Searching all the starry roads

Round 1, 2021
GWS Giants 2.3, 4.5, 8.9, 11.12 (78)
St Kilda 1.2, 5.6, 9.6, 13.8 (86)
Crowd: 5,014 at Giants Stadium, Sunday, 21st March at 3.20pm

Maybe the pandemic and the seeming disintegration of the United States has been enough to upend the norms of the western world. Perhaps this was what we needed to shake up the natural order that has dealt St Kilda the cards of Bob Keddie, Shane Ellen, Darren Jarman, Gavin Wanganeen, the Bloods, Sudden Inaccuracy and the Toe Poke, and the Bounce of the Ball. Perhaps making the finals in 2020 signalled a cosmic shift. But then Max King got hit in the head by a golf ball.

Footy is about rituals. Sharing the supporter’s journey with the people around us. The rhythm of the season. We were stripped of these in 2020, never mind everything else. St Kilda didn’t get the home game first up in 2021, so we welcomed the return of (COVID normal) footy and the new season with the other side of the supporter’s life – the nervousness of being dumped into a stadium via TV broadcast just a few minutes before the bounce, most probably as the Saints run out in foreign territory, with the neutral commentary of Channel 7 or Fox Footy broadcasters. This weekend included a car trip in the rain from Brunswick West to Elsternwick, a little closer to St Kilda heartland. This year, we are able to watch the Saints with the people close to us at the game and in the home.

***

A couple hundred millimetres of rain was forecast to be dumped on Sydney over a few days that included match day. St Kilda had pre-season matches canned in 2012 and 2016 for wild conditions, but the small patch that this game took place on appeared to be spared the most dramatic of the fall. Maybe Jack Bell’s shank at Brighton wouldn’t hurt so much. Toby Greene put forward a high-rise case that the weather wouldn’t completely dictate terms, and while it did turn out that key forwards would be particularly prominent in the goals columns by the end, this wasn’t a day to echo the slicker reasons the Saints rose up the ladder in 2020. There was going to be grittier stuff needed, too.

Some players didn’t play their “best” in the way we came to know them in a finals team. Butler wasn’t his “best” but was there when it mattered, Steele’s impact was quelled by Coniglio and was more isolated to the tackles column (where he was assisted by Bytel). Billings was busy, Seb Ross kicked his two on-the-run goals from the year, Membrey kicked three from varying methods (burning a couple of teammates in the process) and was rewarded for a brave performance, Hunter Clark retained his disarming calmness, and Gresham’s agility was more than useful, particularly late, but scrambled kicks forward were the order of the day. On a day not designed for him, Brad Hill did deliver one of the game’s smoothest moments with a skidding goal on the run late in the second to take the margin to 14 points. It was the only act really straight out of the 2020 playbook – a moment usually around this point in the game that gave the Saints the appearance of a youthful, boisterous team on the up (see: BUTLER BUTLER BUTLER) before an inevitable challenge.

We were probably right to be expecting a close game in the weather, although perhaps a little lower scoring. Wet weather usually puts the emphasis on the ability to win the contested ball and gain ground. Rather than metres gained, telling moments came down to a few inches to the left or right. Ward and Coniglio had more than kept GWS well in the game with some sneaky snaps, and Himmelberg’s set shot on goal in the final quarter would have shut the gate but hit the post instead (Higgins hadn’t hit it hard enough in the second quarter). Lonie wobbled a high snap though from just inside the boundary a few minutes later to break the Giants’ momentum and begin what would ultimately be the deciding run.

A curious decision to leave Flynn unopposed at a throw-in on the forward flank – allowing the debutant to belt the ball to the Giants’ advantage and ultimately to within two points – blew the result wide open again. Membrey capped off game with a timely mark in defensive 50. Deft touches, by boot from Gresham and by hand from Sinclair, helped keep the ball in the front half. Within moments a pair of probably-not-quite-right umpiring decisions first gave a charging Callan Ward the ball at half-back with 80 seconds left, and then Butler a shot at goal to seal the game – or to miss and give the Giants the footy (and a few extra metres) to go up the other end within little more than 30 seconds. For dramatic effect, Butler exhausted his allowed time and had to kick over the man on the mark rushing him.

One captain was held, the other captain was missing. There was no King (this wasn’t quite Jack Bell’s revenge), no Marshall, no Ryder, no Paton, no Zak Jones, no Crouch, no Hannebery. Five named in the 23 (not a typo) that hadn’t played for us before, plus two that didn’t play at all last year. This is still a young team, and that can be fickle at the best of times. The tension of watching from the couch and hoping that whatever appears in the next wide shot is kind – that never really leaves. Nor does the relief and ease of the aftermath of a win on the road. Perhaps the relief was a little stronger this time. After another pre-season of promise, for this week at least, we were justified in being optimistic about 2021 and beyond for this club. Maybe the magnitude of this win isn’t immediately apparent. Those are only confirmed in hindsight.

***

This was a short pre-season. It felt it, so some of those supporter sensations were close at hand (including dismay of the not-really-the-clash-jumper-they-said-they-would-have, and the not The Fable Singers version of the song being used: Mention These Every Week Challenge). Some things weren’t a break of stride. Clark, Billings, Battle, Gresham, and Steele, of course are now recognised as reliable, regular fixtures. We enjoyed getting used to new guys making an impact last year – Howard, Butler, Ryder et al; yesterday it was the turn of Higgins, Highmore and (Paul) Hunter.

Plenty was made about Jack Higgins’ childhood as a St Kilda supporter in the off-season, including Fox Footy occasionally editing the original footage of the 2009 Preliminary Final to show a much, much younger Jack Higgins on TV celebrating in the MCC section post-Nick Riewoldt’s sealer (he was actually shown a few minutes earlier; attempts to rewrite history are in vogue). Higgins’ attack on the ball and any contest in the postcode is something that has been consistent throughout his time at Richmond up until Sunday’s game, and his mark in front of goal outnumbered by GWS defenders for his second goal was a thrill. But the St Kilda supporter in Jack Higgins re-emerged in front of Tim Membrey when Skunk held on to a high reaching mark in front of goal just a few moments after Seb had put us in front. He raised his hands in the air. The rush of a St Kilda team on the charge late in a tight game. Of a team maturing in real time to push past an onslaught interstate.

Yes, footy – now, more than ever, the dessert trolley of life – is back.