Went to the football today, the first actual live game this year. Wests vs Souths at the SCG, an old school venue for the “Heritage Round”. Back in 1969, Souths played Balmain Tigers in the grand final, and the Tigers won that day, but it was not to be today.
Basically the main reason I went was that Wayne and I managed to score Members Stand tickets from a friend of Dad’s, which certainly made for an interesting experience. Tickets were unreserved, so we ended up right down near the front. An odd view since the field is really far from the fans at the SCG, but it was like being a kid again, really.
The game was a ridiculously up and down affair, with Wests taking early command, the squandering it for a 10-all half time score, then bursting away again in the second half to lead 22-10, then blowing that to have it go 22-22 in the last minuts, which would then get blown when somehow Souths scored a field goal in the last seconds to win 23-22. Hell of an exciting game really, but the result did not go my way.
The injury toll is looking bad for Wests, with Chris Lawrence, Dean Collis and Bryce Gibbs not even starting the game, and Keith Galloway going off injured within 10 minutes. So I wasn’t hopeful with that toll, really. Robbie Farah ran the show and set up most tries as always, but half way through the second half he got knocked unconscious in a fair tackle, and that’s really when Souths started coming back. Unless he’s injured, Farah is a certainty for State of Origin now, but I’m not looking forward to how Wests perform without him.
We hustled out of the ground and headed home really quickly after that sudden loss, skipping the chance to run on the field after, which is really an old-fashioned kids thing anyway. Oh well, can’t win them all, and I try not to let it worry me too much anyway.
Then again, the biggest difficulty would come early the next morning anyway… and it must have been something I ate…