The Terrace

MCG, rain, cold, St Kilda, Molly Meldrum, John Farnham, Toe Poke. Sound familiar? Yes Sir indeedy!

Not much to report from The Terrace this week, although it’s fair to say our Gold Coast Ablettometer has swung from fair to stormy. Oh, Gary – where art thou? Anyway, we did enjoy this little gem.

By the way, is Liam Pickering starting to annoy you?

Australia loves big things. The Prawn, the pineapple, sharks, the ‘G and the jPod to name a few. But how often do we ask the big questions? Is there a God? Does he have a son? Do I inhabit a meaningful universe if he is no longer part of it?

With more angles than a Stevie J GPS reading, the task of extrapolating, defending and understanding how we would cope on an emotional, social and physical level without our junior is near impossible to anticipate. The speculation has been constant and still continues. We at The Terrace have wrung out every drop from our army of blue and white informants and still we are not placated.

Like a successories poster hanging in your psyche, we remind ourselves that the one thing we can control is our attitude. Therefore we have accepted (on one level) that he may leave us in pursuit of mammon. We fear an emotional bottleneck if we haven’t appropriately worked through the ‘what if’ if it were to become a ‘what is.’

If we grieve now, then we are prepared and the chance of tears at unwelcome public moments (in the future) is minimised. If he stays, then the chance of a life-size 29 tattoo on the back becomes a possibility.

There are a number of key stages when grieving, known as the ‘grief cycle.’ They include shock, denial, anger, loss, despair and acceptance. For the moment we don’t know where we sit in that cycle (possibly right of anger), but crushing the pies on Friday can only help.

Joffa is a knob.

Whilst we’re at it, check out some footage from Sam Newman’s 300th game at KP waaaaay back in 1980. Rumour has it there were 40,000 punters in attendance!

Respect to Joel Selwood this week. How friggin’ awesome is he? What more can we say?

And to precede the big game this Sunday, how about some good ol’ fashioned mid-eighties action from a hill-laden SCG? Keep an eye out for Neville Bruns’ shorts. Man, they were tight! For the record the we went down to Sydney by 9 goals, with the cats kicking a whopping 27 points!

On another note, Bruce Kennedy and Bruce Coe have self-published ’1963 Cats in Command’, a detailed account of Geelong’s premiership win that year and the football milieu – we don’t actually know what that word means, but it sounds good – of 1963. For further details email footyhistories@yahoo.com.

Is it just me, or is Saint Nick Reiwoldt starting to get on your nerves? I mean, here at The Terrace we know he’s a great player. And we know he enjoys a good cry. We think it’s just that, we’re…well…quite frank(costa)ly, sick of Nick. And his opinion on Luke Ball. And his baseball cap. And his hamstring, whether it be on or off the bone.

Anyway, our premiership cup is half full, so on more positive note, this weekend we officially bring home the premiership bacon (yes, two swine references in one post is good going) as the club unfurls the premiership flag before the game against Port.  To set up this grandiose event, let’s go back to 2003 with some footage of our one point win over the league leaders (Port) in 2003. Keep an eye out for Chappy and Gaz with hair, and Scarlo’s celebration at the end.

‘The Trinity is the term employed to signify the central doctrine of The Terrace religion — the truth that in the unity of the club there are Three Premierships, the Father (2007), the Holy Ghost (2008), the Son (2009), and the Holy Spirit (2010), these three Premierships being truly distinct one from another.‘
www.thecattersadvent.org.au

Back to back would be so very nice, and we can’t help but dub 2010 our quest for ‘The Holy Trinity’. Here’s a little teaser to get the mouth watering…

Oh, by the way, Gary won’t go, will he? Seriously. Would he? I mean, there’s more to life than money. Isn’t there?

Are you still getting those waves of spontaneous pride and excitement that come with re-remembering that we are Premiers? Here at the Terrace, we are too. Although it’s fair to say that, at times, we’ve felt the downside. Like when the Olympics leave town – that sinking feeling when the euphoria subsides and you return to the normality of normality. But normality is quickly boosted by a quick premiership boost me up, whether it be in the form of Scarlo toe-pokes, Chappy snappies, Leo Harry marks – or  shining premiership cup flashbacks. Either way, it’s a nice feeling. Much nicer than last year, that’s for sure.

