Normality Takes The Weekend Off (The Lost Weekend)

No wonder Austin Wonaeamirri celebrates like a crazy man…check out his dad! And what on earth is Jimmy Stynes doing to him?

What the hell is going on? After Hawthorn’s regulation win on Friday night, you got the feeling that every other game in this first weekend of the split round would be equally uneventful and boring! That the players were just going to go through the motions and play out the match before pissing off to their favourite beach, bar or back paddock for the mid-season break…

The interchange ump got his head on TV this weekend – not once but twice!

Instead, we had one of the most eventful, amazing, bizarre and sad weekends that you could possibly imagine! Gutsy upsets, unusual occurrences, interchange penalties, Daniel Kerr stung by a stingray on a Melbourne beach and, in the ultimate WTF incident, Richmond player Graham Polak placed in an induced coma after being hit by a tram on Saturday night! While there are some positive signs today, it is too early to determine the full extent of his injuries or whether he will be able to return to football. Our thoughts go out to him and his family…here’s hoping he can make a full recovery…

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Sunday:

Ahhh, Brad Miller…where have you been?

• Sunday: Holy Crap Part One: Melbourne wins! Melbourne wins! Melbourne wins! What amazing scenes of joy at the MCG! See what happens when you play your home games against interstate clubs at home…not in your opponents backyard? And Brad Miller reminds everyone that he is still actually playing AFL by kicking the winning goal!

• Holy Crap Part Two: Essendon win away…interstate…like; they actually hopped on a plane, travelled for hours and hours, got off in Perth and then managed to win the game of footy! The Dockers were cruelled by injury…plus you wouldn’t blame a few of Polak’s former teammates for being a little distracted! But the Bombers also lost a lanky key player and relied on some corageous efforts to win their third straight game. The media are asking the question – finals footy for Essendon? Surely they mean the year 2010…not now!

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Saturday:

• Well, that was one sucky birthday party! Good win for Carlton, particularly with Chris Judd a no-show, but Richmond celebrated 100 years with a final quarter performance that summed up their past 25 years perfectly…and a post-match dig at the under performing senior players is pure Richmond. And the Richo for Brownlow push appears to be over…

Look – the Aker handstand is back! Whoop-de-frickin’-doo!

• The Western Bulldogs spank Port and are top of the ladder…for a few days at least. Not that Rodney Eade cares too much…he is more concerned with a winning mindset. At least Rocket and the Doggies are thinking happy thoughts – we suggest that the mind of Mark Williams would be a very dark place to be right now.

The Roos are spitting chips at letting another game slip…clearly they need more spitting practice!

• North Melbourne use the split round to display their split personality and lose a game they should have won…easily. Sure, it took a great effort for the Saints to recover from a shite first half to run over the top of the Roos and finals footy seems a bit more realistic now…but this has to be the false dawn of the round. Well, unless Collingwood beats Sydney this week and they all get carried away again!