2-3 Loss Vs Legz Akimbo

CG (G), TH, RH, JH (1(MOM)), TW (1(MOM))

Where to begin……….. Jim had very sad news but we wish him and his family well with all the love the Nanna’s can give. Sorry we couldn’t bring it home for you on this night Jim.

Korean made us happier. Liquid nitrogen ice-cream put a smile on our faces and a few rounds of pool helped finish of the night.

Gilla wasn’t happy till he got his milkshake.

1-5 Loss Vs Rainmen FC

RH (1), CG(G), DC, AW, TW(MOM)

This was he one we need to win hopefully with ease. Not having played these guys myself I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Nanna’s did, however, beat them convincingly in our last encounter but as we know all to well that does not mean a win the second time around.

It appears they had some extra players with extra foot work. From the outset they were running everything down. They played a frantic game that sucked us into their own style that put us off. Their defence was effective and ours was lacking. To often watching the ball and not running back with our men. Leaving Gilla open.

Some great saves, and one extremely lucky save kept their scoring down.

Gill went for the screamer, as we know he loves to do, and took out one of their players but as a result that player came down hard on Gilla’s finger and fully dislocated it. On seeing this I wanted to spew just a little. It was right out and on a strange angle. Gilla was calling for help, “Pull it out, someone pull it out”. On this grabbed his finger and tried to pull as best I could but both our hands being as sweaty as they were allowed for no grip. The ref had to step in and have a tug. POP was the sound we could here and a look of relief came over Gilla’s face.

Gilla then went off for the rest of that half, not that there was much left of it. Amazingly, and deserving of the MOM in my opinion, he came back out for the second half, with a bag of ice in damaged hand, and played on for the rest of the game and again taking out another one of their players.

Captain got the only goal with a lovely flick of the ball from a lovely corner pass from the Coach.

The second half was better for us but in the end we had to take some chances if we were going to have a chance and we were punished for it.

This team have now jumped up a couple of places to 4th on the ladder and we are equal with them on points but they have left us in 5th place on percentage. We have some work ahead of us gentleman if we are going to make the finals.

• We have to learn to play our game and not our opponents.
• Keep a strong defence. Follow your man not the ball.
• Make the most of throw ins and free kicks by not taking too long on the passes.
• There should always be a Nanna following the ball into goals hoping for the pass across or at least there to pick up the spoils should there be a fumble.
• Not be afraid of the short passes and passing backwards. We don’t have to go forwards all the time. Often this is when we lose the ball.

6-3 Win Vs Here For Beer

CG (G), RH (1), DC (3), TW (3(MOM))

Four on Four,

Do we need anymore?

No says Illy,

No says Ziggy.

With Captain and Goalie Gill,

Best Looking and Cocky, what a thrill.

3-14 Loss Vs Jelapino Chino’s

DC 2 (MOM), RH (MOM), JH, GA, TW (MOM)

It was a night to hang ones head in shame. 4 on 4 was the call. Basically this should make it still and even game. We were missing a dedicated goalie, not trying to blame anybody….. but, and we were pretty flustered by the lack of the 5th player.

Unfortunately for us this fact didn’t seem to bother our opponents in the slightest. The flew around us with ease and slammed goals in at will.

To help with the chaos our opponents had a ring-in for a bit and we got Phil. Then Guido turned up for the last 10 minutes of the game, after being stuck in traffic, their ring-in left and Phil then played for the other team.

Who’s on whose team?? Who’s in goals?? Are my legs still moving?? Ouch there goes another ball past me!!

3 way MOM a good refection of how hard it was to vote for anyone.

vs FC Dalles (1-2)
CB, DC, CG, RH, TH(Coaching)TW, AW, TK1 (MOM)

Brunswick again. It is good to be back in here. Something feels right in this building. The poster of Kendo has been upgraded. It must be running very strong here. I hope more of young Aussies lean the beauty of Japanese sword fight and the spirits.

The night was one of the very warm summer night. Humidity is high as East Asia and almost all Nannas were on bike.
We were super 7. In good shape and in the good mood.

