The Ghost - Technical Difficulties
The Ghost 5:10 PM Thu 31 May, 2007
The
Ghost wrote a brilliant article (if I do say so myself - it even had a
Rolling Stones reference – ah the waste) last week however technical
difficulties meant the article never appeared. Sometimes I wonder if our
club is not experiencing technical difficulties. So many times we are
so close and yet no cigar.
I see Andrew D now admits there is something rotten in the state of Victoria.
Its something we supporters have known for some time but the wheels of
power always move slowly in this state – something about Victoria being
placed at the pinnacle of a very high hill – which would explain the
swift relief the other states’ get.
As
the greatest Victorian club I can only assert that those stirring the
cauldron of Victorian football began to assist our efforts. - Perhaps
getting in Juddy’s ear and telling him to come home for the good of
Victorian football (certainly would explain his freedom to gouge
anyone’s eyes – as I read his comments Brown was at fault – the old ‘he
attacked me with his face’ argument).
So
what might these technical faults be? Certainly it’s something to do
with the state of water in this state. In Sydney Nick Stevens would head
down to the beach and return healed after a single swim – does this say
something about the positive effects of dumping sewerage where the
waves form offshore? (Is this the Pooh Matthews referred to?) Clokey
wouldn’t even need to have a swim; Libba just has to splash some water
on his shoulder and viola! – a return to the seniors.
Perhaps
it’s our facilities. At West Coast they run fasters for longer. They
are bigger as eighteen year olds than we are at twenty. It must be all
that scientific gear they have in their weights room.
Or maybe it’s not technical at all. Maybe the problem is simply one of weather. Take Brisbane – no please, take Brisbane… In Brisbane
every day is either perfect or glorious. Here we get perfect, glorious,
wet, cold, windy, boring, smelly and frosty all in one day – does this
weaken our kids preparation for the games?
Adelaide
has nothing to offer in these discussions unless we plan to build
several more churches to compete with their prayers – how else to
explain the report of Lappin and then Mattner’s absolution. Or Welsh’s
in the back that goes unnoticed while Richo’s Tigers lose any chance of
redemption (is it true, are the Tigers the lost thirteen tribe, or maybe
the lost seventh legion?)
Perhaps
the technical difficulties are more to do with glitches in the system.
How to explain Waite’s great day except for the worst shot on goal seen
this season and that dropped mark. Oh cruel world! Oh bitter fruit this
sport bestows - from superman to soap hands in a single moment. Not that
I am blaming Waite, merely searching for solutions. Young Jarrod played
a great game, as did Tex and Carrots and Simmo and Scotland. Young Bryce made me dribble several times during the game – he is going to be something!
So
what is it? Is it simply the foibles of youth/ the mad headlong rush to
greatness and then the pause and the victory slips away? Are we the
Hare to everyone’s tortoise? We c certainly race ahead and then fall
asleep, perhaps dreaming of the great Carlton
teams when a quarter was all it took to put a side to the sword.
Perhaps the fault lies with Denis. Perhaps we is trying to build a
working class side, anew incarnation of the Shinboner spirit but the
bluebagger soul is a different animal. We at Carlton
dream the dreams of Gods not of men. We are Prometheus (our falls are
certainly the work of Gods) rather than Ulysses. Perhaps we cannot slog
matches out. We want to fly like Jezza, dominate a quarter like The
Buzz; we are the Navy Blue Ocean rather than the Kangaroo earth. We work
in troughs and glorious waves; white foam crests of the CFC running
amok for short brilliant moments captured in our minds forever.
Certainly
we miss our ancestral home advantage. Like all the Victorian clubs (oh
though how we fought; how we clawed and clung and in the end lost the
fight - we were Dunkirk to the AFL’s Turk!) we allowed the AFL to make a technical foul and ruined our single great advantage – remember Tex’s
first game at the Park. There was the lad, flying as high as any great
Bluebagger and every act of his was greeted by the sweet banging of
joyous hands on the signs around that great ground. Perhaps that’s all
it is. Perhaps the players miss the sound of those hands, the stamping
feet and roars of the Heatley Stand.
And
so these young lads, the Murphs and Gibbses (how would Ayers have
handled his name?) and Simmos and Texes will have to rebuild our
foundations; will need to lay new building blocks for future generations
of great players and great teams. These kids have been given a huge
task. They need to take the soul of this club, make it strong again and
set it free to fly upon the green grass of the MCG and the funny orange
tinged grass of the Dome. They need to take all that was great about our
ancestral home and champion teams of the past and make them anew into a
new great Carlton team, one strong enough to conquer the outrageous
arrows of Interstate teams and the AFL.
No comments:
Post a Comment