ozover50 wrote:
You might have to make your own dinner anyway............ after the Hawks lose!!
Roast chicken is nearly ready! Happy wife = Happy life.
Commiserations Aitch, what a fantastic match with over 100,000 people at the game!
Hawthorn Hawks 115 def. Geelong Cats 89
Ow.... after 24 hours of wild celebration, I can look a computer in the eye again....
Flashback: 2003 - the Manly club, once the richest and most hated in the competition, has broken free of a failed joint venture and is on the verge of liquidation. With a shoestring budget, a local hero coach with no experience at top level - a modest and quiet man who walks with a shambling gate after a long rugby league career, and a threadbare player roster, the rebuild starts. They look to build a team out of rejects, young hopefuls, and the odd aging star. They make the playoffs, and then, in 2007, the Grand final, where they are so horrendously pummelled by Melbourne that many thought the psycologiocal scars would never heal. Their captain is labelled a choker and the team is written off as a threat.
Flashback: Sunday evening - the National Rugby League Grand Final... Melbourne vs Manly Warringah, a replay of 2007. Manly had started the week as favourites but the betting at kick-off has the teams even. The Melbourne team, despite the absence of their captain, is full of star players and is brimming with confidence. Many of the top pundits are tipping a Melbourne victory. Everyone is tipping a close match.
This will be the last game for Manly stalwart Steve Menzies, who has played with the club for 16 years and will equal the all-time top-grade record of 349 games. He will also finish the game as the second-highest try scorer in competition history. 80,000 fans pack ANZ stadium in Sydney - site of the 2000 Olympics....
After 20 minutes, neither side has scored. Manly has dominated territory and possession, but can't break the Melbourne line... and then at the 24th minute Melbourne lose concentration and the score is 4-0 to Manly. A classical attacking raid 10 minutes later nets a try on the touchline, and the halftime score is 8-0.
Melbourne throw everything at Manly after half time, only to lose possession deep in Manly territory. Manly launch an attack and score, this time kicking the conversion. 14-0 - but against a champion side like Melbourne, it's not enough.
Manly go back to methodically dominating possession, and then in a move that involves six players, score again, underneath the goal posts... The battle is won.. and now the rout begins. By the end of play, Steve Menzies has scored yet another try (180 in his career), as has fellow retiree Steve Bell (just three minutes from full-time). Michael Robertson, sacked from his previous club, has equalled the Grand Final try scoring record with three tries, and Manly have racked up 40 points to Melbourne's nil, the biggest win in NRL Grand Final history.
The shambling coach has turned his motley bunch of rejects, kids and has-beens (with the odd star) into a relentless winning machine. The beloved faithful local hero wins the championship and scores in the process... Hollywood couldn't come up with a better fairy-tale ending.
GO MANLY!!!!
"I don't want to sound incredulous but I can't believe it" Rex Mossop
