Green Book 2022: Tomorrow We'll Be Sore

A few games into the last season we quietly iced the 3-5-2 formation that Jorge (George) had
tried to explain to us in an unforgettable thread of about 50 consecutive WhatsApp posts
containing text, videos and schematics earlier in the year. We mention this because 3-5-2 not
only made a brief and again spectacularly ineffective appearance at the start of 2022 season
but Jorge’s 3-5-2 videos and his professed love for it have become a part of Greens’ folklore.
It is why Ely caused a lot of sudden beer spray on the day with his perfectly timed deadpan
response to the question on the whereabouts of a teammate.
On the business side of things, Greens grew ambitious. Sure, there was a direct correlation
between the number of beers drank on the day and our aspirations going from finishing
“top five” next year to “top three” to “winning the league”. But with most of the legs we had
last year, the recently crowned Club Champion Andrew Seaber on board and perhaps with a
few reinforcements, we were going to have a realistic shot at ‘glory’ that others may call ‘midto-top-table
finish in 2022’. Our defence grew stingy through 2021, we had plenty of midfielders,
we just had to get a bit of firepower at the front. We started asking around and even
the odd taxi drivers were keen to boast about their credentials but no real takers.
As we brainstormed who might bolster our attack, Sam Kerr was making media headlines by
shirtfronting a pitch invader. She would be a perfect fit as one of the two ‘under 45’ players
allowed in our league. Perfect not only as a striker but in terms of attitude, as expressed in
Greg’s clever paraphrase of the timeless words by our Muz when receiving a red card. But
for all of Muz’s cash handling skills, our depleted budget, especially after the beers at Otherside,
meant that champion Sam would need to keep playing for Chelsea to earn her crust.