It starts with a dream. Not a dream of holding a premiership cup aloft before adoring hordes, nor one of rebuilding a nation. It`s merely a dream that invaded my sleep one fitful night. There`s no need to consign me to psychological therapy because of it (if you need to there is plenty of other evidence to make that case) - its more of a low-budget screenplay from a Polish director....
Goran is a bio-chemist working for the government. Each day he goes to his mundane job that he cannot talk about and each day he is welcomed home by his beautiful wife and dark-eyed brooding teen daughter. There is much love in his family but they keep to themselves in a small lakeside hamlet full of old ways and superstition. They live in a big house with a rear cliff-faced balcony overlooking the water and the weather is often dark and stormy. His wife, Katja could be living a feted life as a model in a bigger city but is content with her lot, running the household and homeschooling their daughter, Svetlana. The soundtrack is a string quartet and whenever Svetlana enters, the cello plays.
Comes a time when Goran falls ill and becomes bed-ridden; Katja and Svetlana care for him around the clock, his wife bathing him and changing his bedding and his daughter making soup and administering the medicine generously provided by the his employer, the Dept. of National Health and Warfare. In and out of consciousness, and without a sense of time, he becomes aware that all is not quite right; the doorbell seems to ring often but he never sees any visitors, his daughter seems ever-present and he is confused by visions of his wife, unable to distinguish which of them are real and which are merely memories, dreams and drug-fuelled hallucinations....
Norwood Vs Blackburn
Needing to win all of their remaining games to make the finals, and still undermanned, my footy team needed all the support they could get as they travelled to Mullum Mullum Reserve to take on the flying Norsemen, and we weren`t about to let them down. "C`mon Jack, and grab your footy. We`ll have a kick at 1/2 time."
We arrived just after the first break to a dour struggle, and noted that our 1/2 time kick was going to be a tough ask - even the seniors were struggling to boot it 30 metres in what can only be described as a mudheap. I popped into the rooms to give Jack`s ball a bit of air, instructing him to "stand right beside this tree and don`t move!", returning with a fully pumped footy to a tree without a Jack. I spent the next 15 minutes with half an eye on the footy as I trawled the surrounds looking for my spirited but ill-disciplined lad. So many trees and places for a boy to explore... and so much opportunity for some fiend to snatch him into the woods. I returned to the original tree, just off the forward pocket and began to contemplate delivering news to his mother that I`d lost him, when a familiar voice spoke to me from above: "Hi Dad. I thought I`d climb up here to see where you were." So I missed most of the 2nd quarter, though Jack told me it was pretty good.
Norwood had been the surprise packet of the competition, sitting 4th with a draw and 9 wins, including a few hefty scalps. But the Burners hung tough through the 3rd stanza and at 3/4 time the game was still up for grabs, Blackburn coach Steve Cochrane urging the side to "take the game on. We haven`t worked this hard all year just to miss out."
It sounded good to me, but some dumb footy early in the last gave up goals to the Norsemen, who finished the game full of run. Dispirited, the visitors seemed to have legs of lead, and were taunted by the homecrowd, who sang "Bye, Bye, Blackburn" as yet another Norwood goal sailed through. Covered in Mullum Mullum mud from the 1/2 time kick-to-kick (well, I couldn`t let him down either) we trudged away with the rest of the Red Army, crestfallen. Paul Bunn, Kris Barlow and the Ryan brothers were good all day for us, but they were no match, in the end, for the hard running Norwood team, headed by Blackie `n`Decler, with Walkenhorst (2goals) good up forward.
NORWOOD 3.4 5.5 6.7 11.10-76
BLACKBURN 3.2 3.6 4.7 5.8-38
.....Goran resolves to stop taking the medication, hiding the pills under his tongue and then stooping them beneath the base of the nightshade, careful to maintain the illusion before his daughter. After a time, he calls for his wife. A buxom woman wearing Katja`s clothing and perfume enters the room, calling him "my darling" and drawing him to her breast. Hefting him from the sickbed into a wheelchair, she takes him out through grand arch windows onto the cliff-face balcony, but her patience withers soon enough and she wheels him back to bed, telling him he is very weak and needs his medicine now. Svetlana and her cellos enter and take his hand, urging him to lie back and swallow the capsules. Once alone, and with the dosage safely under the nightshade, Goran tries to make sense of it all: the strange woman masquerading as his wife, the soulless look in his child`s eyes and the NHW insignia he`d noticed on the chair and on the drug dispenser. But, stiil weak, the strain taxes him quickly and he falls readily to sleep.
