Round 5 - Mens Premiership - Raiders vs Dees

Isaac Kirby | 17.06.22

History has produced some incredible duos.

The Olsen Twins. 

The Bryan Brothers of doubles tennis. 

Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. 

The two characters from the Muppets that only have heads and mouth off everyone.

But on Saturday, we saw what was possibly a coming-together of two AFL London's most sinister characters. 

A devout cats-supporting umpire and his whistle-happy-partner-in-green. 

The game hadn't even started, and we were already down sixty-five free kicks to zero. The signs were ominous. As was the 3-foot-high grass that we were playing on. Corso initially thought we were playing a man down before realising Tate Skinner had bobbed down to tie his shoelace up and had disappeared momentarily. 

The game began in a particularly dour fashion—but with the Raiders trying to claim a scalp, it soon turned into a frenetic game of see-ball-kick-ball-ten-men-at-every-contest-kick-it-to-me-even-when-im-in-the-wrong-spot-ball. Thankfully through the cool heads of Corso, Slick, and Pete Mollison, we stayed within a goal's reach of the Raiders even though we hadn't really clicked into gear. 

Similarly, the 2nd quarter didn't make much of a spectacle for those watching. Rolfey provided some run through the middle, and our forwards started to get on top, but lack of conversion meant we would head into the halftime break down again—though it still felt like we had been on top most of the day. 

Our third quarter proved decisive. We managed to finish on the scoreboard; Jonny Harvey tossed the monkey off his back so far it landed in Richmond, Niall Young kicked a snap that not only defied physics, but logic, gravity and common sense—and it finally felt like we were playing the style we'd wanted to. 

But, as mentioned, the Raiders were out to take a scalp.

And as the third quarter progressed, it became apparent a figurative scalp was unlikely—so the Raiders decided to hunt for a physical one instead.

Unfortunately, Noske became victim #1. 

The perpetrator? A 40-year-old man wearing a long-sleeve rash vest. 

We headed in for the 3/4 time huddle with a spring in our step, knowing that we'd rattled the Raiders and were on top. 

After some choice words from Jonas and Ben Eddy, we ran out for the final quarter full of energy.

Unfortunately, at this point, the grass had grown so long that only Peter Mollison's head and a little bit of Niall Young’s forehead were visible. 

We finished the game with a solid last quarter, with Moz and the Dune Meister combining well for a few snagolis to run out winners by 10 goals.

< Back to the news