Piranhas Choke on Tiger Pie

Football is a heartbreaking and ruthless game at times that doesn’t care who is more or less deserving and so it was Friday night as the Piranhas faced off against a couple of Tigers and a lot of Rhinos in a game that was a must win for the boys from Lincoln Park.

Needing the win to jump the Rhinos on the ladder, the strong Piranha line up came out firing against a Tiger team decimated by injury, departures and god only knows what other calamities. Playing 14’s (very good turn out indeed), from the jump it looked like the Trixies were finally going to defeat their nemesis for the first time in Metro history. Roofy, playing across the half forward line was damaging and threatening to take the Tigers apart single handedly. He kicked his first and only bad kicking from LP prevented them from being further in front. The Tigers were able to hit back late but bad kicking for goal marred their chances to take an unlikely lead into the quarter time break. First quarter, LP led 1.3: 9 to 0.4: 4.

The second quarter mirrored the first with LP getting on top early through both Ternes and Roofy who were marking everything but the score didn’t reflect their dominance. Roofy added two more and Ternes one before Brian Hoyt started to impose his will on the game. He kicked his first before the OBK snagged his first via a classic snap to close the gate on an interesting first half. At the long break, the Pianhas led the Tigers 4.5: 29 to 2.4: 16

Kastilahn urged his Piranhas to go for the throat as they had all the play and had held the Tiger ball movers well. Their forwards were active if inaccurate and the Piranha defence was miserly with DK, Cisco, Byron and MacGlashan all doing the job. On the other hand, a desperate Mustard looked for a spark anywhere and moved Drake away from the suffocating tag of Beau Rogers and onto Ternes and Jez into the middle as well as having new guy Arneau turn up along with game winner Craig Miller.

The third quarter marked a Tiger turn around as they started to run harder and hit harder than the shell shocked Piranhas. Tiger stars Uhlmann and Hoyt were on fire as well as Monico whose form in his first season is nothing short of remarkable. New gun Neil Morrisey started to pick Roofy apart, shutting him out of the game in a great performance by the new fella and all of a sudden the opportunities for the Piranhas started to dry up. Hoyt kicked his second and Uhlmann slammed on another as the Tigers shut out the Piranhas and at the orange break she was a three point game with the fading Piranhas hanging on 4.7: 31 to 4.4: 28.

The last quarter was a cracker with the Piranhas swinging MacGlashan up forward and with no options for the Tigers, he was picked up by Pat Hoyt who was giving away a mere 4 feet and 100 pounds to the big fella but managed to keep him quiet and in the process pick up a couple of kicks and timely marks which further frustrated the Piranha faithful. All of that MacGlashan height and muscle was felt by Morrisey as big Al let the Piranha frustration out with a hit for the ages that left the new fella seeing stars for a few minutes.

Best on ground Brian Hoyt booted his third to put the Tigers in front for the first time but the Piranhas hit back with a fortuitous goal to Ternes after a very deft pass from big Al. The final last frantic minutes were sensational as each teams backline stood tall as the midfields of each team ran themselves silly. The ball finally fell to a crumbing Jezza (playing for Lincoln Square) who after a bit of a duck and weave slammed on the winning goal (on the left boot just quietly) to allow the Tigers to run out 5 point winners, 6.6: 42 to 5.7: 37

A devastated Piranha team watched on as the Tigers marched into the second annual Metro grand final. This was certainly a bitter pill to swallow for a dominant piranha team that should have won this game. The last metro game is a big one indeed as the Piranhas look to rebound from this devastating loss to face the Rhinos in a game that will decide the Tigers opponent in the GF. The piranhas need a handy win while the Rhinos can be satisfied with a win, draw or slight loss although it is obvious they will be looking to put the result beyond doubt as soon as possible in that game. This is the perfect showdown at the business end of the season and all Rhinos and Piranhas are encouraged to turn up.

The battle of the MacGlashan medal heats up even more as both Hoyt and Roofy join Oscar and Gordo on 13 a piece and with his best on ground performance, Hoyt appears to be a front runner in the Burgmann Medal as well, particularly as the Rhino and Piranha playmakers struggle for consistency.

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