As the days pass, Goran`s faculties begin to return, and he keenly observes the routine of his keepers, all the while lying doggo, feigning weakness on his morning wheels to the balcony, and continuing the facade of the drug regime. He wonders of Katja, his sweet and beautiful bride who has been supplanted by a roster of buxom charletans, draped in sheeps clothing and doused in his angel`s perfume. "Ah, Katja, my love," he sighs, and sinks into his pillow, calling for sleep and dreams of happier times with his beloved....
Vermont Vs Blackburn
A new week and another road trip, just a short one across the lake, but with a mountain to climb. Blackburn hadn`t won at Vermont for 34 years, and wasn`t favoured to succeed this time either. The red`n`black were struggling big time, coming off last week`s mudbath and with injury still a theme throughout the club. The Eagles, on the other hand, seemed to have overcome their early season woes and were producing some great footy, including a recent win against ladder leader, Scoresby. Moreover, they were battling for a place in the September action, something that for us was only a far-fetched statistical possibility. So I decided to spare my boy but, as it was KB`s last game, subject myself to a bit of suburban warfare therapy.
The North wind fairly hammered in from the Canterbury Road end, providing a 4-goal advantage to the Eagles to start the contest; they couldn`t get past a well disciplined defence however and led by just 8 points at 1/4 time. The boys from Morton Park produced the goods with the wind, young Blackburn powerhouse Robbie Petracca outstanding.
In the 3rd stanza, Vermont worked hard to get back into the game, and with Grieg soaring high in the forward line and sublimely skilled Ryan Mullett involved in everything, they looked ready to overpower the young Burners. I was right next to the Blackburn coaches` box and witnessed ALL the emotion as an agitated Cochrane and his team desperately tried to keep their charges in it, veins popping from their foreheads; the trainers were keeping one eye on the players and another one on the lookout for a resuscitator, fearing it would be needed. A Blackburn goal just before the last break left them with a 19pt lead and a sense of self belief that was fairly riotous in the huddle.
But it wasn`t over and everybody knew it. A quick goal to Vermont and some seemingly easy scoring opportunities seemed to reinforce that 34 years was a mountain we`d never climb. Enter Stefan Denadic and Kris Barlow. Stef was everywhere, strong and spirited, and finished with 4 goals; KB only kicked one - a 45 metre set shot from the boundary to seal the match as the locals hurled abuse at him. For years a Vermont hero, now their hated villain, he turned as it sailed through, arms wide and grinning, and accepted all the scorn, applause and respect that flowed. For that`s local footy.
BLACKBURN 3.2 9.8 12.10 17.11-113
VERMONT 4.4 7.5 9.9 11.16-82
..... His night is restless and his visions are filled with his beloved, the two of them boating on the lake, walking on the shore, laughing over a shared feast. He sees her shapely form crossing the room to his bedside, feels her lips gently on his, smells her perfume as she hugs him to her breast before laying him back on his pillows, hears her soft voice telling him that he`ll be well again soon and gazes glass-eyed as she moves away, through the arch windows to the balcony edge. Cellos fill the air as his daughter administers the tablets and bids him to dream within the dream, moving silently to join her mother. He watches the scene as the two women come together at balcony`s edge. Svetlana points at something in the water far below, urging her mother to lean forward to see. Then, silent and swift,she pushes the older woman over the edge to her death.
Goran awakes in horror screaming her name, his memory repaired but his soul crushed by the awful truth. The rostered conspirator rushes in to take him in her claws and soothe him with her poisoned words. "It`s alright, my darling, " she coos, "your Katja is here now." In her haste she has knocked over the nightshade, exposing the cache of duplicitous evidence. "Goodness, you`re sweating. There, there," she continues, "it`s nothing but a nightmare. Let`s take you out to the balcony for a turn - it`s a beautiful morning"....
Blackburn Vs. Scoresby
In fine weather I strolled into Morton Park for the final game of the home & away season against the year`s outstanding performer, Scoresby. All about the place, folks were doing the same as I - chatting away without a care in the world. We all "knew" our season was over, needing not only to overcome the benchmark of the competition, but also for 2009 premiers, Vermont, to succumb to relegation prospect, South Croydon. "Not gunna happen," opined Gunna, flashing his gums at me (I knew that he had 4 teeth in there - he`d shown them off at the bar one pie night - but all I got today was gum and spittle). "And anywayth, there`th thtill that other bloody mob," eventually explaining to me that Croydon could still overtake us in any event with a big win over another relegation contender, "friggin` Knoxth. We`re only a sthatishsthical pothability."
