West Coast will be back

It’s often funny how the margin between elation and devastation can be so slender. If you asked John Worsfold what that margin is, he’d tell you four points.

That’s right: one straight kick. We’ve all harped on about what a tremendous team performance Sydney turned in on Saturday, and we’ve all put on our coaching caps and pinpointed exactly where it all went wrong for the Eagles, but when it all boils down, it was one measly straight kick at goal.

Michael Gardiner hit the post in the first term. Drew Banfield clipped the woodwork in the last quarter. Amon Buchanan snuck through the winning goal when an extra coat of varnish would have brought the same result as the aforementioned two.

For all the talk about the Sydney’s heroes and West Coast’s villains, that’s how tight the margin really was.

If Banfield’s running effort had squeezed its way through, would we be talking about how lucky Chris Judd was to win the Norm Smith medal? If Gardiner had slotted that first quarter set-shot, would we be picking apart his performance?

Not even that, but all that was needed was a clean Brent Staker gather in the final term, and his match winning abilities would be lauded, rather than a couple of silly errors being highlighted.

Those critics would instead turn on Luke Ablett for his misdirected pass to Ben Cousins. Instead, because of just four behinds, his kick will be forgiven, while Gardiner, Banfield and Staker won’t be.

Of course, it would be incredibly unfair to deny the Swans their song. They were magnificent; a platoon of mates going into battle with one another, and lifting in the final ten minutes when it looked like the game may have slipped away. That is what champions are made of.

However, it is sad that in a grand final decided by less than a kick, the winners are without fault and the losers are without mercy. Fair? No, but that’s the way it is.

Worsfold may rue going into the game without his two leading goal kickers on the season, and West Coast fans all over will rue the influential Daniel Kerr copping two nasty knocks in the first half and Michael Braun missing the game with a knee injury.

However, big changes don’t need to be made. We can all play armchair experts - West Coast’s forward line isn’t reliable enough, their spine isn’t good enough and they lack defensive depth – but they have just lost a Grand Final by less than a kick.

They may change nothing, arrive at the last Saturday in September in 2006, and watch as a couple of shots at goal sneak in while their opposition hits the woodwork. They may give up the proverbial kitchen sink for a Lance Whitnall or a Brendan Fevola and find that playing to a target man doesn’t suit their style of play.

Sydney has the spoils for twelve months and deserves every one of them, but while we cast a scornful eye over the Eagles, just remember that the placement of a single tall white stick stood between a premiership and heartbreak.

They will be back next season hungrier than ever, and while no one seemingly remembers who finished second, someone should when the margin is that small.

Related Articles:

Once an ugly duckling, now the pride of two cities (Sun Sep 25)
Player Rankings for the 2005 Grand Final (Sat Sep 24)
Seventy-Two So Sweet for Swans (Sat Sep 24)

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