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| Singapore Wombats v HMAS Melbourne 'Demons' Feb 1st, 2011 |
A friend once told me that playing footy in Montréal was like finding the fountain of youth. I thought about that as I lifted my face out of the mud and trudged towards the Singapore Wombats halftime huddle. My first half as a ’Bat had been somewhat of a disaster, a handful of dropped marks, two goals kicked on me and despite a few ‘knock-ons’ to my team’s advantage, not a single possession to my name. It was great to be back playing footy amongst all Australians.
Due to a week of monsoon like rain the ‘Terror Club’ field had developed very quickly into a mud-patch, one ‘island’ of grass at the clubhouse end half-forward area the only real place a football boot could hope to gain find any real traction. The Wombats opponent the HMAS Melbourne ‘Demons’ had cleverly headed out onto the field early to acclimatize to the conditions, but despite their recon and my -94 Supercoach rating points the Wombats, although rusty at times, were in complete control and as such held a handy 4 to 5 goal break at the main change.
Having abandoned a career in the backline in under 15’s life on the last line of defence wasn’t going so well for me. Thankfully in the second half the Demons played a man loose in defence leaving me free, finally having the chance to push up the field. Having a chance to roam through my more familiar midfield/half-forward role I finally registered on the stats sheet, and then after a snap on goal that looked like I’d finally have something to hang my hat on – the ball skidded through for a behind. It was all of little importance in the bigger picture; the Wombats had blown the game out of the water by the half-way mark of the third term. Such was dominance that in the slimy conditions in which nearly every player was covered from head to toe in mud and the ball was doing its best impression of a bar of soap one of the Wombats forwards on a lead threw out one arm to take an impressive one-handed grab. The final score saw the ‘Bats take home a ten goal plus victory, a tidy effort for the team that would now go back into its burrow for another month of hibernation before the real season kicked off.