Wiping myself down, I moved away to a drier area, ironically, the beer tent. Johnny Gapp was far better company, and together we watched the 2nds win their 9th win from their last 10 ten games, to secure a finals berth. A fine effort, and some consolation. The seniors game held nothing for us but to hopefully see some good footy, and to watch this year`s minor premier strut its stuff. The footy was up to scratch - a free-flowing brand with plenty of skill on display, and we weren`t dismayed to be 3 goals down at 1/2 time; it seemed about right, as did Scoresby`s two early 3rd quarter goals. They were a powerful marking side, with a couple of really "big units", and we`d done well to stay with them.
But not everyone reads the same script: not Zac Vansittart, whose 2 goal-saving smothers forced turnovers for Blackburn; not Matt Tuminello, who was suddenly dominating the aerial contests; nor the red`n`black forward division, who rammed on 6 goals in 12 minutes.
Across town, South Croydon joined the party, leading the reigning premier by 4 goals, and in a frenzied 3/4 time address coach Cochrane implored his men to seize the opportunity. We`d all become a bit excited... "Thith ith it!," spluttered Gunna, singlehandedly moving the huddle 3 paces to the south, "Thith ith the theathon, Burneth."
But this was no Disney movie. The Magpies bounced through the opening goal inside the first 20 seconds, and pulled away for the victory, silencing the Red Army and drawing the curtain on Blackburn`s season. Vansittart and Paul Bunn were best for the Burners, while Van Rheenen(2 goals), McConnon(3) and Cross(3) were best for the winners.
BLACKBURN 1.3 3.7 7.9 9.12-66
SCORESBY 3.2 6.6 9.8 15.11-101
...as Goran was wheeled to the balcony by his sinister minder, the screen faded to black and I awoke refreshed and ready for a new day. I didn`t ponder too much on the dream; like all dreams and Polish cult films there were unresolved issues that don`t necessarily mean anything. If that bothered me, I could always take up the advice of my housemate and stop falling asleep in front of the World Movie Channel.
Goran is a bio-chemist working for the government. Each day he goes to his mundane job that he cannot talk about and each day he is welcomed home by his beautiful wife and dark-eyed brooding teen daughter. There is much love in his family but they keep to themselves in a small lakeside hamlet full of old ways and superstition. They live in a big house with a rear cliff-faced balcony overlooking the water and the weather is often dark and stormy. His wife, Katja could be living a feted life as a model in a bigger city but is content with her lot, running the household and homeschooling their daughter, Svetlana. The soundtrack is a string quartet and whenever Svetlana enters, the cello plays.
Comes a time when Goran falls ill and becomes bed-ridden; Katja and Svetlana care for him around the clock, his wife bathing him and changing his bedding and his daughter making soup and administering the medicine generously provided by the his employer, the Dept. of National Health and Warfare. In and out of consciousness, and without a sense of time, he becomes aware that all is not quite right; the doorbell seems to ring often but he never sees any visitors, his daughter seems ever-present and he is confused by visions of his wife, unable to distinguish which of them are real and which are merely memories, dreams and drug-fuelled hallucinations....
Norwood Vs Blackburn
Needing to win all of their remaining games to make the finals, and still undermanned, my footy team needed all the support they could get as they travelled to Mullum Mullum Reserve to take on the flying Norsemen, and we weren`t about to let them down. "C`mon Jack, and grab your footy. We`ll have a kick at 1/2 time."
We arrived just after the first break to a dour struggle, and noted that our 1/2 time kick was going to be a tough ask - even the seniors were struggling to boot it 30 metres in what can only be described as a mudheap. I popped into the rooms to give Jack`s ball a bit of air, instructing him to "stand right beside this tree and don`t move!", returning with a fully pumped footy to a tree without a Jack. I spent the next 15 minutes with half an eye on the footy as I trawled the surrounds looking for my spirited but ill-disciplined lad. So many trees and places for a boy to explore... and so much opportunity for some fiend to snatch him into the woods. I returned to the original tree, just off the forward pocket and began to contemplate delivering news to his mother that I`d lost him, when a familiar voice spoke to me from above: "Hi Dad. I thought I`d climb up here to see where you were." So I missed most of the 2nd quarter, though Jack told me it was pretty good.
