at full back was superb. Then there the long term injured guys back in a place they love. Dawson Simpson, Adam Kennedy and Zac Williams. Big Daws is a player we’ve had a lot of faith in, if you check our 2018 articles, we wrote he was the solution to the ruck problems the Giants had. We were proven correct. It was a shame he got injured, one wonders how GWS would have gone in the finals series with a fit Simpson. But he was back on Sunday looking super fit and super switched on. He matched it well with Tom Bell Chambers, it’s going to be interesting to see how he goes with Shane Mumford waiting in the wings. Adam Kennedy did play some games last year after a bad knee injury. After a solid pre-season, he’s also looking in top shape, as to is Zac Williams who was out with a nagging Achilles injury. So the future looks pretty good, but as coach Cameron stated only 1 km has been covered, there’s a hell of a long way to go.