Falcons Finish Strong Against the Resurgent Royals

With the last round of the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) concluding this weekend, East Perth were looking to end the regular season with some improved form against a resurgent West Perth. West Perth were looking for their sixth win in a row, despite this impressive run of form it was not enough to turn around their season's position on the table and a result here would not yield finals. East Perth on the other hand have started to wobble with the royal coach starting to lose steam at such a pivotal part of their season as they are heading into finals football.

Was a wonderfully warm, bright and sunny day at Arena Joondalup, now known as Pentanet Stadium for sponsorship purposes. A few clouds rolled on by and a bit of a breeze but nothing too discerning for the players and fans alike. East Perth just were not able to settle and the hosts were continuing their end of season form by shutting down any potential Royals attack, with East Perth only able to kick three goals in the first two quarters of the match compared to West Perth's eight. The Falcons were in firm control at half time and East Perth simply had no options to push into their attacking 50 and looked set to be blown away in the following two quarters.

However, out of nowhere and against the run of play, East Perth turned it around by kicking eight goals in the third quarter with West Perth's three to bring the third quarter time interval a five point margin. East Perth's change of form and the sudden halt of dominance of the Falcons set the final quarter's showdown to be a tight affair. Despite East Perth pulling themselves back into the contest and pushing West Perth to work for their scoring shots, it wasn't enough as the Falcons kicked another five goals to East Perth's disappointing two goals to snuff out any chance of a Royals victory. West Perth at the final siren getting across the line by 15 points. This slump of end of season form by the boys of blue and black is of a high concern after sitting on top of the table for the vast bulk of the season, now slumping to fourth. The road to the 2023 flag became a difficult task as East Perth to bring home the goods will need to win four straight matches.

As I have not been to Arena Joondalup for quite some time, I was unfamiliar with the layout where the food and drink was. I was only able to source chips and cool drink. The chips were rather tasty, hot, nicely salted and not too burnt, being a nice crunchy, crispy taste. Of course, Coca-Cola is exactly what you would expect. However, given the slightly warmer day the drink went down nicely and was highly refreshing. The coke was 5 dollars and the chips were 7 dollars. Not too bad as the servings was a nice portion, but there were no alternatives for example if you wanted them loaded with gravy, cheese, curry or other topping over your chips.

Given the nature of my personal commitments and work, I was glad to enjoy a rare and seldomly experienced outing of WAFL football. Hopefully I can find more time next season and be able to enjoy the fruits of my labour. Was great to spend some time up at Joondalup and be out there and watch some local football.

Eagles Take a Swoop as Royals Fail to Sparkle

A bright and sunny August afternoon at Leederville Oval played host to a wobbly East Perth looking to regain some form leading into the finals and a deflated and out of sorts West Coast looking to run to their season's finish line with some consolatory gains. West Coast's midfield led by Isiah Winder and Rhett Bazzo were stand-outs for the visitors, but it was not enough to turn around the deficit with the Royals running home 48 point winners.

Winder was critical around the ball in a competitive display against East Perth with Callum Jamieson faced a tough match-up against East Perth's Jedd Edwards. East Perth faced stiff opposition from the Eagles with the Bazzo, Baker and Foley defensive line being able to bring the ball into their attacking 50 58 times in the valiant defeat.

The Eagles were giving it their all against an East Perth unit that had won 8 games in a row and were at one stage sitting at the top of the WAFL table, looking like certain hot favourites for the 2023 flag come September. In an early blow for West Coast, Zane Sumich went down with a hamstring complaint in the first few minutes of the first term and took no further part in the game. 

While the Eagles managed to keep the Royals at bay early, East Perth put their foot down and doubled West Coast’s score by the first break. 

The Eagles showed a glimmer of hope in the second half and attempted to reduce the margin with some scoreboard pressure but East Perth took control of the ball around the ground and were unable to be stopped. It was an important win for the Royals, who finish the season in the top four and will play finals for the first time in five years. The final score was East Perth 11.24 (114) to West Coast 10.6 (66).

As I had arrived a bit late for the match, shocking I know, due to the troops failing to mobilise quick enough to be deployed for football action at Leederville Oval; only ice cream was on hand for them. A simple ice cream was 4 dollars and an ice cream with all the trimmings was 9 dollars. Not too bad when you think of it as the size of the ice cream is pretty decent. 

However, you got to eat them somewhat quickly as they are soft-serve and they will start to melt quickly, even in mid August conditions. The troops enjoyed their ice creams and they did enjoy the football, despite their confusion and slowly understanding the rules. Always a good day to head to the football and will try to head down to more games in 2024.