Norwood had been the surprise packet of the competition, sitting 4th with a draw and 9 wins, including a few hefty scalps. But the Burners hung tough through the 3rd stanza and at 3/4 time the game was still up for grabs, Blackburn coach Steve Cochrane urging the side to "take the game on. We haven`t worked this hard all year just to miss out."
It sounded good to me, but some dumb footy early in the last gave up goals to the Norsemen, who finished the game full of run. Dispirited, the visitors seemed to have legs of lead, and were taunted by the homecrowd, who sang "Bye, Bye, Blackburn" as yet another Norwood goal sailed through. Covered in Mullum Mullum mud from the 1/2 time kick-to-kick (well, I couldn`t let him down either) we trudged away with the rest of the Red Army, crestfallen. Paul Bunn, Kris Barlow and the Ryan brothers were good all day for us, but they were no match, in the end, for the hard running Norwood team, headed by Blackie `n`Decler, with Walkenhorst (2goals) good up forward.
NORWOOD 3.4 5.5 6.7 11.10-76
BLACKBURN 3.2 3.6 4.7 5.8-38
.....Goran resolves to stop taking the medication, hiding the pills under his tongue and then stooping them beneath the base of the nightshade, careful to maintain the illusion before his daughter. After a time, he calls for his wife. A buxom woman wearing Katja`s clothing and perfume enters the room, calling him "my darling" and drawing him to her breast. Hefting him from the sickbed into a wheelchair, she takes him out through grand arch windows onto the cliff-face balcony, but her patience withers soon enough and she wheels him back to bed, telling him he is very weak and needs his medicine now. Svetlana and her cellos enter and take his hand, urging him to lie back and swallow the capsules. Once alone, and with the dosage safely under the nightshade, Goran tries to make sense of it all: the strange woman masquerading as his wife, the soulless look in his child`s eyes and the NHW insignia he`d noticed on the chair and on the drug dispenser. But, stiil weak, the strain taxes him quickly and he falls readily to sleep.
As the days pass, Goran`s faculties begin to return, and he keenly observes the routine of his keepers, all the while lying doggo, feigning weakness on his morning wheels to the balcony, and continuing the facade of the drug regime. He wonders of Katja, his sweet and beautiful bride who has been supplanted by a roster of buxom charletans, draped in sheeps clothing and doused in his angel`s perfume. "Ah, Katja, my love," he sighs, and sinks into his pillow, calling for sleep and dreams of happier times with his beloved....
Vermont Vs Blackburn
A new week and another road trip, just a short one across the lake, but with a mountain to climb. Blackburn hadn`t won at Vermont for 34 years, and wasn`t favoured to succeed this time either. The red`n`black were struggling big time, coming off last week`s mudbath and with injury still a theme throughout the club. The Eagles, on the other hand, seemed to have overcome their early season woes and were producing some great footy, including a recent win against ladder leader, Scoresby. Moreover, they were battling for a place in the September action, something that for us was only a far-fetched statistical possibility. So I decided to spare my boy but, as it was KB`s last game, subject myself to a bit of suburban warfare therapy.
The North wind fairly hammered in from the Canterbury Road end, providing a 4-goal advantage to the Eagles to start the contest; they couldn`t get past a well disciplined defence however and led by just 8 points at 1/4 time. The boys from Morton Park produced the goods with the wind, young Blackburn powerhouse Robbie Petracca outstanding.
In the 3rd stanza, Vermont worked hard to get back into the game, and with Grieg soaring high in the forward line and sublimely skilled Ryan Mullett involved in everything, they looked ready to overpower the young Burners. I was right next to the Blackburn coaches` box and witnessed ALL the emotion as an agitated Cochrane and his team desperately tried to keep their charges in it, veins popping from their foreheads; the trainers were keeping one eye on the players and another one on the lookout for a resuscitator, fearing it would be needed. A Blackburn goal just before the last break left them with a 19pt lead and a sense of self belief that was fairly riotous in the huddle.
