While farming for nuts on the weekend, the Redleg stumbled across on old chestnut. The late winter breeze had blown away the sea of leaves and twigs which it had once been buried under.
As the Redleg prepared to toss him in with the harvest, the chestnut parted his shell and imparted its wisdom.
"Bad kicking is bad football," it said, upon which its shell closed over again for good.
They proved famous last words for on Saturday the OMs Magoos again shot itself in the foot. Sixteen times to be precise.
So much so that it lost by 45 points despite having the same number of scoring shots as Marcellin.
It hasn’t been the first time the side has been brought unstuck by poor kicking this season.
Hauls of 4.15, 6.14, 7.15 have already cost us three games, and on Saturday it cost us a fourth. This time we kicked 5.16, in dry conditions with little wind to speak of.
The rot started in the first quarter. Marcellin kicked two straight and we had 1.6. Things did not get much better during the day.
We were winning everywhere apart from where it mattered most - the scoreboard.
James Ray was controlling proceedings in the ruck. Wrighty, fit and no longer a box on a shelf waiting to be unveiled at a gala opening, was superb in the middle.
In defence Dean Osmond, not content with stealing the captaincy from Jenks in an off-season coup, was making full-back his own. If he was not spoiling, he was marking. Even the Stump pushed forward and goaled from long range to prove it’s substance over style.
The game was up for grabs in the third quarter. We pushed in front with a goal to Wrighty but that was all she wrote. We had controlled enough of the game and not it was Marcellin’s turn.
Whereas we marked our dominance in behinds, they marked theirs with goals. Five goals to nothing in the last quarter left us humiliated.
Meanwhile in a forest far away, the chestnut had been cracked open but would spill no more knowledge. The Redleg was searching for answers but in all the wrong areas.
OLD MELBURNIANS 1.6 2.9 5.13 5.16-46
MARCELLIN 2.0 5.2 9.3 14.7-91
Goal Kickers: R. Matthews, M. Prowse, M. Wright, K. Spies, J. Slater
Best Players: J. Ray, W. Ray, A. Ray, M. Wright, J. Phillips, D. Osmond
