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Cheyenne has made his first expedition to the Linen House Centre at Seaford, and has liked what he saw.
Driving past St.Kilda the old misgivings (“why did we ever leave the Junction Oval?”) arose, then again as Moorabin was passed, till finally the LHC at Seaford was reached. Advice from Club Headquarters along the lines of “There’s no parking, so it’s best to come for the match and family day by public transport” immediately sent the mind racing back to the nightmare of our humble club (with a surely disease-ridden addiction to Centrebet as our major sponsor), with not a parking space to its name, competing against a Collingwood that can, whilst maintaining Emirates as ONE OF its major sponsors, casually flick Lexus for Holden as it makes its $7 million annual profits.
However, on arrival, parking in a nearby street (not that much different to our habit at Moorabin) and walking through the pleasant adjoining nature reserve, the sounds of the umpire’s whistle and an excited crowd led me happily to the scene of the action. The ground itself (same size as the MCG) is a ripper, and the new freeway that overhangs one wing gives it a space-age look that once would have had Cheyenne bristling, but today, in the age of ‘Don’t bother protesting, Big Money will always win, and anyway, the dreaded Libs will be in power soon’, Cheyenne has brainwashed his mind to concentrate only on the depth and power of our playing list.
Before that, however, I’d like to say a few words about B. Goddard. As a kid he grew up as a mad Carlton supporter, only to have his boyhood dream dashed by their cheating, and found himself with the Saints, where, after a year lost due to a knee reconstruction, he developed into a topliner who played his guts out in the 2009 GF (including playing on with a busted nose and collarbone) and 2010 (his huge mark and goal to put us in front in the ‘draw’ surely, we thought, enough to give us glory), and after these heartbreaks he played like a broken-hearted man. Who can blame him? I’d rather now have a potential gun big man in the 20 year old Tom Hickey who we might get 10 years’ service out of, than a heartbroken Brendon with 3 or 4 years’ footy left. So good luck to him.
Hickey clearly had the better of McEvoy in the ruck duels, and as he ran around a physical likeness to M. Gardiner was easy to see. Tom Lee doesn’t look ready yet, but Sippy was a revelation across half back. The Caveman Shenton refuses to go away, and a bigger Newnes was clinical in his disposal.
I wish Spencer White had had a run - he is my pick of the 7 tall forwards we now have who will have to become a key defender. (Kossie, who won the Rising Star at CHB in his first year, is now too cumbersome for the role.) Gwilt, and Simpkin (great as he will be) are just not big enough to take on the gorillas like Cloke, Buddy and Brown. I only say it should be White, because the man who would dominate there (Riewoldt) will never play there, which is a tragedy.
All the small forwards on the park were classy, and Ledger worked hard on the ball. Has he got a little more injection of pace in him?
Overall, Cheyenne believes we have the best list in the AFL, and all we need to do is bite the bullet and put Roo at Centre Half Back, and the rest will follow. (The obvious long term CHB is Jackson Ferguson - a perfect fit for the gorillas - but he languishes on the rookie list.) The Dream Team is below:
B: GEARY SIMPKIN FISHER
HB: DEMPSTER RIEWOLDT SIPOSS
C: MONAGNA DAL SANTO NEWNES
HF: SAAD STANLEY DUNNELL
F: MILNE WHITE MILERA
R: McEVOY HAYES STEVEN
INT: GILBERT, ARMITAGE, HICKEY, LEDGER
DEPTH: GWILT, SCHNEIDER, BLAKE, KOSSIE, LEE, JONES, ROSS, MAISTER, ROBERTON, RAY, DENNIS-LANE, FERGUSON, SHENTON
Cheyenne Autumn