Message from the Prez – Raffle Ticket Stubs Due This Wednesday
Everyone who has bought tickets in the GWS raffle and sold them on must return them no later than tomorrow (Wednesday 25th June) or you will be executed. Sounds serious, do it. See you at training.

Over 55s Reflection by Dusty
The Warriors forsook their home ground advantage (due to a lack of hot water, OMG are we getting soft or what!) and instead travelled to Beaconsfield on Sunday in a clash that was always going to be a challenge.  In bright sunshine, with no players on the bench, we took on the ladder leaders in a gritty encounter that reflected the Warrior values of courage, persistence, respect and preparedness to do almost anything to justify having a beer in the middle of the day.

Trotting to my now familiar place in the backline I noticed that the many of the Beaconsfield players were quite big.  I found myself standing someone a little taller and more athletic, so I swapped with Bruisa and then set about keeping a slightly shorter man quiet.  It was not easy, Beaconsfield were dominant in the ruck and the ball was arriving in the backline pretty frequently.  We defended grimly, Dave H was particularly grim, Pas was dour, Jezza was stern, Bruisa was formidable and Kenny was… Kenny.  An adjective in his own imagination.  I took a couple of marks, slipped a pass off to CT who, despite sporting a collection of support bandages that made him look like a robot, was his usual elusive self.  My man had kicked a goal, which was a little disappointing – for a moment I forgot where I was at a boundary throw in – he waved at me from the other side of the pack as he gathered the ball and slotted an easy goal. 

The second stanza we were better.  Killer and Sammy were combining well in the middle and reading the opposition ruckman well. Thommo, whose odd, sloping running style makes him deceptively difficult to tackle was finding space and our short kicking game was starting to work.  The only problem with a short kicking game is that it takes a long time to get to the other end.  It’s a bit like rolling a succession of ones in Ludo, or trying to hop to the letterbox for the mail.  But we kicked our first goal for the game, so it was definitely working.  Magoo, was providing a target up forward, and was our best scoring avenue. Marko was getting into dangerous positions – his handsome coiffure, muscular physique and strong jawline a feature as always. If we had been a bit cleaner with the ball we might have scored more, we went into the half time break trailing but still proud of our efforts.  

The half time break seemed very short, I nearly choked on my lolly snake when we were told to get back out there.  Fitzy ran onto the ground still holding one in his hand and chewing furiously on another.  I needed more time to mentally prepare myself, to find my Zen centre and have a wee before hostilities resumed again.  

The second half was similar to the first, Beaconsfield were a bit too slick but we battled on bravely. I was keeping my man under control, and picked up a few kicks along the way.  I combined nicely with Jezza, a sweeping handball as he ran past.  I thought he wanted the ball, but it turned out he was just trying to get out of the backline into his more familiar territory in the forward pocket. At three quarter time Magoo gave us an instruction, “pick up the ball”.  (His strategic insight is nothing short of remarkable.) This seemed like a good idea and I committed myself to doing it – it very nearly worked.  As the ball rolled around in the back pocket with a Warrior and his opponent battling, I thought; “Here is my chance to pick up the ball”.  As I bent down and put my hands on the pill I was flushed with a feeling of imminent success… and then Bruisa crashed into me. As his knee connected with my temple I had a brief vision of a bright light, as I rolled backwards and his other knee connected solidly with my solar plexus I thought I heard birdsong.  Lying on the ground, I looked up at the endless blue sky and the infinite wisdom of the heavens and realised I had found my Zen centre.  I was reminded of the old Buddhist saying: “You will find enlightenment when you need it.”  Luckily Bruisa kneed me.

We battled it out through the last quarter, Damo tireless in the ruck as always and Fitzy continuing to provide run and energy right up to the final siren.  It was great to have Grunta running water out to us and giving us encouragement when our heads began to droop.  You could see the look in his eye, “just wait till my next birthday”.  Then he will join the brave band of Warriors that form the nucleus of the 55s. Beaten but unbowed we look ahead to the next contest.