Just One Week

Port Adelaide was the better team last week. It was as simple as that. The skills of The Cats were sloppy, the pressure wasn’t as fierce as it’s been and they were a step slow and second to the ball all day. When they finally woke up in the last 10 minutes, courtesy of a moment of genius, of greatness confirmed, Gary Junior and Geelong somehow hit the front. I screamed as loud as I could. I hugged a stranger. And then it was gone again. And then I realised its just one week. Just one week with a loss. Just one week left in the season. Just one week.

Despite the empty post-game feeling, there was the sense that we had done well to almost steal a game we had no business winning. Geelong seemed so far off the pace, and Port so switched on, yet only a single kick had been the difference. There was also a sense of achievement about the season that, being the last home game, needed to be recognised. It was if the game was merely a farewell before we send the boys off to the finals. And like family waving soldiers off to war, we had a heightened sense of perspective. It’s about the big picture. It’s about September. Has been all season. Mark Williams can take all the cheap publicity he can get. We knew it was just one week.

The Brisbane game now becomes a fully-fledged ‘just don’t get any fucking injuries’ affair. After playing without Ling, Bartel and Selwood, and being smashed at the stoppages, it has become abundantly clear that it is not necessarily about having the deepest list but rather about having the top end of that depth chart available. (West Coast being the amazing exception, performing admirably without Cousins, Embley, Kerr, as well as carrying Chris Judd who has a bigger limp than ‘House’ at the moment.)

Yes, the Cats have a very even team and pretty deep playing list, but I tell you what, I’d rather have a corpse playing centre half back than Henry Playfair. And as for Shannon Byrnes, how he continues to draw an AFL paycheque has me baffled. Yes, I know it's harsh language, but I said it, baffled.

Mrs. Watson raised an interesting point regarding The Cats questionable form of the past two weeks; maybe they’re just tired, he said. And although I can’t see how they’d be any more tired than other teams, it has certainly looked that way at times during recent weeks. Therefore, it was probably good management to get some rest into the youngster Selwood and the hardest working man in football, Cameron Ling. Even if it was just one week.

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Bradley Ottens didn’t make the trip to Brisbane, leaving King and Blake to battle it out for their finals spots while also giving Ottens’ groin a week off (please, insert your own joke here). In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing a few other players, especially those with niggling injuries, spared the trip to Brisbane. But on the flip side of that coin, it would prove wise to select Jared/Max, even if he is a little underdone, and give him at least one week in the seniors before finals.

Now, to blatantly disregard the ‘one week at a time’ slogan that has taken over this football club and indeed city, the most important game of The Cats season is the first week of the finals. No doubt about it. At this stage it looks like it will be against either Hawthorn or the Kangaroos, neither of which we should especially fear. It will be the most important week for the GFC for a lot of reasons, most of which I shouldn’t have to, and won’t, list here. But also, notably, a first up victory gives The Cats a week off. And after 2 finals, 22 home & away matches, 4 pre-season games and probably 6 months of pre-season, that one week makes a big difference. All premiership teams that I can remember (except, I think, one of Blighty’s Crows teams) have had that week off.

Yep, just one week.