Upset at Lambert Park

Ventured to watch some New South Wales Premier Leagues (NPLNSW) at Lambert Park between hosts APIA Leichardt and Blacktown City on a rather cool July Saturday evening in Sydney. Thankfully the weather was fine and no threat of rain or anything unpleasant besides the chilly winds blowing in from the coast send the thermometer southwards as the match progressed. However, not too drastic where anyone would be in clear visible discomfort. Though the comforts of home and warmth would have been nice!

Now I have not seen an NPL game or A-League game played on synthetic before, or I simply cannot recall, so I was interested to see how the surface would play out for the game and if the players would play any differently, or there would be no differences and they would play as per normal. Now I am sure that I would be blasted for not being better adjusted to the foibles of Sydney's public transportation system, the fact that everything takes more time than it should. I honestly should be better than that, though I am a mere mortal after all. So, taking the light rail from Central to Marion was quite the windy trail and time was just being eaten up. Getting to the ground I was unfamiliar with the entrance and where to go. Though once I had figured it out it was straight forward and found my way to the canteen.

Now I was a little disappointed about what was on offer at the canteen, but I was happy to have something as I was feeling rather peckish. The food on offer was your standard Australian football codes hot food. Hot chips, sausage rolls, sausage sizzles and pies. The 'additions' were salads, steak rolls and a ham and egg roll. There was a coffee machine at hand and the guys behind the counter were making the drinks like they've been doing it with their eyes closed with orders coming left right and centre. They were pumping out the orders and was very impressive to witness. 

So, I ordered a sausage roll and a can of coke. I was thinking of a beer, but I wasn't able to see them on the menu list. I probably wasn't looking hard enough or aware of where they were being such a newbie to the venue and the situation here at Lambert Park. I'm sure they were available; I just didn't see them. I sat down on the opposite wing of the members stand that looks more akin to a boarded-up fortress, the Joe Marston stand after a pioneering Australian footballer in which a medal is named after him or the best performing player in the old National Soccer League and A-League final. There was no way to be able to go to that stand as they follow a strict member only rule and they enforce that with extreme prejudice. The sausage roll with tomato sauce was nice, though I might have added a bit more. The can of coke went down nice and was all reasonably priced. The roll was 5 dollars and the can was 3. 

APIA had dominated the first half with opening the scoring in the 23rd minute and looked like they were going to further their lead by putting Blacktown under all sorts of trouble and were being pushed back and were struggling to clear their lines and mount some form of counter or strings of threatening passes to try and build pressure upon the hosts. It did not look likely that the visitors were going to score, let alone spend some degree of time in their attacking half. I was honestly thinking that the second half might be more of the same and APIA would be scoring more and more.

However, something must have happened in the change rooms of Blacktown as their manager must have fired a rocket up their bottoms to lift them from a rather lacklustre half and demanded to lift for their one rather vocal fan it seemed. Yes, there were other Blacktown fans around, though not as vocal and rambunctious as that guy was in his home kit, hat, scarf and flag. The visitors came out charging and were instantly throwing hay-makers catching the hosts by surprise and were stunned that they were at the receiving end of this aggressive challenge.

While the tempo throughout the game was of a high level, Blacktown seemed to be struggling but found their feet in the second half and were able to match APIA and give it back to them mounting serious threats catching them off guard. You could see it all over their faces that they were not prepared for this unrelenting attacking from Blacktown and it culminated with the scores being levelled and really sent a message to the rather vocal home fans. This was not going to be a walk in the park for them and at the 58th minute mark would be the definitive turning point for the game.

The visitors were just pressing down both wings and trying to find weaknesses in the defensive armour of APIA. The men in claret were staying strong however, not allowing the men in black to over-run them and showing them why they are top of the table in the NPLNSW. The defensive lines of APIA were to be breached ten minutes later and they were now trailing for the first time. They were just not finding the answers to these attacking waves and when they did try and venture forward, the didn't have that bite to put one away.

The last ten minutes of the match, as well as the additional 4 minutes of stoppage time saw APIA spring to life and were able to turn the tide and tempo against them, though it would not bare any fruit and the match ended in a win to Blacktown City 2-1 against the table toppers.

This was an interesting match to see in my first NPLNSW in 11 years and my first at APIA's home ground. These grounds in Sydney are tighter-knit with limited spaces compared to the grounds of Perth. Was great to watch some entertaining football on a cool Sydney winter's evening.