by Oi You » Thu Jun 28, 2007 2:51 pm
Saturday was the first time I have seen Ironbank play after having seen Lofty on a couple of occasions. On the game, from an independent perspective, the main difference between the two teams was confidence, Lofty were confident and arrogant (rightfully so over the last couple of years), whereas Ironbank need another win over a contender. If the can snag the points against Onkas over there, or a Lofty or Uris, there is no reason they cant be genuine contenders.
Have seen muffy play before and the guy is genuine class and will win games off his own back, Graetz was unimpressive and seemed like he didn’t want to be there, but I will compliment him following his opponent down the ground. Flo was good, genuine workhorse, no fuss, well played, would have had him in my best, although I don’t think he was enjoying himself and was happy to get his cheque and go home? Trzesinski on the other hand, was average and in my opinion should not have been in the best players and seems to receive a good run from the men in orange.
On the incidents, I am an accredited Level 2 umpire and, even though you don’t want to see them in bush footy, more cards should have been dished out. Strangling someone on the ground can one, be a free kick for high contact, and two, can be reported in extreme circumstances for intentional high conduct or misconduct. I did not see this particular incident, so I can really not comment on it. However, someone who headbuts another player is stupid and can be called a tool, but someone who strangles a player on the ground, is even more of a tool! I saw numerous behind the play incidents and in the play incidents that were unsportsmanlike, from both teams. I would say that Ironbank got sucked in as I believe that Lofty were the instigators of many of these incidents, and I get the impression that they are all angels and can do no wrong, wrong. There was one incident that went unnoticed about ten metres from play in the last quarter, where a young IB player (Very talented defender, need to work on his fitness a lot, but has a bright future) had laid a tackle and the ball spilt away. As play continued, the IB player was standing up and was kicked by the Lofty players studs in his knee. The IB player unfortunately retaliated and a bit of push and shove followed with some words, but was a sideshow.
This unfortunately sums up the game, Lofty instigated a lot of incidents and got under the Ironbank players skins, and the Ironbank players often snapped stupidly and got caught. The umpiring seemed to flow one way all day, which may have been a contributing factor to these incidents.
