Green Book 2022: Tomorrow We'll Be Sore

During the week, the conversations about refereeing kept swinging from serious to funny,
much like our game really. We all knew the ‘golden rule’ of the standard of refereeing largely
matching the quality of football but we would rarely admit to it of course. This kind of
chatter, the resurgence of Jorge’s videos and Daniel’s jabs at his beloved manager Hector
(still) down with COVID meant the things were almost back to ‘normal’, whatever that means
these days.
The prospect of not having Greg around for many weeks with a fractured shoulder made a
big bloody hole in our backline to fill. Greens’ worldwide search for a quality defender
through a network of football agents was producing few results until Tomaz suggested we
make a move for his mate Chris, a Jap Stam lookalike from … our own club. Pending a pass
in a battery of tests (quality on the ball and beers, sense of humour, backchat-management,
Jorge’s videos endurance, WhatsApp reply rate, pre-nup agreement with fussy strikers and
more) Chris was going to join us on the pitch when back from work within a week or so.
After the usual midweek rounds of ‘yes/no’ we agreed to Spearwood's request to play on a
Friday night instead of Sunday. We could have perhaps given Hector to recover enough to
play on Sunday but a few (usual…) resident comedians thought his absence was an omen of
good things to come. With Frankie back to have a probably short run to test his dodgy hammy,
injured but ever helpful Liam and a couple of new emergency subs we travelled to see if
we can, for once, beat Dallies and on their turf too.
And what the manager expects …
Friday, 27 May, Dalmatinac Park
Spearwood Dalmatinac v MUM FC Green 4 — 6 (Round 7)
Lucky there are more and more of those funky little defibrillators around clubs and grounds
these days because boy was there a real chance of someone needing it in Spearwood where
Greens locked horns with an old foe. Best ground in the comp all lit up on a pleasant Friday
night minus a FW ref, replaced by one of their players, was an invitation for the Greens to
right a rough start this year and continue the two-game winning streak. Dallies are usually
the bosses on their ground but it was Greens that dictated terms early on. A few speculative
shots and a bunch of corners were all to show for in the first twenty but then Daniel the
Dam Buster beat his marker(s) and finished like it was a Thursday night at training for 1-0.
Five minutes later, Muz did his trademark fleet-footed thing and supplied a beautiful tap in
for Daniel to go 2-0. Not our usual territory this year but anyone watching the game would
tell you it was no surprise. What did surprise us was their swift counter but fortunately a
desperate backtrack by Brad was followed with Tomaz using his long legs to deny them getting
closer. A long ball down the field and Muzz had us at 3-0 only seconds later! We know
it’s hard to ref your own teammates, especially when they get tangled in a heated exchange
with the opposition leading by three but we got absolutely zero calls our way from the one
eyed spectator with a ref’s vest on.
At half time, we all agreed that the only thing that was going to undo us was ourselves
starting to argue with the ‘ref’ and panicking and/or taking it easy. That would be like
pressing the self-destruct button, right? Hold my beer …