I’m picturing Terry Wallace sitting at his breakfast table this morning. He probably still has Hawthorn’s phone number on his phone and he is sitting there wondering why he didn’t dial that one instead of the Tigers.
Yesterday’s performance was worse than even I could have imagined. A 62 point drubbing showed just what miracles Wallace will have to perform if the Tigers are to ever be regarded with anything approaching respect again. For all his grand talk about earning respect back and showing commitment for the fans the team showed that maybe Danny Frawley was treated a more than a little unfairly. Under pressure they caved, and the initial pressure wasn’t that great. Old habits didn’t creep back to the fore, they came barrelling along like a steam train.
By half time any shred of hope in the Tiger faithful who had packed the MCG was gone, ground into the grass of the stadium under the boots of a Geelong side that toyed with our new boys, our mid level players and the experienced hands who should have been leading the new way by example.
I left five minutes in to three quarter time and we were home by the end of the game. Thankfully 774 cut Terry Wallace’s press conference off after two questions. It was a mercy killing that should have been extended to the team.
I know it’s only the first game, that things can turn around, but at the moment that bend in the road seems a long, long way away.
UPDATE
The only good thing from the game – I got to try out the camera in my new phone. Not a bad result for such a tiny camera. Here’s part of the 50,000 odd Tiger crowd who won’t bother showing up next week.
Commiserations.