What a game'. I'll never forget it War from the beginning, with the Vics against the rest of Australia The Vics have acquired a mobster image because they all look like weight lifters and pack like thugs. Against them Tassie had Keith Midson Derek Heiden and Richard Lane rotating between Left wing and Centre Garry Davidson and James Nye subbing on the right wing, and Jason Lord Colin Hepher Steve Cleary and Rowan Bridley rotating through the back line. They clashed on the 4th January at the open air Long Tan pool in Townsville, on a warm balmy night.
The Vic game plan was to take the puck straight to the wall batter it along to the comer then drive it into the tray. This required a highly disciplined pack rotation. One forward on the puck, one rotating with him to move in behind the puck two backs side by side sweeping the puck forward along the line when it spilled hack and the off-winger scavenging the fray keeping the opposition out and the puck in, works brilliantly. It was just impossible to get the puck off the wall. The Vics immediately swarmed out angrily and snatched it back, and in this way they controlled the game. Tasmania Couldn't get their open game going at all. which became infuriating. After an intense fifteen minutes, something in te Tasmanian back line broke. and a goal spilled into our tray. And all this time the crowd began to swell behind the Tasmanian goals.
After that the game got dirtier. The Vics are renowned for their rough play but at this level once an infringement occurs its next instance is rewarded with one or two minutes in the Sin bin. Going down the line all the time, the gloving was frequent there
were common obstructions, dangerous flicks, deliberate outs, back-chatting the umpire, you name it. Tasmania lost Jason for a minute on a "deliberate out", but the Vics lost 9 man minutes in the Bin with six men being thrown out. which gives you an idea of the game intensity. It didn't really matter on the wall, the Vics simply packed their remaining five men closer and mauled harder. The game continued furiously through the second half with the puck moving maybe up to a foot off the wall, and swaying across the halfway line.
It began to rain, warm rain, with distant lightning flashes. Down below the Battle of Hastings crashed on. One of the Vics caught a puck in the mouth in front of goals and was dragged moaning from the pool, amidst furious screams of "Deliberate dangerous flick!" from the Vics but it wasn�t. Collin's flick had deflected off a Vic bat and speared up into another Vics mouth accidentally. The guy had a nasty cut lip, but no other damage, although at the time in the emotion of the moment people were searching for his tongue and checking his vital signs The umpires were excellent thankfully, not bowing to the emotional pressure at all.
Two minutes before the end of the game Keith and Richard fought the puck along the Victorian back wall, where it suddenly popped out into the D, and lay innocently in front of goal completely undefended. Not quite believing it, Garry flicked it in, fumbling it across the tray. Huge spectator roar! Slow deliberate swim back and a relieved slide out of the pool. Joyful slaps and congratulations all round. The full-time buzzer sounded signalling 1-all, and the ten minutes of extra time began.
Nothing changed. Tasmania tried everything to drag the puck from the wall, but it magnetically returned immediately. The girls behind the Tasmanian goal were cheering frantically now. They had been pushed back by the umpires so the subbing could be checked (and in fact at one confused stage Tasmania had seven in the water, which the umpires fortunately missed). Everyone but the Vics chanted for Tassie, while the Vic supporters huddled on the other side of the pool yelling back The noise was swirling and enormous, sometimes hysterical.
At the end of extra time no goals had been scored. Now it was sudden death, next goal wins. Tasmania tried flicking wide, to score the swim-away, but the Vics caught the play and dragged it back towards the Tasmanian goal There were a couple of great saves on the tray, and then I remember swift passes by Victoria, a skirmish, and a sharp rattle in our tray from the puck ...... it was over. The screaming of the disappointed crowd washed over us the Victorians went wild with jubilation. Some of us threw our heads back and slid our masks off.
And then ....... as the noise subsided, we realised that one umpire only had one arm up, not two, and he�s yelling "Goal disallowed, goal disallowed!".
Return from the dead! A furious dispute erupted from the Victorian captain coach, which was overwhelmed by the roar of delight from the Tasmanian supporters. But the puck was gloved in and that's that. Thank goodness for good umpires.
The war began again and now the Victorians were REALLY mad, though tiring. Tasmania battled the puck back into Vic territory, while the minutes ticked past. The game clock showed 50 minutes of play. The play drew closer to the Vic goals and then drifted away, came close again then drifted away. The noise of the crowd beat against the players relentlessly. Then the play passed across the front of the Victorian goal and there was a long moment of flurried boiling water with no one at all on the surface, one of those really extended moments when the crowd looks and hopes, looks and hopes. then finally! the umpires burst to the surface with their arms goaling up and the entire crowd exploded around the pool, as Tasmania beat the Vics 2-1! Rowan had swam across the back of the D, and flicked the winning goal.
The atmosphere of the game was frantic, a titanic struggle. It was a rotten game to play, but a fantastic game to win. Tasmania lost the Grand Final to Western Australia the following morning, but it seemed like the grand final was the previous night, everyone was a bit flat going into that last game. One lesson that has come out the Victorian match is that we�ve got to find easier ways of keeping the puck off the wall, or we�ll go crazy! Then we�ll have to beat the Wazzies.
Tasmania versus Victoria - first semi final.
The celebrations afterwards!
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