4-1 Victorious over The Annual

CB(2 goals, MOM), DC (1 goal), RH(1 goal), TH(MOM), TK(GK), AW

FIRST: SOME (below par) VERSE
Old King Lion’s coat tattered and torn
Punky young buck lions laughing at his form
Stalks the Nike store and other outlets all over town
Seven years later the gods deliver sweet sweet brown…

SECOND: THE ANATOMY OF OLD KING LION (in alphabetical order)
Brown: For he is the Old King Lion’s REAR HAUNCHES – Strong and svelte. The speed. Delivering the fleetness and the movement and the grace coupled with the power and the force and the impact. Defining the “Strength of no Strength” just like Bruce Lee’s one inch punch.

Crooks: For he is the Old King Lion’s BITE – A mighty maw. Fearsome in its striking power. Row after row of gleaming razor sharp incisors ready to cut you apart in more ways than surgeon’s got stiches. The doer of damage.

Gill: For he is the Old King Lion’s ROAR – A force so powerful it cannot exist physically. Having all the intangibility of the uncertainty principle and a decibel piercing bellow enough to stop a wildebeest in its track. It smells like a goalie’s shin pad and is Old King Lion’s superego.

Hannan: For he is the Old King Lion’s LEFT FRONT LEG & PAW. The most powerful of limbs. The strike of total domination. The don’t argue of absolute authority. The stiff backed salute of maximum respect.

Hinkley: For he is the Old King Lion’s HEART – Bringing courage, leadership, trueness of spirit. Coursing through all the components it can inhabit and enhance any one of them. When the heart is strong Old King Lion cannot be defeated.

Howie: For he is the Old King Lion’s BRAIN – Thinking on the course of  stratagems, knowing the day. Like Turing’s Colossus with insufficient punch cards it strives to make sense of the tactics, and control the mighty power of the Old King Lion’s components.

Kondo: For he is the Old King Lion’s STOMACH – Of steel. It will not  yield, it cannot be damaged, it knows no fear, it’s relentless persistence will never give in. It protects most vital assets. Within it resides the Chi. You cannot get past it with axes or bash hammers. It stands fast.

Weis: For he is the Old King Lion’s TESTICLES – Of fire. Purple and engorged. Do not get them angry, they will explode and drive the Old King Lion into hyper-drive like a warp core gone critical. Uncontrollable like a roomful of teenagers on red-bull, from them comes potency.

Wong: For he is the Old King Lion’s TAIL – It provides the balance – the yin to the bite of the yang. Though it looks playful enough to flirt with a Savanah Sparrow beware it slinking ’round your back door lest it rise up and slap you down.

Like a manga from the 70s all the component constituents of the Old King Lion come together to form OLD KING LION a powerful old lion king. Half Lion, half mecha-lion, half Nanna.

THIRD: WE TALK OF JUDDY (or Dane Swan if you can’t bring yourself to talk of a Carlton player)
The great players will lift when required and impose themselves on a game. They will control it and affect the outcome. While skill plays a part, it is mostly a mental attitude. The ability to impose your will upon a game and influence the outcome will make you great.

FOURTH: THE GAME NOW PAST JUST BEFORE
I can’t really remember what happened except at the start of the game Rhian said “we gotta win this one”, and I looked at my bag of new tops and said “we’ll win” and from that moment on it was never in doubt. Then a very select four went to Movida Next Door and eat tapas and drank Basque beer and talked of iphone applications and episodes of tv shows, and I rate it very highly on the dining out experiences.