Footy tipping
Jun. 16th, 2003 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccI'm doing very averagely this year. In the large competition, I'm coming exactly 28,000th out of 56,398 people. In our somewhat smaller work competition I'm coming 12th out of 18. Or, more accurately, I'm coming equal 7th with one other person. :-) Still out of 18 though.
There is still a (OK, fairly small) chance that I could win this comp, or at least come third and get some money back. I'm only 7 off the leader, and we're just over half way through the season. A few injuries, a couple of suspensions and the season could open right back up again, and so could the tipping. It's been an absolute bugger of a season so far though - teams which should be on their deathbeds get up and win, and teams who should romp it home lose convincingly (thank you Brisbane Lions - twice now you've screwed my tipping, dammit).
The latest round was a case in point. It seemed, on paper, to be a gimme: all fairly straightforward, maybe one or two upsets. Oh no. We had four upsets, which meant that in the work comp 15 people got four winners, one got 6, one got 5 and one got 3. I'd almost expect Essendon to lose a game they should easily win - after all, I've barracked for them for long enough to know their habit of buggerising around for a bit in the third quarter and then trying to come back from the grave in the fourth. (OK, sometimes it works. It's absolutely screws with the supporters minds though[1].) But Brisbane? Losing? At home? Again?? Bastards!
Still.
There's always next week.
I actually went to the football with my Mum a couple of weeks ago at Telstradome. Essendon won, fortunately. For them - there were 37,500 people at the game, of which well over 7/8ths were Essendon supporters. I think public flogging would have been the order of the day had they lost... ;-)
Both of us were hoarse from screaming encouragement and abuse at the players. The Essendon players. Forget the opposition, we'll just yell at our own side. The noise you hear in the background of the footy goes something like this from near the Essendon cheer squad at least: "Yes!" "YES!" "Argh, you idiot!" "Mark him!" "MAN UP for christ's sake!" "YES!" "Who's on him???" "Goal!" "What was that?" "Not that way you idiot!""What are you DOING??" "Oh bugger, Lucas has got it... kick straight.. please... bugger." "GOAL!!"
A lot of this takes place simultaneously, whether we're winning or losing. The yeses seem to be trying to encourage the players to do something intelligent (kicking to their own team would be a good start at times). The Arghs are usually in response to something stupid (kicking to the opposition). The "what was that???"s could be related to anything: the players doing something stupid, the umpire calling something against us, the opposition player obviously doing something illegal that the umpire hasn't pulled up... pretty much anything. One of the funnier things coming home from the game that night was my sister's boyfriend (who'd watched it on TV) telling me that he thought the umpiring had gone Essendon's way a lot. Are you kidding? We were crucified!!! And I still want to know when that ball hit the post... ;-)
Mum and Dad are members, so they go a lot, and know a lot of the people who have the allocated seats near them by sight, if not by name. The woman behind us at one point leapt to her feet (Lucas had the ball) and yelled "Jesus Christ! Do something!" Mum turned to me and said:
"She always gets a bit religious at this point in the game..."
[1]It's been said of Essendon supporters that we don't want a win, we want a massacre. Personally I blame Sheedy (the coach) for that. We want a massacre because that way we know that they can't possibly lose it in the final seconds of the final quarter. Maybe. We hope.
There is still a (OK, fairly small) chance that I could win this comp, or at least come third and get some money back. I'm only 7 off the leader, and we're just over half way through the season. A few injuries, a couple of suspensions and the season could open right back up again, and so could the tipping. It's been an absolute bugger of a season so far though - teams which should be on their deathbeds get up and win, and teams who should romp it home lose convincingly (thank you Brisbane Lions - twice now you've screwed my tipping, dammit).
The latest round was a case in point. It seemed, on paper, to be a gimme: all fairly straightforward, maybe one or two upsets. Oh no. We had four upsets, which meant that in the work comp 15 people got four winners, one got 6, one got 5 and one got 3. I'd almost expect Essendon to lose a game they should easily win - after all, I've barracked for them for long enough to know their habit of buggerising around for a bit in the third quarter and then trying to come back from the grave in the fourth. (OK, sometimes it works. It's absolutely screws with the supporters minds though[1].) But Brisbane? Losing? At home? Again?? Bastards!
Still.
I actually went to the football with my Mum a couple of weeks ago at Telstradome. Essendon won, fortunately. For them - there were 37,500 people at the game, of which well over 7/8ths were Essendon supporters. I think public flogging would have been the order of the day had they lost... ;-)
Both of us were hoarse from screaming encouragement and abuse at the players. The Essendon players. Forget the opposition, we'll just yell at our own side. The noise you hear in the background of the footy goes something like this from near the Essendon cheer squad at least: "Yes!" "YES!" "Argh, you idiot!" "Mark him!" "MAN UP for christ's sake!" "YES!" "Who's on him???" "Goal!" "What was that?" "Not that way you idiot!""What are you DOING??" "Oh bugger, Lucas has got it... kick straight.. please... bugger." "GOAL!!"
A lot of this takes place simultaneously, whether we're winning or losing. The yeses seem to be trying to encourage the players to do something intelligent (kicking to their own team would be a good start at times). The Arghs are usually in response to something stupid (kicking to the opposition). The "what was that???"s could be related to anything: the players doing something stupid, the umpire calling something against us, the opposition player obviously doing something illegal that the umpire hasn't pulled up... pretty much anything. One of the funnier things coming home from the game that night was my sister's boyfriend (who'd watched it on TV) telling me that he thought the umpiring had gone Essendon's way a lot. Are you kidding? We were crucified!!! And I still want to know when that ball hit the post... ;-)
Mum and Dad are members, so they go a lot, and know a lot of the people who have the allocated seats near them by sight, if not by name. The woman behind us at one point leapt to her feet (Lucas had the ball) and yelled "Jesus Christ! Do something!" Mum turned to me and said:
"She always gets a bit religious at this point in the game..."
[1]It's been said of Essendon supporters that we don't want a win, we want a massacre. Personally I blame Sheedy (the coach) for that. We want a massacre because that way we know that they can't possibly lose it in the final seconds of the final quarter. Maybe. We hope.
