The Saints Prevail in a Thriller

We're all still catching our breath after today's classic footy game. St Kilda proved too good for my beloved Cats but losing was no disgrace and I'm confident we can beat them in he finals.
The pressure was intense, on and off the ground. St Kilda burst out of the blocks and had 5 goals on the board before Geelong got their first, 4 of them the result of turnovers forced by the Saints fierce tackling and stingy defence. It wasn't the start I was hoping for and it was always going to be very difficult to overhaul St Kilda but to Geelong's credit they fought back strongly.
10 points down at 3/4 time the Cats were in touch but StKilda kicked the first two goals of the last quarter to stretch the lead to 23 points. Geelong had no right to expect to win the game from there, yet incredibly they stormed back with three quick goals, one a bizarre long distance mongrel torpedo from Paul Chapman that somehow bounced up and over the desperate Saints defenders. Mooney made up for his earlier lack of confidence to bag a goal from 50 and the Cats were coming. When Stokes goaled on the run suddenly the scores were level and the momentum was with the Cats. But the hero turned out to be Michael Gardiner who flew into a pack of 4-5 players to pull down a screamer right in front of goal and coolly slot home the winner. He knocked Harry Taylor out in the pack and he had to be stretchered off. 90 seconds remained, the centre break was critical, the Cats got the ball inside 50 but the umpire paid a questionable in the back free kick against Mooney, the Saints cleared and that was it, they held on to win by a goal. It was a thriller and a titanic duel between two unbeaten teams. The kids were giving me a bit of grief about Geelong losing which was to be expected. I was disappointed but not dejected, Geelong's effort to fight back to draw level in the last quarter and very nearly win it was full of guts and character. I think we all agreed it had been well worth it to be there to see one of the great games of the season, played in front of a record crowd, 54,444 people.

There was some extra drama at the game, someone in the crowd sitting near the boys had a heart attack and the para-medics worked on him for a long time before finally carrying him out on a stretcher. Someone we talked to later said he had survived, hopefully that's correct.

Someone who I don't expect to survive was the crazy kid on a trailbike speeding through the traffic on a wet road at Glenroy this morning without a helmet. He stopped at the lights, turned and looked behind him then took off through a red light in front of on-coming traffic, almot losing control of the bike in the process. Sophie and I speculated he must have been high on something to be acting in such a reckless and bizarre manner.

We had slept in this morning but were still able to spend a couple of hours at the Queen Vic markets before the game. The boys reckoned there wasn't much there! Sophie and I managed to find a few things worth buying. I got a beanie, some socks and a kite which I hope we'll get to try out sometime this week. Haydn impressed the kids with his dancing skills as they watched the South American band playing outside the markets. Sadly we don't have the right USB cord to upload it to the blog but it could be destined for classic status on YouTube.

After the game we went to Lygon St in Carlton and found an Italian restaurant to have dinner at, persuaded by the fast-talking owner working the crowd on the footpath. Pizza and pasta was followed by ice cream from the Gelato shop we'd passed earlier. Joel suddenly realised he'd left his bag behind and had to go back to the restaurant to retrieve it.
A stop at a lolly shop for an unnecessary dose of sugar then back to the bus and home to Glenroy.

The boys are settling down to sleep, I'm watching the tennis and hoping Roger Federer can fight back from a set down to win Wimbledon and his 15th grand slam title.