Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Weagles put Swans down

There will be some sore heads in Perth and Melbourne this morning. The West Coast Eagles won the AFL Grand Final yesterday by a point. They had led the match with Sydney Swans in every quarter, but such was the nature of the game, had it lasted a minute longer the result could easily have gone the other way.

The quarter by quarter scores were: West Coast Eagles 4.2 - 8.7 - 10.10 - 12.13 (85 points) Sydney Swans 1.4 - 4.6 - 8.11 - 12.12 (84 points)

Of course I watched the melodrama in its entirety on TV, and confess I cheered when the Eagles scored. The Sydney players didn't deserve to win. They have some mongrel attitudes. Their Captain Barry Hall resorted to schoolyard bully boy tactics before the first bounce of the ball and attacked the boyish Ben Cousins. Not just a bit of push and shove, Hall looked like he was about to murder Cousins in front of 97,000 people, and Cousins probably thought so too.

So it was rather pleasing to see the smaller WA player give an bit of a tug on Hall's guernsey and make him drop awkwardly to the ground. It was timely because Cousins had his arm back and fist clenched. Hall was about to get decked well and truly. A similar incident with another West Coast player later in the game also saw Hall dropped flat on his back. A case of the bigger they are the harder they fall.

Hall benefited from some very curious umpiring decisions during the game as well and these probably deserve further expert scrutiny. He also had some very easy free short-distance kicks at goal and stuffed up on more than one occasion for his team. Maybe too many late nights this week? He seems to have become an emotionally erratic liability for them.

When the final siren went the Sydney team collapsed to instant jelly. Brownlow medal winner Adam Goodes knelt sobbing on the ground. What a pathetic display of losership! Their favourite bully-boy and part time beast Barry Hall had watery eyes too. Poor diddums. Not so tough now hey. Ben cousins should have gone over to them and said, "Pull yourselves together men." Maybe a slap about the chops would have brought them to their senses?

The Sydney supporters had the wind taken from their sails too. They had booed a lot during the game and will be very sulky today. Absolutely delicious!

Of course the Eagles' fans are quite delirious. I had to go into Fremantle last night about 10pm to collect my daughter and some of her girlfriends from the railway station after a full day at the Royal Show. There were a few drunken Eagle's fans staggering about the streets, mostly young males.

After a big function last night in Melbourne, today the Weagles players will fly back to Perth. This afternoon at 2pm they will have an obligatory meet-the-supporters celebratory affair at Subiaco oval. I imagine they'll sleep pretty well tonight.

Courtesy of the Melbourne Age here are the TAB odds for the winners of next year's Grand Final: West Coast $4.50 - Adelaide $6 - Sydney $6.50 - St Kilda $8 - Fremantle $10 - Geelong $12 - Western Bulldogs $13 - Melbourne $13 - Port Adelaide $15 - Collingwood $16 - Hawthorn $26 - Richmond $35 - Essendon $41 - Brisbane Lions $51 - Kangaroos $101 - Carlton $101.

© MMVI Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a million words.

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