Fears of not getting a ticket dragged me out of bed at 6.30 this morning and down to Kardinia Park by 7.00. It turned out I was 4th in line, and probably could have slept another two hours and still got in comfortably, but better safe than sorry! My position in line meant I got quite a good seat, behind the goals but high enough up to have a better view of the whole ground than last week. I took a chair with me and passed the 3 1/2 hours in the queue reading the paper, talking to the bloke behind me, and trying to ignore the know-it-all bloke ahead of me in the line. He knew everything about everything and was determined to share his knowledge with everyone within earshot whether they liked it or not!!
Once I was in, I went back out! I got a pass-out, left my seat in the protection of the bloke sitting next to me who I knew to be trust-worthy cause his name was Marcus, and took Lucy's car back so she could get to work. I took the bus back into the footy and wandered around parts of the stadium I wasn't familiar with while waiting for the big game to start.
It was a tight and tense first half with the Dogs applying plenty of pressure and the Cats making plenty of mistakes. The scores were level at both 1/4 time and 1/2 time but in the 3rd qurter Geelong got ahead kicking 5 goals to 2. In the last they put the pedal to the metal to power away, kicking 8 goals to 1 to leave the Bulldogs trailing in their wake and run out winners by 61 points.
I watched the last quarter from the new grandstand, having secured a seat belonging to a lady who was leaving early. The view was spectacular and the footy breath-taking.
The Dogs were playing for top spot, having lost just the one game this season but Geelong showed that they remain the team to beat for this year's flag.
The absence of injured stars made no difference. Emergency Ryan Gamble came in late for Wojinzki and was top scorer with 4 goals!
Gary said to me on the phone yesterday he reckoned the Bulldogs were the team to dethrone the Cats. After the game I SMSed him, "Do you still think the Dogs can beat the Cats? No Ablett, No Ling, No worries!!"
After the footy I called in to visit Mrs Holt Press' parents Alan and Mary and spent a couple of hours with them. I asked them how they met and heard some really interesting stories about how they got together, their parents, siblings, children and friends. They will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in November!!! Although they both have significant health issues they are in relatively good shape and spirit and I really enjoyed my visit. I even gave my father-in-law a hug for the first time!
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We watched this game behind glass in the Bob Davis room at Skilled, and it was bizarre - no sound infiltrating and no atmosphere at all! Although we were sitting about 5m away from Tom Hawkins who showed absolutely no emotion at all when the cats did such a fine job in the second half.
Matthew Scarlett's wife was also sitting in the front row with their daughter who has a very cute jersey with Matthew's number and "Go Daddy" written on the back.
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