Not that size matters, of course. Look at the quality, I always say.
This is Norwood. Land of the hoity-toity, where ‘gosh’ is considered an expletive and there are lots of German cars. It was hot, the deck was green, the crowd was a tiny 9235. No doubt in my mind that the class and spectacle on display as Greater Western Sydney took on St Kilda was deserving of a better result from the Gather Round accommodation raffle.
GWS came into the contest with just a single loss to Hawthorn in the season so far and, seemingly, in very good nick. St Kilda were looking to extend a run of three consecutive victories, including wins over Port Adelaide and more notably, the Cats. They are having an underneath the radar, better than expected start to the season considering the absence of star forward, Max King.
St Kilda nearly executed a well-planned ambush to start the game. Aside from an early GWS goal from Toby Greene (who else?) the ball rarely left the St Kilda forward half as Byrne, Sharman and Wood all goaled for the Saints. Things were looking good. The GWS machine then awoke from dormant mode and they returned fire. Stringer kicked his first as a Giant, resulting in a GWS group hug with him in the middle. What followed some minutes later was something you really only see a couple of times a season, if at all.
A free kick awarded to St Kilda’s Hall in the forward section of the centre square saw him handball off to a running Wanganeen-Milera who, from the square, launched a fantastic 60m bomb for a goal. Truly spectacular. A shame less than 10,000 people saw him do it. GWS responded with goals from Wehr and Hogan after taking the classic big man contested mark. The siren to end the first sounded with GWS two points in front. It’d be remiss not to mention the 11 disposals, 9 kicks and 5 marks from GWS half-back Lachie Ash in the first quarter. He was everywhere, and would be right in contention for an AA spit if the team were decided right now.
The second quarter was to be telling. Toby Greene again opened the scoring for GWS with a clever snap from a mark deep in the pocket. This was followed by another from Darcy Jones and then a third by Hogan from a free kick delivered by a panicky defensive error. At 15 minutes into the quarter, GWS were three goals in front. St Kilda were playing well, there was lots of talent on display, and as Saints coach Ross Lyon would say post game “I thought there was a lot to like”. It was a great contest, but GWS were kicking goals whilst the Saints were not. Ash continued to gather possessions, accompanied by Finn Callaghan, Tom Green, and Josh Kelly. Meanwhile, for the Saints, Hill and Wilkie were standouts. Late in the quarter, Sharman collected his second goal for the Saints, closely followed by one for GWS from 318 game veteran (35yrs) Callan Ward from deep in the pocket; it was all class. 20 points at the main break in favour of GWS.
As an aside; Is it just me, or are we seeing a movement in what is regarded as the age bracket for footballers “in their prime”. Is 35 the new 30? Callan Ward was terrific today, with his trademark courage well and truly on display. Other names running around as geriatics (35 or older ) of the league yet punching the lights out, include Pendlebury, Boak, Dangerfield and Zorko, and there’s another 20 (by my reckoning) older than 33 lining up every week. Maybe apex of ability is 28/29 when it used to be 23 or 24. Anyway, back to the game.
The third quarter was a spectacle, with a showcase of skills on display. Did I mention already that Norwood has a small crowd capacity and no-one saw the show? The Orange Tsunami overwhelmed the Saints, who were, I say it again, playing very good footy. Toby Greene kicked the first goal of the third quarter for GWS which came as a huge surprise. His second goal for the quarter (4th of the day) was notable because it wasn’t some freaky snap which he is known for, but the result of sheer pace, burning off his pursuers to kick a running goal. This guy has got it all and is currently averaging 20.2 disposals and 2.8 goals per game. The last person to average 20 &2 was Stevie J, well over a decade ago
Tsunami is a very apt descriptor for GWS. They added eight goals to the Saints three, finishing the term 50 points up. It was a kind of shootout, both teams doing terrific things except that the GWS defence kept getting in the way of the Saints attack. They were led by Taylor, but with Himmelberg, Whitfield, Buckley, Idun and Ash (yes that’s all six) all contributing, the Saints were regularly repelled. Yet, GWS had too many forward guns for the Saints to handle. Three from Greene (so five for the day), two to Cadman, and singles to Stringer (his second), Riccardi and Thomas. For the Saints, Wanganeen-Milera, Sharman and Hall goaled. What they lacked was that extra option Max King (injured) would have provided. Macrae, Sinclair and Windhager got a lot of the ball for the Saints. Macrae finished with 17 disposals but didn’t seem to have his usual impact on the game, well held by Toby Bedford, who added another notch to his belt.
Last quarter was a fairly drab affair, and did resemble what you might see at the local footy. A string of seated die hards pretending the sun going down wasn’t directly in their line of sight. Light and Dark playing havoc with the TV broadcast. Gee the crowd was small. The Saints did hold GWS goalless in the last, while adding goals from Wanganeen-Milera (three for the day playing off half-back is no joke), Sinclair and a couple late from Higgins who finished with two, which kind of downplayed the wonderful job Connor Idun had done on him when the heat was on.
GWS came away winners by 28 points, which seems a just result.
The premiership window is wide open for GWS, and looks as though their coach, Adam Kingsley, has jammed it open with a lump of wood. They are not going away, and they will challenge all comers this year. Understanding coaching has come a long way since “go long up the guts” and it is very apparent Kingsley has his team on song. Toby Greene was fantastic today, as was Lachie Ash and the old bloke Callan Ward shone.
For St Kilda even though they lost and post game, they looked earnestly at the grass for answers. Simply put they didn’t have the same weapons as GWS. Didn’t play badly, but were just outgunned. The Saints will trouble a lot of teams this year, particularly when King is back on deck.
In today’s game Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera showed that he is something special. A fantastic runner and prodigious kick. Sharman, Sinclair and Garcia were the other standouts, whilst Sharman gave Sam Taylor a run for his money and was a really good matchup for him.
Did I mention the size of the ground and the small crowd?