The opponent did not have enough player and Phil joined to save them. Ref offered us 2 points at the start because opponent was late and under numbered. What can we say! honorable Nannas never accept this type of offer 🙂 so the score started as 0-0

The game was very even. CB and DC had great pass works and got the goal really close. RH and TW were taking good control in the middle field. AW brought up the ball from side line many time and had very beautiful shot close to the goal. We just did not have good open space to score the goal. In fact, the defence of the opposition was tight and did right thing to block us out.

The first half, we had better opportunities to kick goals than other team and dominating the field but we somehow could not get score. The opposition had 2 goals. One was own goal and Phil’s cheeky heal kick from close. I must say these goals were just unlucky thing. The lucky thing was I received a great pass in front of opposition’s goal last half. No hustle from defense so I had a second to watch the goalie and gave him a quick faint move. He jumped to right. So I kicked the ball to the left corner to get easy target.

I have learnt 2 most basic things from this. To hit the target, the most important thing is not the skill of shooting but the skill to get close to your high score range. FBI does not carry many bullets for this reason. I know a goalie recently did hattrick, If you practice scoring goals long enough, you can archive it one day soon.

Another big thing is “It is very easy to kick a ball without having nasty hustle from defenders.” You are right. Imagine how easy this could be done from close range. No one is giving you elbows.

All I mean is “We never ever give this most luxurious sweet moments to oppositions.” We lose score when the defense is one step slower, when the defense can not keep up stopping simple counter attack.

The Union hotel was awesome. Good beer and food.

MOM: Walmartin
Report: unposted

vs Delphios 8-2 (Victory!!)
CB MOM, TH, CG 3, DC 2, TW 1, RH 1, JH 1

The return to Brunny. Nannas on bikes. Well, Tao, Rhian and Jim at least. El supporting fresh from the salon. He literally “just stepped out of the salon”. Other unobserved natural phenomena all contributing to the resulting result. Product of the man-made world. Nanna victory!

I had just dropped Sol and two of his teammates off to Basketball training and was working on an old technique: Mind over matter. Thought over cartilage. I coupled that with a Gilly vision: walking football*. And it lead to victory, no injury and a MOM. Bit of a mercy MOM but a MOM nonetheless.

The opposition were pretty handy with the ball. Fairly skilful in fact. The kind of team that could easily take us down in a parallel universe. Another day, another time. May be if El had played hooky from Salon Du Val. Or Tao hadn’t ridden. Or those seagulls hadn’t flown over the gymnasium at 1800 hours.

Daniel opened the scoring with what may have been the FGINH (Fastest Goal In Nanna History) (pronounced Ef Gin, like engine but with an Ef). And that goal, that FGINH may have been the morale engine for the match. Or the cheat code. From then on, the game was unlocked for the Nannas. Everything slowed down by about 15% for us. For the opposition the game continued in Real Time.

Gilly had reason to purr, leaving his mark on the game with a hat trick before scampering back to his coaching duties. The cloying aftermath of his pungent penetrations staining the nasal passages of the opposition like a reverberant olfactory tinnitus.

And then there was the other team’s ring-in getting all aggressive with taozza. Taozza of course standing his ground with maximum purplish turgidity.

6-1 at the half and the Delphios were looking about as insignificant as their name. (Which Google told me is a small town in Ohio that no one has heard of and no one will ever visit even if they have relatives there they’ll just pay to fly them out to their house for Christmas cos no one goes there and even the people that live there don’t even know what the town is called just like the dumb arse ring in that got all up in tao’s grill and didn’t know the name of the team he was playing for).

Second half,  we got two goals to their one, finishing with an 8-2 victory. Technical term: a smashing.

Aprés: the new clubhouse, the union hotel. Hobbling distance. Great great great.

*www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/10/walking-football-wins-over-older-men-to-new-form-of-the-beautiful-game

MOMs: TH, TK

Reports: Unposted, Unposted

nb: JH posted Report Part I with incorrect date  – since corrected, well done Jim, that’s why you’re in comms.