But it wasn`t over and everybody knew it. A quick goal to Vermont and some seemingly easy scoring opportunities seemed to reinforce that 34 years was a mountain we`d never climb. Enter Stefan Denadic and Kris Barlow. Stef was everywhere, strong and spirited, and finished with 4 goals; KB only kicked one - a 45 metre set shot from the boundary to seal the match as the locals hurled abuse at him. For years a Vermont hero, now their hated villain, he turned as it sailed through, arms wide and grinning, and accepted all the scorn, applause and respect that flowed. For that`s local footy.
BLACKBURN 3.2 9.8 12.10 17.11-113
VERMONT 4.4 7.5 9.9 11.16-82
..... His night is restless and his visions are filled with his beloved, the two of them boating on the lake, walking on the shore, laughing over a shared feast. He sees her shapely form crossing the room to his bedside, feels her lips gently on his, smells her perfume as she hugs him to her breast before laying him back on his pillows, hears her soft voice telling him that he`ll be well again soon and gazes glass-eyed as she moves away, through the arch windows to the balcony edge. Cellos fill the air as his daughter administers the tablets and bids him to dream within the dream, moving silently to join her mother. He watches the scene as the two women come together at balcony`s edge. Svetlana points at something in the water far below, urging her mother to lean forward to see. Then, silent and swift,she pushes the older woman over the edge to her death.
Goran awakes in horror screaming her name, his memory repaired but his soul crushed by the awful truth. The rostered conspirator rushes in to take him in her claws and soothe him with her poisoned words. "It`s alright, my darling, " she coos, "your Katja is here now." In her haste she has knocked over the nightshade, exposing the cache of duplicitous evidence. "Goodness, you`re sweating. There, there," she continues, "it`s nothing but a nightmare. Let`s take you out to the balcony for a turn - it`s a beautiful morning"....
Blackburn Vs. Scoresby
In fine weather I strolled into Morton Park for the final game of the home & away season against the year`s outstanding performer, Scoresby. All about the place, folks were doing the same as I - chatting away without a care in the world. We all "knew" our season was over, needing not only to overcome the benchmark of the competition, but also for 2009 premiers, Vermont, to succumb to relegation prospect, South Croydon. "Not gunna happen," opined Gunna, flashing his gums at me (I knew that he had 4 teeth in there - he`d shown them off at the bar one pie night - but all I got today was gum and spittle). "And anywayth, there`th thtill that other bloody mob," eventually explaining to me that Croydon could still overtake us in any event with a big win over another relegation contender, "friggin` Knoxth. We`re only a sthatishsthical pothability."
Wiping myself down, I moved away to a drier area, ironically, the beer tent. Johnny Gapp was far better company, and together we watched the 2nds win their 9th win from their last 10 ten games, to secure a finals berth. A fine effort, and some consolation. The seniors game held nothing for us but to hopefully see some good footy, and to watch this year`s minor premier strut its stuff. The footy was up to scratch - a free-flowing brand with plenty of skill on display, and we weren`t dismayed to be 3 goals down at 1/2 time; it seemed about right, as did Scoresby`s two early 3rd quarter goals. They were a powerful marking side, with a couple of really "big units", and we`d done well to stay with them.
But not everyone reads the same script: not Zac Vansittart, whose 2 goal-saving smothers forced turnovers for Blackburn; not Matt Tuminello, who was suddenly dominating the aerial contests; nor the red`n`black forward division, who rammed on 6 goals in 12 minutes.
Across town, South Croydon joined the party, leading the reigning premier by 4 goals, and in a frenzied 3/4 time address coach Cochrane implored his men to seize the opportunity. We`d all become a bit excited... "Thith ith it!," spluttered Gunna, singlehandedly moving the huddle 3 paces to the south, "Thith ith the theathon, Burneth."
But this was no Disney movie. The Magpies bounced through the opening goal inside the first 20 seconds, and pulled away for the victory, silencing the Red Army and drawing the curtain on Blackburn`s season. Vansittart and Paul Bunn were best for the Burners, while Van Rheenen(2 goals), McConnon(3) and Cross(3) were best for the winners.
BLACKBURN 1.3 3.7 7.9 9.12-66
SCORESBY 3.2 6.6 9.8 15.11-101
...as Goran was wheeled to the balcony by his sinister minder, the screen faded to black and I awoke refreshed and ready for a new day. I didn`t ponder too much on the dream; like all dreams and Polish cult films there were unresolved issues that don`t necessarily mean anything. If that bothered me, I could always take up the advice of my housemate and stop falling asleep in front of the World Movie Channel.
