Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

I had to get up at 6:35 this morning. Was on the road by 6:45 and at the ground by 7:15. We stood around talking for a few minutes then headed into the change rooms to get rubbed, strapped and dressed. Coming  out on to the ground we discovered it was still quite wet with dew, and very small for an AFL ground. I think it was probably 30-40 metres short and probably 20 metres less wide. This made for an interesting game as 36 blokes got very close together – not a lot of room for kicking.

I was put at fullback for the entire game. The first bloke I had to mark up on playing full forward was way too fast for me. He got in front of me and took an easy mark. So I played a little in front of him for a it and spoiled the next couple of marks he ran for, and then a ball cam spiraling down toward us – I held him off and the ball sailed over my head and he grabbed it. Very annoying. Two goals scored on me. The next ball that came our way was way out on the sideline and was being tussled over by the forward pocket and half forward for their team and our back pocket and half back flank. My man went running there looking for the ball and as he got there I hit him hard. He didn’t come back for the rest of the game and I had a succession of other players rotate through full forward. One was a good 8 inches taller than me, but he was the easiest to mark. All though he ran hard he wasn’t too fast and i was able to keep body contact on him long enough to spoil his runs. I was also able to hold him away from the ball and stopped him getting involved in numerous passages of play. I did have one other chap that subbed for him who kicked two easy goals on me which was also annoying, but the rest of the guys who came in I either blocked them from marking or punched the ball away.

I had never played in the back line before the last game, and now I have had 2 games at full back, got coaches award for one and was mentioned second today. I didn’t think I had that good a game, but the other blokes all reckoned I did. Maybe I am just too hard on myself.