Attendees: DC, JH (MOM), TH (MOM), TK (MOM), RH, TW
Result: Nannas 2 plays Lieutenants 12

Well shit, this was a pretty crappy way to start the new year. Yes it was a thumping, and yes the Nannas did get pretty tired pretty quickly, trying to rescue a lost cause in stifling conditions. Tao, pre-match, was talking up his pre-2000 lungs but I think he got his numbers mixed up somewhere, for he like the rest of us did struggle to keep up with our direct opponents, especially in defence.
In attack, we didn’t look too bad, our passing was pretty good, we had movement and when Tommy slotted in an early one from a fine move it looked like we might get a couple.
But then reality struck. While our defence was pretty solid from restarts, when we gave away the ball away they hurt us, and like a jilted wife they hit us where it hurts. Time and again, we would lose the ball in mid-field and before we could say, ‘get the fuck back you fat, bloated, slovenly brown pieces of shit’ they would be up the other end putting the ball in the back of Kondo’s net. The classic example was when we were deep in their half looking likely, when a pass went astray. They picked it up, streaming forward three on one. They had no trouble getting past our last defender, isolating Kondo and sliding one home.
It was a pretty shit night for our number two keeper, who must have been thinking to himself, ‘don’t give it away, don’t give it away, oh shit, they’ve given it away again, oh shit, here are those four angry looking men running at me again with not a Nanna in sight, oh shit, I just hope they don’t pass it to that guy with the massive, exocet missile boot on him again. OH SHIT!!!!!!!’ I know I would have been shitting my dacks but Kondo like the man of massive cast-iron balls that he is kept fronting up, kept trying to save our bacon.
Anyhow, after we went down about half a dozen in the first half we were beaten and never really looked like pulling it back. We did get a late goal, or, more accurately, they scored an own goal off a Tao corner but that was it.
Maybe this is wishful thinking but I do feel like we could be competitive with those guys if we held on to the ball more and put a few more men back in defence. Or maybe they are just deceptively good, lulling you into a false sense of security until all of a sudden you are down about ten without feeling you have played that badly. It’s probably the latter.

mom: Captain
report: unposted

1-4 v Glorious Leaders
8.40pm – Debney Park
CB, DC(m), RH(1,m), TK, AW – PT(r)

Five whole Nannas™ managed to make the game this week. Outrageous. So with the addition of new ring-in Paul we even had a sub, which was a good thing considering Chasby was playing with Oscar Pistorious’ legs and a spinal theatre injury and I was playing with 3 broken ribs. The early stages of the game saw some sloppy old-man-Nanna play and 3 soft goals go in. The opposition had some moves but not really the sort of moves to justify the scoreline. We were also slightly unlucky in front of goals with a number of shots hitting the metalwork. At half time Captain™ called for more intensity in our tackles and led by example with some extremely committed hustling at one pointing breaking a former ring-in’s toe (I know that pain…). Most Glorious Leader® also put away the only brown goal of the evening with the beautifully angled deflection of a pass/shot from the author. The game ended 1-4. Paul sustained a ‘groin’ strain which adds more weight to Frasay’s telekinetic reaching abilities. Kondo made some fine stops and was generally immense in Goals. Chasby’s lightness of foot belied his fugitive fitness and Wal put in one particularly sweet long distance backdoor cross-court trademark.

The Après found us drinking bargain 500ml bottles of Four Pines on a skanky rubbish littered bench in North Fitzroy. Dirty Dave-from-Carolina had the temerity to close shop early. The MOMs took photos with author’s Flash Gordonesque vaporising camera and proceeded to talk shit at the other Nannas until an old grandpa in his pyjamas came and (very politely) scared them off…

A long time a go in a galaxy far far away. The Nanna’s came head to head against a deadly force. It was a clash of good and evil, a fight to the death. It was a long and ferocious battle, bloody and sweaty. The Nanna’s were losing the battle, getting pummelled, but the did not give up. The come back started when Daniel Crooks, one of the five Jedi’s leapt ten meters into the air coming down behind the enemy and slew one of the four sith. We kept fighting and noticed that they were getting tired, but we were too. We kept pressing, then Tao saw an opening and went for the kill, but we were still losing the fight. I was in heavy combat with an enemy and was about to take a hit but Andy bravely jumped in front of me and got a nasty cut to his side. In the end, when we couldn’t take another step the sith fled. And the system was rid of 2 powerful sith. 

