So how far had we got when we asked the question? Maybe a 100m down the road, but not much more. The missing mouthguard was where it should be: right next to the footy socks in the bedroom. Problem was the socks were on the feet, but the mouthguard wasn’t in the pocket.
Welcome to the new footy season, and after five minutes in the car, it didn’t feel much different to last season. But of course it was:
the Fitzroy Blues re-assembled for the first time since their remarkable preliminary final of last year were a bit older, a bit wiser, but still excited, still keen. And there was Terry again, calm, measured, reassuring, the perfect antidote to a morning of nerves and the insistent thump of a bouncing footy on the lounge room floor.
True, some of the players had gone from last year, but the core was there, and there were some new faces ready to be part of the adventure.
It’s hard to know what to expect in a new season. We might have an idea about how our team is shaping, but who exactly are they going to be playing and what will they be up to? Well, Bulleen – known as the Bullants (what happens when they play Preston?) – had a couple of tall kids in the forward line. Well, tall and thin, and they looked like they wanted to make our Sam McKenzie’s Sunday morning a bit of misery. But Sam’s knows what to do and as the first quarter unfolded, he was steady and sure down back. New recruit James Thompson was in the ruck and applying a few strong tackles around the ground, but Bulleen was getting a lot of the ball on the forward line and snagged the first goal of the game. Even so, the Roys’ defence was holding up with Max and Jaquan doing desperate work. Charlie looked set for a good day and was imposing himself on the game, while Kieran was in and under, winning the hard ball and running hard. And then there was an opportunity and co-captain Atticus (sharing the job with Patrick) sent the ball to new recruit Tom who kicked his, and the Roys, first goal. By quarter time, it was only a point the difference and it all felt like familiar territory.
But the problem with familiar territory is that you can still wander off the track. The sun slid away and the wind picked up and Bulleen, with the breeze at their back and the slope under their feet, started to run the ball, zipping it around, never standing still, and bustling their way in to attack. It got a bit busy on the Fitzroy backline. Those of who have seen this team for a few seasons know that Martin will never shirk a contest and he was reliable again, while Sebastian showed speed and flair through the middle, but the pressure was intense. Bullen scored two goals and added five behinds to have a handy 18 point buffer at half-time.
One of the great things about the first match of the season is that at half-time everything remains possible. And in the third quarter, the Roys rallied with trademark grit. They found the ball, they found space, and they found each other. The teamwork was sweet and Elia, with his usual dash, swooped on a loose ball in the pocket and snared the Roys’ second. Then it turned in to the Jesse Wilson Show. In a patch that was the purplest of purple, Jesse kicked three goals, including one from a chain of possessions that started with Nick B, and went to Charlie, to Atticus and then to Jesse, and another after Josh took a strong overhead mark and passed the ball on. So it was that the Roys led at three-quarter time.
Maybe it was fitness. (It’s only the first game, after all.) Maybe it was the weather – certainly the wind dropped and something resembling rain arrived. But truth be told, Bulleen just overran the Roys after a tense opening few minutes to the quarter. Adam kept driving the Roys’ forward and Kent never gave up, but after Bulleen kicked a goal, and kept up a steady assault on the forward line, the result soon became clear. When the siren sounded, the margin was only
12 points, but in the post-mortems that followed it was agreed there was a lot to like about the dash and endeavour of the Fitzroy Under
12 Blues in their first game of 2008.
Nick Richardson
