Haha, I guess it's time to say something about my Saturday night at the footy...
In all honesty, it should have been a disaster and on the scoreboard at least, it was. Sitting with Fitz during the first half I remarked that I had never left a Sharks game before half time but I was seriously considering it! He encouraged me to stay and the thought of all those left over three dollar hot dogs at the end of the game clinched the deal!
Anyway, once I had given up on us winning the game, I actually had a pretty good night! The CSSC won the sack race at half time, which was the source of much celebration - we won something!
We were just packing up the first of the giant tifo's (ironically, it was the one that says "BELIEVE"!) at the start of the second half when the Sharks scored their first try. The CSSC celebrated like we were back in the game! When we scored our second just a few minutes later, the Cage went beserk. Seriously, the Manly fans in the bay next door were looking at us like we were insane! An opinion not completely without merit.
Things got completley silly from there, with the boys starting up a chant to get Peachey to put his CSSC jersey back on, which he had removed in disgust in the first half. He eventually bowed to peer pressure and donned the sacred garment, much to the delight of the Cage.
Anyway, we all had a good night and went back to the Club for the presentation afterwards. So what started out with me thinking about leaving early ended with me coming home and getting a serve from the missus about being out so late!
Now for the downside of the evening. The performance in the first half was seriously embarrassing. Across the park, we looked like we had no idea what was going on. It all started to go downhill when after the first five minutes we had all the possession and were on the Manly line. We needed to maintain the pressure. Then Tim Smith puts in an inept cross field kick that goes deep into the in-goal a million miles form any Sharks player and the Sea Eagles get an easy restart from the twenty. That was the beginning of the end.
Whilst it would be wrong to blame Smith for single-handedly losing the game for us, he was easily the worst player on the park. His kicks have no direction or form. Some of his "long" kicks wobbled lazily off his boot to travel less than thirty metres. Othere time's they went dead like they had been shot out of a cannon. He cannot find touch...it goes on and on.
His defence is ridiculous, he is out of position more often than not. On more than one occassion, he threw a long, looping pass that was begging to be intercepted and, luckily, only resulted in a hospital pass that ended in the recipient getting smashed.
I'm not a Smith hater, I was hopeful when we announced his signing but
somethin' aint right with that boy. He got a few cows loose in the top paddock if y'all know what I mean. Seriously, he needs some time off and some help. He was dropped for a reason and should have stayed dropped. Scott Porter would have been a much better option. At least he can kick and tackle.
Oh, by the way, despite having about a thousand hot dogs left over at the end of the game, they still charged me five bucks just to rub salt in the wounds!