But I have a feeling that we will meet again. 

Match Report by Elliot Crooks

(ed: youngest Nanna debut at 13 years and 174 days)

Attendees: CG, JH (MOM), TK, TW,

Result: Nannas 4 plays Dynamo Tehran 6

Will the Nannas ever learn?
A great sports coach once said that you cannot play without the ball. In almost fourteen years of play, the Nannas still haven’t heard this, understood it or brought this basic of soccer into their game. It’s simple: if you keep giving the ball to the opposition, and you do not have it yourself, you can never be competitive.
Thursday night was another classic example. Whether it was our goalie constantly kicking it away, or one of our mid-fielders passing it to no one, again and again we gave the ball on a silver platter to the opposition and invited them with open arms to come at us, which they gleefully did.
On the face of it, the score line for tonight’s game does suggest that the Nannas were in the match but you would be wrong: we never had the ball; they were always in control. It was theirs to lose, never ours to win.

Where is the run going to come from?
There are one or two brown men (okay, most of us) that can hardly muster a trot these days let alone run at top pace, or do that for a full thirty-six minutes. Yes, as much as it hurts to say, the Nannas were consistently a good metre or so behind their direct opponents for most of this evening. They just couldn’t keep up.
And when we were in attack, well, let’s just say that there wasn’t much running around opponents or making darting runs from deep on goal.
I know the Nannas have done a lot of sprint work in the off-season but it really hasn’t helped and the truth has to be faced: the Nannas are getting old and slow.

Will the core of the side ever return?
The Nannas seem like a broken up band that reform only sporadically only to go their separate ways again straight after the gig. Yes once upon a time, there was a core side of Nannas that turned out every week. They were brave and true and lived for Thursday nights.
But the years have changed us. As they have rolled by the excuses have mounted, artistic pretension and work have gotten in the way, one moved far from the city and another overseas, and others, well, their bodies just fell apart.
Do you remember the full team sub, or the sub sheet?

When does a man know to quit?
Steven Waugh was once the greatest cricketer on earth. He brought the Windies back to earth, he flogged the Poms and then flogged them again, and he just loved to grind the Kiwis into the dirt. His ability was natural, his hunger for the game unsurpassed, his fight legendary. But then one day he found that he couldn’t do it anymore. It was like the bat had somehow become different in his hands and he couldn’t wield it like he once used to: he was getting old. Bowlers that he used to flay began to get the better of him. Crowds started hoping instead of expecting. Where once he was feared, respected and hated, suddenly he had become someone to shuffle along, to let a younger, quicker man take his place. The parallels with the Nannas are eerie.
Of course, most of us don’t really want to acknowledge it and we still think we are competitive mainly because of our supremely gifted keeper (keepers can keep playing until they’re fifty, mainly because they hardly ever run), who usually keeps opposition tallies to under ten (when most of the time they should be in the teens or twenties) but we never win anymore, or if we do it’s not like we ever string two, or three together. And the finals, when was the last time we made those? Was it three years ago, or four?
It’s a hard thing when a man doesn’t know it’s time to quit. Steve Waugh knew it, but didn’t want to admit it and he spent those last few years battling demons, his body as well as the quicks that bounced balls around his forehead and an ever impatient public. I say again, the parallels with the Nannas are eerie.

