Top of the Ladder

This past Friday saw the top two teams in the league meet. We were the second place team and the opponent was the top team of the league up to that point in the season. In the week leading up to the game I could tell everybody around the club and fans were very excited for the game. I don't know how many people came up to me to tell me that it would be a big and good game and that the place would be packed (playing at home by the way). Also, apparently Lakeside and our opponent, Cockburn, are pretty big rivals and always have tightly contested and heated games. The game only turned out to be only one of those types of games. We jumped on them quickly and built a double digit lead fairly early on that reached a 30 point lead at the end of the third quarter. We began to coast a bit in the 4th quarter but the damage was already done and we ended up winning by 19. 

Despite it not being a very close contest it was still very competitive. I would say this was one of the most physical games that I have been apart of (definitely since I've been here). This was especially the case for me. One of the things that has annoyed me the most about the refereeing in this league is that they call absolutely nothing off the ball. It has to be murder for them to make a call. Holding, grabbing, robbing, throwing, you could almost do whatever here. This is tougher for me because teams have really started to try and focus on doing as much of this as possible to me to try and slow me down. So far, I've done a really good job of playing through it, using other alternatives, and keeping my cool and not letting the defenders throw me off my game. BUT, that still doesn't mean it hasn't affected me physically. Saturday morning I was absolutely a wreck. So sore and bruised and knocked. At least thats all it was tho, and nothing serious. So I'm ok and as I'm writing this on Thursday, but wow it can take a toll especially if we have back to back games like we do this weekend. All in all tho, I had another good game against Cockburn, and was very satisfied with the result. 

Also like to note that this past Saturday I got to go to another AFL (football A.K.A. footy) game. This time it was a regular season game and the action was much more intense and interesting. Me talking about a physical basketball game compared to this game makes me almost want to never complain about getting bumped or bruised again. Maybe I should just suck it up. These guys absolutely look like they could kill each other sometimes. Made for some very entertaining football and a fun night.