A Game of Change

I gotta say, it’s been great having football back in my life again. The weather turns colder, the beer turns darker and suddenly I have something to do every weekend. Not to mention how much Mrs Watson perks up (he has spent most of the past week convincing me of his love for Jimmy Bartel).

I wasn’t quite as excited for the start of the season as I normally am. But once the Blue & White hoops hit the field, some primal part of the brain is once again triggered and most social etiquettes fly away faster than a one-way Jetstar flight to the Gold Coast. Yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And change they have.

Last weekend Mrs Watson and I watched Gold Coast Gary and the Schoolies receive an official asshat as Big League friend Parker looked on in disgust at Junior wearing the wrong number on the wrong jumper. We wondered if either of them would ever be the same.

The remedy came immediately following the Gold Coast game, as The Cats, minus a few from their best 22 (21?) trotted onto Subi just as we refuelled pint glasses. I don’t think we expected to win, a foreign feeling to a Geelong supporter of late, and indeed an entertaining arm wrestle ensued.

Due to my thinking that he looked different every time I saw him, Mrs Watson settled on “Fletch” for Mitch Duncan, some of his finest work. Meanwhile, Fletch himself settled on a half-forward flank, and with fellow newcomer (currently un-nicknamed) Daniel Menzel, proceeded to win us the game. Jimmy “Mr 4th Quarter” Bartel again did the business and Corey Enright probably scored himself 3 Brownlow votes.

Collingwood, meanwhile, who needed two weeks to beat St Kilda to the premiership last season, have started this season by defeating juggernauts Port Adelaide, North Melbourne and Carlton, which has inspired the media to begin comparing them to Brisbane’s treble winning team of a few years back. To paraphrase Mr. Winston Wolf, let’s not start patting each other on the back just yet. Oh, and the Mighty Pies play Richmond this week. Must be tough continually getting such a hard schedule.

At the opposite end, The Saints may have finally had enough. Geelong broke their resolve in round one, Richmond broke their hearts in round two and in round three Essendon exposed them as simply broken. Funnily enough, in the current day, idiotic, over-sensitive media, Grant “Walnut” Thomas might just be the sanest man in football.

This week Campbell Brown belted two people, Jack Riewoldt flipped someone off, Brent Maloney may or may not have pissed on a bar and Kim Duthie continues the crazy as the media keep the band playing so she can keep dancing.

The media swirl has also continued around Geelong’s former coach and Geelong’s former star player, two guys that took most of the Kardinia Park headlines of the past few years: Lips’ new team is flying and apparently Gary is doing a bit too much flying himself.

And throughout it all, Geelong has remained the same team we’ve come to expect; committed to the last man, competitive to the very end, compelling to watch and, importantly, currently undefeated.

Chris Scott has said a few times already that he’s continually surprised by the team’s resilience, by their character and by their refusal to accept defeat: “We could easily have been 0-2,” he said following the win over Port Adelaide. What he didn’t say, and what he didn't need to, was that they weren’t; that good teams find ways to win when they probably shouldn’t and that the more things change, the more things stay the same.