Does Brown always equal futsal?
The question has been asked before and it will be asked again: for the Nannas to remain the Nannas does futsal always have to play a part? Or put another way, will the Nannas still be the Nannas if we aren’t in a structured competition and called the Nannas by another team?
And what does happen when we can’t play soccer anymore, or if only one or two us can still play? Does one, two or three really constitute a full brown team? And let’s not fool ourselves; we are not far off this now.
The Nannas (apparently) have an upper management but if they were really managers (like real managers) surely there would be a succession plan in place. The business case would have been written already: the SWOT analysis would have been done, the case for and against argued and settled, the restructure taken to HR, the stakeholders consulted, the finances found.
Maybe it’s happening already, and it’s the calm before the storm, and they are just waiting for the right time to announce. I for one hope it’s sooner rather than later. I know the impacts will be great, and the shock will be felt far and wide, but it’s long over due and Upper Management knows it, well, they should.

CG (G), TW, JH, TH, HC (MOM)

5-0 loss Vs ??

When I was a young boy I wanted to be many important things, a policeman, a doctor or a science fiction cartoon writer. But over all else, I wanted to be brown and proud. 

The game was a great effort against the odds, with no subs and a fresh recruit, The Nanna’s put up a fight that regrettably, wasn’t converted on the scoreboard. 

In the first half plays were set up deep out of defense with Gil consistently making risky saves and creating quick attacking plays. There were a few close shots including a near miraculous header from Tom, and a goal throw from Gil that went the length of the field and hit the back of the net, but was disallowed because the ball had not been touched (although with the size of that goalie standing in the way, I couldn’t guess how it wasn’t)

Come second half the lack of legs and fresh team-lineup started to get to us and the lead slowly crawled out to the final score of 5-0 although, Tao made some tremendous plays down the corridor and Jim was able to continuously push between attack and defense in an attempt to support the young ill-prepared defender whilst providing an attacking force.

Although the scoreboard reflected a loss, the game was a great win for the inevitable amalgamation of the Veteran Nanna’s with their second up and coming generation. 

I look forward to learning the ropes, and earning a stripe or two in future Nanna’s Matches

Reboot (Harry)

Attendees: JH (MOM), RH, AW, TW, DAVE
Result: Nannas 5 plays Here for Beer 9

So the two teams that played each other only last week, turned out to do battle once again on the hallowed halls of Dawson Street. Except episode two of Nannas versus Here for Beer saw significant changes to both sides. Apparently, or so I was told before the game, the Nannas were fielding a much stronger side, albeit not in our goalkeeping department. The opposition, I was told after the game, had a much-improved line up. One individual in particular, who was not on their team sheet last time out, was here this week, and he was far above anything the Nannas could bring to bear.

As it turned out, these changes in personnel were to have a significant impact on the game, which leads me to goal keeping. So, as the first Nanna goalkeeper selected, I was feeling confident. I thought, if Gilla can do it, then surely I can too. But then in the warm up as Tao started pinging balls past me I started to think, shit, Gilla might be better than me at something (because he will never beat me at golf or table tennis), and so it went in that first half as four went in, which I hardly got a gloveless hand to. Admittedly I was left one on one with the opposition on two occasions after errant back passes but they did score off a re-start (which is a goal keeping cardinal sin); I thought I had it, I thought I had it, but then it hit my hands and went through them.

The other feature about that first half was the Nanna impotency in attack. Maybe it was just hard to see from the keeper’s box but the Nanns in the first half did seem to have trouble holding the ball or, for that matter, penetrating with it. You could say that they were like men without balls: somewhat cowered, almost totally emasculated and with no outlet for any type of release (not that there seemed anything to release). Tao did get one late in those first eighteen minutes saving the Nanna manhood but we took it to the break 4-1.

At the interval, the Captain asked Izzy (the future hope of the Nannas) if he had any words of wisdom for us (which, at the time, was an interesting choice. Was the Captain making a comment on his own Captaincy, or on the Nannas in general?) But maybe the Captain is onto something because Izzy just shrugged his shoulders, and all the Nannas seemed to understand.

The Captain, though, did make one change at half time, switching goalkeepers. This had a positive effect, in that the Nannas’ balls seemed to drop, and we started to get back into the game. I started things off with my first touch, getting the ball just inside their half, going past two, and then slotting home from close range.