Little drummer boy...

It would be futile trying to count the hugs, renditions of the song or re-enactments of the toe-poke. It was particularly hard not to smear the face paint with tears at the Premiership love in at KP Sunday week ago; the sea of blue and white, Maxy in slippers, merchandise lines longer than a Benny Graham barrel and junior on the drums.

Following the festivities, The Terrace wandered riverward on La Trobe Terrace for a few crisp ones over the boards at the Lord of the Isles (LOI). Within moments our perpetusmiles grew even larger as we panned the room and realised the bar was dripping with GFC royalty, including three members of the Rangatheon.

The Terrace was in awe and wonder, realising that whether you wore the hoops in the past, on the GF or in your dreams, we were all in it together. The hugs, the renditions of the song and the re-enactments did not discriminate. As a Cats fan never has a few hours seen a greater return on the investment of time, passion, tears, energy and face paint. It was pure ROI @ LOI.

Yours Baskingly,

The Terrace

Forecast for Saturday: Isolated nerves at first, becoming widespread during the afternoon. Local rain, hail and thunderous roars from The Terrace likely, mainly during the afternoon and evening. Shining cup heading west later in the evening. Bureau of Meteorology

The forecast looks good, doesn’t it? But what will the day actually hold? They got it wrong last year. I guess we can only refer to our last encounter. Last time Geelong played St Kilda we made the following observations:

- that we would like someone to clean up Stephen Milne.

- that Michael Gardner weirds us out.

- that Michael Rogers has some weird stats to match the weirdness of Michael Gardner’s scone.

- that Nick Reiwoldt doesn’t mind a cry (and that Gary lost the GF and Normie when he cried)

- that losing in July was better than losing in September, and we were happy to walk away with our dignity intact with our premiership dream alive.

And each of these, gentlemen and ladies, still remains true. So the question is, how nervous are you? Will your level of confidence or modesty have any bearing on the result whatsoever? Will you be wearing your lucky blue and white y-fronts? Will rain and hail be good or bad for our beloved mud cats? Is suicide an option if we lose? Can we wet our pants and cry if we win? Should we have any sympathy or compassion for success-starved Sainters?

For some pre-game reading, enjoy Harmsy’s synopsis of the last time we played. It’s a great read – thanks to ‘lingy4eva’ for the tip off. For some pre-game video, enjoy some uncoventional Gary Ablett Jnr magic (let’s just call it a hat-trick of a different type) and highlights of the last match we played. It was a cracking game, and should be again. Then again, we wouldn’t complain if it was a blow out.

Keep the faith.

Carrrrrrrn the catttttteerrrrrrrrrsss!

The Terrace

p.s. see you at the Gertrude.

“Geelong, playing at their absolute best, and us at our absolute best, they’ll beat us, because they’re better than us.” Mick Malthouse, Round 9, 2009

What more can you say, Mick?

the smother…

the goal…

the difference…

the final 94 seconds…

Carn the catttttterrrrssss!

The Terrace

In a week of lid keeping on-ering, it’s hard not to inhale a little deeper, pump the chest out a little further, cock and nod the head to the side when reading about Gazza and Joel. Even during a week off the field they are front and square. In many ways it’s affirming that amongst their peers they are also adored. We mortals ‘feel’ every bump, barb and tackle evaded or inflicted by these two wunderkinds but the judges of the AFLPA ‘know.’ It’s nice to know that our feelings have merit.

Yo.

At the Terrace we don’t generally embrace American terms creeping into the Australian lexicon. Commentators who use words such as ‘defense’ and ‘quarterback’ should give themselves an uppercut. Normally terms such as MVP and MCP would make us A-N-G-R-Y but on this occasion we can’t help but feel proud. Even though Holty did promise to go all the way with LBJ, let’s just hope that Premiership rings never creep into our mighty National game!

Loving y’all,

The Terrace

p.s. for the sake of some Friday footage…

MVP

MCP