Nathan Van Berlo must have been a bit low himself lately, but he is made of a special alloy. On Saturday night, he was magnificent. For the entire game and especially in the last quarter, he made a stand. His snapped goal and that desperate mark at half-back were game-shaping. They brought me to my feet.
David Mackay made me cheer, too. He is a major talent but his problem is staying healthy. In his comeback game after a serious shoulder injury you might have expected him to be tentative. You might have thought he would shirk a tough contest. But in the second quarter he ran back with the flight, his eyes fixed on the ball. He has only a slight physique. He didn’t know what was coming. He could have been crunched; he could have re-injured his shoulder or copped a knee to the head. But he is a leader and he did not flinch. I cheered his commitment, and also his survival.
I do not recall any of the Crows flinching on Saturday night, and that was something else to cheer about. They were zealous about tackling and hardly missed one; they were fanatical about applying pressure, rarely allowing the Swans an easy kick. Defenders saved goals with individual commitment and supported each other superbly.
I cheered Jared Petrenko. He was brilliant; he was another game-shaper. A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine, who is not a Crows’ fan, made a Facebook post to the effect that he didn’t know how Petrenko could even get a game (let alone shape one). This friend’s name is not Gerard Neesham, but even so I won’t let him live it down. Petrenko has some exceptional attributes - he is electric quick, a superb tackler and a lively personality. True, sometimes he kicks poorly and makes dud decisions. Not on Saturday night - he did not misstep. He took crucial marks, won hard balls, created opportunities, made a team-high eight tackles and kicked a great goal. His challenge now is to produce that sort of footy again and again, and I’ll cheer him when he does.
I cheered Dan Talia in his first game; he showed Davis-like poise. I cheered Tippett, who kept fronting up to contests and kicked three good goals. I cheered Stiffy Johncock, who is fast becoming a legend, I cheered Sauce Jacobs, Matty Jaensch and Scott Thompson, and I cheered Bernie Vince, who is starting to find some form at last. I cheered Dogger Doughty, the 200-gamer, who is one of those players I wrote about last week; he has succeeded at this level thanks to bloody-minded perseverance. I cheered every damned Crow on Saturday night because they gave every damned thing they had.
I wasn’t the only one cheering. It might have been a record-low crowd but it made a record-shattering noise. Twenty-three thousand pre-game gloomsters were screaming their lungs out by the end. The game was a cracker. The players were elated when they won, and so was the crowd.
It was so much fun we should do it again soon.
That’s all I’ve got to say this week.
Cheers.
Sarrey’s first novel, Prohibited Zone, featuring a fictional ex-Crows player, is on sale in bookstores.
Visit Sarrey’s Blog Facebook page.
