DC, GF, JH 3 (MOM), TH 1, RH, TK

Nannas 4 play ??? 6

Five things we learned about the Nannas

1. GHBG may be dead
   Chas has been going on about the Nans playing clean for years now, and from last night’s evidence he may have a point. The two main standard bearers for the unclean approach, Jim and Ghee, abstained pre-game, as a control. Well, Jim hit three fairly good goals and Ghee, although he didn’t get on the scoresheet, was a tower of strength in defence.
   Of course the third standard bearer for GHBG, Cocky, was a shadow of himself, playing a particularly shit game. So there may be evidence for some Nans to GHBG and some to not.  Further testing will be conducted.
2. The Nannas are in a funk
   Maybe it because we were up against four at the start of last night’s game (which always lures us in to a false sense of security), maybe it was the earliness of the fixture, maybe it was because Cocky is working on a very big and complex project at the moment, or that RMIT really has gotten to Ghee and Jim, or that the Coach and Captain have been pulling too many late nighters due to their respective birthdays. Whatever it was the Nannas were awful last night, especially in the first half. We were slow, we stood around for half the game waiting for the ball to come to us. There was no passion, no enthusiasm, little in the way of that special Nanna hunger and anger that usually makes us competitive.
3. Don’t get on the wrong side of the coach
   Well, the Coach was angry. First he was seen arguing with the ref, and then he began yelling at the Nannas. But after that he soon found a place to really vent his fury, which was at a member of the opposition. His first entanglement with him, early in the second half, saw Coach trip his prey over and then land on top of him. But that wasn’t enough for the Coach, for after a penalty was given he did pretty much the same thing on the way back to stand on the mark, again using the object of his hatred to break his fall.
   That was only an entrée. He really went for this guy and not content to use him as a crash mat like he did twice before, he employed the now patented ball palm move and for good measure drove the dude’s head in to the hard floor of Wesley. The lesson: don’t get on the wrong of the Coach. He will tell you something different, but don’t be fooled, if you get him mad, he hurt you and hurt you, and hurt you again.
4.  The Nanna Achilles heal strikes again
   The Captain and Coach have work to do. The Nannas lost again last night due to our inability to hold on to the ball. Not only that, we gave away at least four very soft goals after passing to a direct opponent. At least two of these four goals, an opponent got the ball with only the keeper to beat, and there was one where the opponent didn’t even have to do that, all he had to do was shoot into an open goal.
   Usually kicking the ball away is something that our #1 keeper is guilty of (we have tried to implement the one in three rule but they don’t call him a small business owner for nothing), but last night striker felt it would be a good idea to kick the ball away. Of course Kondo gave one again too but after last night’s performance Cocky will struggle to hold his place next week.
5. The Nannas are losing games they should win
   Yes, they did have Phil in their team, who made a big difference. Yes, they did score one particularly good goal that I remember. Yes the Nannas started off real slow. Yes, we could have and probably should have put a couple past them in the first couple of minutes of the game when they were only four. But no, the Nannas aren’t playing that badly. We did pick it up in the second half, and put some moves together, got some goals, and for the most part held firm at the back. I know it smacks of coulda, woulda, shoulda, but we should have won this one.