Then I got another; Dave fed a sweet pass to me just at the top of their keepers box, and all I had to do was bang it into what appeared to be a gaping hole in their box, which I duly did. Most satisfying. Then Dave and Tao got two more, both from long-range.

It could be said that we were starting to have our way with the opposition and in attack we were. Yet in defence we were still pretty shit, as they kept scoring. After Tao got his goal it was 7-5 and we had hit four in quick time, but they had got three. It was their man, that didn’t play last week. He was doing to the Captain what he did to me in the first half: pinging them in from all over the place and generally ruining his confidence in ever playing goalie again.

So Andy, seeing that we might need a self-assured fifth-choice keeper sometime in the future, took over from him. Also at this time we were trying to get that elusive sixth goal and mounted attack after attack but to no avail. I had the ball deep in their half down the right hand side. I remember trying to turn my opponent, which didn’t work, so then I tried to pass but only gave up possession, and their man scored again. They got one more after this, effectively killing off the contest: we had shot our load and couldn’t come back.

The final act of the game was Andy saving a shot with his nuts (which was all balls of him [no pun intended]) and very symbolic of the Nanna’s night: he gave his all to the Browns (he really did) only to end up prostrate on the ground writhing in agony, his legs in the air, his testis retreating somewhere deep within his stomach.

He did get up again and hopefully his nuts came back down too.

4-2 Win Vs Glorious Leaders

RH (1), DC, TH (G), CB, JH (1(MOM)), TW (2(MOM))

There was some trepidation on arrival that we might be up for a big game against the top of the ladder. As it turned out this was somewhat unfounded and they were not in fact the top of the table team and it would seem the Captian was hanging from his IronMan Gravity 4000 Inversion Table while checking the leaderboard.

While this team were in fact the bottom of the ladder it took us a little while to realise that they were not going to pose a huge threat and therefore we held back for a while allowing the opposition some time to build there confidence. Had we known they were shit I’m sure we would have gone out there with more confidence and agility.

That was the first half and we were ahead by a a few goals to nil, should have been more. The second half things were a bit more energetic especially as our opponents made a bit of a comeback. That got a bit of a spring in everyones step except for Cocky who got yet another kick in the foot. Seems that foot has been targeted for a while now. Do you think the other teams are doing some background research on us? Possibly reading our blog or infiltrated the forum? Decided they had to take out our striker?

In the end we managed to keep them at bay. Allowing them only 2 goals but we really should have used the opportunity to increase our percentage.

Every game should be played as though the team we are playing is the bottom of the table and go out hard for the flu 36 minutes.

Attendees: CB, DC, JH (MOM), RH, TH, TW (MOM)

Result: Nannas 4 versus someone 2

This was a slow evening for the Nannas. We were slow, very slow. Slow in our passing, slow in our movement, slow in our thought processes, slow in our everything really. I do think there were one or two Nannas who were slower than the rest (Cocky) but we did look a little worn around the edges, and this only got worse as the game went on (I am pretty sure it had something to do with the weekend’s activities, which most of us were probably still struggling to get over).

Surprising, and somewhat unexpectedly, the opposition were slower than us. For some reason we were led to believe that we were playing the top-of-the-table side. I think this may have been a ruse on the Captain’s part to keep us on our toes and for the first five or ten minutes I kept expecting them to flick a switch and do something special. But special really wasn’t in their makeup and I think from the very beginning, we knew we could (should) beat them.

I started the scoring. We were attacking their goal and we had a shot that was deflected by their keeper out to our left, where I was standing. I could see the keeper was off his line, so I slid the ball in behind him and into the net. The next two goals I am bit fuzzy on but I do remember one where there was some fine interplay, and we had about four or five passes before we tapped in (but I am not sure who did the tapping). This goal though was indicative of the first half: we seemed to have a lot of the ball, a lot of control and all the shots, and they had nothing. We went to the break three zip up.

