I often wonder if there are people who work for British American Tobacco, or George Brandis, who wake up one day, and wonder: how did I find myself here?
I felt that way about 15 minutes into the first quarter.
In terms of umpiring, there were two things I was worried about before the game (I think I posted this somewhere): that the umps would 'over-umpire' the game to stamp their authority, and that they would make a concerted effort not to let the crowd affect them. Both of those things happened last night, to Freo's detriment. I didn't see the acts that led to the first two Hawks goals, but it smacked of the umpires panicking in a big game. And I swear we lost every 50/50 call. Most will read into that an element of bias. I think you can perform poorly without having an inclination against one team. But we've danced that dance.
Did it cost us the game? Well, it didn't help. But the umpires weren't the only ones who let the occasion get the better of them. Mayne has 150 games as a forward under this belt, and couldn't kick a goal from 20m straight in front. Barlow and Griff missed very gettable goals. There were a lot of blokes who played themselves out of a grand final last night, a couple were in green, but most were in purple. As much as our marketing team have tried to spin it, once again it was the Hawks who 'owned the moment'.
As for Bond and game plans hypen, I'm not up for defending either. A few Freo players were found out last night, but we're going to learn a lot about Bond and Lyon this offseason. We've been close, and both could be defended for only making incremental changes, but the status quo isn't good enough. We'll see if they are capable of adjusting accordingly.
For anyone, like Montrachet, who had me in their head last night, my sincerest apologies. If it's any consolation, being in my own head can be equally annoying.
