sidelined

My apologies folks. I wrote this the other day and forgot to publish it. Better late then never.

Rumour has it that ANZ Stadium is still open waiting for the Melbourne Storm to turn up. They sure as hell weren’t there Sunday.

I expected Manly to win, so much so that I had 10 bucks on the Sea Eagles winning 1-12 (Fitting that in selling out in supporting Manly I decided I might as try and gain financial advantage from it). At half time that looked not bad. But Manly’s second half performance was outstanding. Any hope that Storm had was trampled, stomped on, ground into the dust and buried deep under the Stadium surface. You’ll find plenty of match reports around the traps. I’m going to stick to some personal observations from the ground. I forgot how good going to a grand final can be (apart from 2001) even when you team is not playing.

Watching the game live from the Sherpa Tenzing section of the Western Stand, we had a great view of the plays unfolding though it was a little hard at times to work out who was who. But the atmosphere was outstanding. Before the game, the ground announcer did try to get the Storm fans going but his exhortation of “Let’s hear it for Melbourne” got a few meek cheers around the ground. The Manly response was like the game. Intimidating and overwhelming.

I missed most of the pre-match entertainment. Stuck in the queue for food. Then for the TAB and finally, and importantly, beer. I did see the See King helicopter come down onto the field. It brought back a reoccurring nightmare I have every grand final. Being as soon as the helicopter sets down, Barnesy will come out singing “Khe San.” Haunted me since 2001. Luckily it was just the trophy this time but the sound of a copter (channel 7 or any other) still chills me to my feet. Barnsey could be lurking, ready with a terrifying “I left my heart to the sappers round Khe Sanh”.

Being a brave soul I wore one of my Eels jerseys. Yes, they weren’t playing but I was just getting practice in for next year. On the accent to our seats, I noticed another Eels fan and we gave each other a nod of camaraderie. We Eels fans stick together and I did run into quite a few Eels supporters travelling incognito. Some surprise (shock?) at seeing the familiar blue and gold amongst a plague of maroon and white.

As as much as an exhilarating day for Manly, the few Storm fans at the game had it rough. About 20 minutes from full time, they started to file out of the stadium with the Manly fans bidding them a fond farewell. And when Cameron Smith’s face was put up on the big screen, there was a resounding boo. This has apparently upset Melbourne’s CEO Brian Waldron who wants action by the NRL. Not sure what action he wants Gallop to take. Maybe have those 70,000 who booed Smith to apologise? I can guess what the response would be. Melbourne have become a sensitive bunch. Boo hoo.

But I did feel some sympathy for Melbourne It wasn’t shown on the big screen or on the tv coverage as far as I know, but while Manly were celebrating, you could see one Storm player (Cooper Cronk I believe) wandering away from the celebrations, obviously distraught at the loss. He was noticed by Bellamy who wandered over and embraced his player and then gently herded him back to the main group.

A grand day out and the twilight grand final a success. I’d be happier with a 3 or 4 pm start to make the day just a tad earlier but this is an improvement on the 7:00pm start.

As the positive feelings towards the Sea Eagle ebb and the tribal hatred returns I’m already looking forward to going again next year.