For the opening of the second half, I think I put the mocker on the Nannas by saying that we could not let them score in the first few minutes because that’s exactly what they did, pretty much straight after the resumption of play. It was a soft goal and I remember distinctly many Nanna heads held in shame after that one.

They got the next one too (it was 3-2) and again it seemed soft but if the truth be told we really should have put the game out their reach by then. We had our fair share of opportunities but the final pass kept going missing or our shot was off target (an effort from the Captain was a notable example here; on one occasion mid way through the second half he only had the keeper to beat and he went for power from about five metres out but he only managed to hit side netting). This is where the aforementioned Nanna slowness really came into effect. The space we had in the first half, the passes that were sticking, the reading of the game, the shots that were on target, all went missing.

So, there was about five minutes to go and it was getting a little desperate. Sure, we were in front (by a goal) but they were coming and we were slowing and then slowing some more, and there was a feeling like they would get the better of us. Then Tao intervened with the goal of the game. Coach passed him the ball on the left hand touchline just inside his own half. A member of the opposition was on his six so Tao kicked it once, up in the air, to control it. Then he kicked it again in the air, but backward this this time and over the head of the guy who was marking him. From there it was two on one. Tao drew their last man in defence passing to Hinkley, who only had to beat the keeper, which he did (this time). 4-2. The Nannas were home. Everyone went home and slept soundly.

Ok, it took a little time to work that out and I’m sure there must be s simpler quicker way than the path I chose but here they are. But a few of the pics I have of you fools from over the years.

CG (G), DC (1), RH (1), TH, AW, TW (MOM(1)), GF

I should have written this earlier It’s tot late my eye lids are closing and all I see is just lots of black. But who am I to complain as that’s nothing compared to the blackness Gilla experienced while trying to hold back the last goal of the match. Diving forward to keep his attacker at bay his head collided with his opponents knee. Before anyone knew what had happened Gilla was just lying there somewhat concussed. Laying flat not the ground just inside the D, we were flabbergasted. This had never happened before in the history of the Nanna’s. A broken bone here or there sure (or for some a bruised bone, huh whatever). This was taking it the a new level of commitment. Trying to take your opponent out with your head was truly showing your brown colours.

Besides this the game was a little disappointing. Our opponents weren’t bad but we should’ve had them. It could have been ours but we just didn’t want it nearly as much as Gilla wanted to save that last goal. And if he had it would have been a draw but let’s not dwell on that.

On a happier note Jim finally officially turned 40 and received his Nanna present. I guess this means he is now truly a full blooded Nanna. Just don’t let him know. The party was great. Great food, grey company and great inter-Nanna games of soccer. All got very messy new the end as it so often does. The only thing missing was a bit of a wrestle from Dan and Chas. But that was looking unlikely with the pair jerking each other off talking about how great the other is on the court. The mutual admiration was kind of cute at first but then became quite sickening after about an hour.

None the less another successfully executed 40th Nanna’s.

3-5 Loss Vs The Bulls

CB (1), DC (1), RH, TK (G), AW, TW (1(MOM))

It was a night against our old foes from the days of the pits. The old Bulls. Though there seems to be only one old bull that I recognise still playing on the team and that would be the old ref.

We did play them only 2 weeks ago and my calf had only just repaired from their crazy goalie kicking the crap out of it. But this was the first official game against them and, for that matter, the first official game inout new league back with APISC but still northside. Better court, better lighting, better organisation and just a better vibe all round.

We played a very good game. Our defence was pretty good and we managed to get in the goalies face a bit and got a few past him. He wasn’t cracking as many gags as in our warm up match. The seriousness of this match had dawned on him and he saw us as a real threat.

Though anytime we looked a little threatening they seemed more than capable of cutting through and giving themselves a coupe of goals breather.

A little tighter in the back and some assistance up front and they are team we might just pip to the post.

I was unable to go on the cook as I raced of to meet up with a bucks dinner and then drinks, and more drinks and then a little mens gallery before getting home around 5.30 the next morning. Why don’t more friends get married??