Broadview Hawks Football Club

Blues Unable to Shutdown the Hawks' Momentum September 15th, 2009

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A game of surprises and firsts would be the best way to describe the final regular season game for the Hawks. The Central Blues were to battle it out with Broadview on the Hawks' home ground at U of T Scarborough for Round 14. Again, the footy gods were smiling down with a bright blue sky with the odd random cloud drifting awkwardly along, wondering where all his mates had gone. Statistically, in order claim 5th place, the Blues needed to win this game with 116 pts while completely shutting out the Hawks of points. Basically, Central needed to have the best game of their entire season in order to advance in the standings.

The first quarter saw a certain kind of magic occur on the field again. Like the week before against the Dingos, the ball was constantly being both won and kept in possession by the Hawks. Not only was Broadview hungry for the ball but also being smart in keeping the ball with only yellow and brown jumpers. The end of the first quarter saw the Hawks having scored 4 goals and 2 behinds to the Blues' solitary goal.

The second quarter was the beginning of the oddball events that would continue into the night. There was the emergency player switch off, as Stefan "forces recovering alcoholics to go to open bar functions" Leyhane had lost a contact and luckily had an emergency pair ready to go. There was the crushing collision between Danny "Flip-flops are Business Casual" Walker, some poor Blues player in the middle, and Sven "Random is an Understatement" Henrycoff of which to the Blues player's credit was able to walk away from said Terminator muscle manwich. And, of course, how could we forget the possibility of the game being halted until another umpire could arrive as the umpy had to call time for his own possible sprained ankle. One Hawk fan said she had never seen such a thing in 12 years of watching footy. This quarter the Blues floored the gas and activated their nitrous oxide only to be returned in kind by the Hawks; this quarter was more of a see-saw duel rather than the domination experienced in the first quarter.

The next half saw one of the best ball punches seen this season. Not only did the ball punched by Mark "King Kong" Leyhane fly out of the grasp of a Blues' full forward by what seemed at least quarter of the field, but also it bounced perfectly into the hands of on-baller Fraser "Death Metal" Nicholson-Bliesner, who conducted it further upfield. Another first for this reporter's eyes was when Aubrey "Save Everything Living on Planet Earth" Harris received a cheap shot knee to the ribs. For a moment, it was terrifying: a man with a Gandhi temperament seemed to have turned into an Incredible "You won't like me when I'm Angry" Hulk and was on the verge of ripping off the culprit's arms and beating the remaining body, using the torn off arms as clubs. Instead, he kicked a goal. The third quarter saw a Broadview domination for the majority of the 20 minutes with the Blues firing all engines near the end.

After another see-saw evenly matched quarter in the fourth, the Hawks achieved a resounding victory with a 40 point surplus over the Blues. What makes the win even more exciting is that the Hawks have the capability to play better; the things that were really making the magic happen wasn't happening all the time. If the Hawks can have all their engines firing in unison (keeping the talk up and being there for every play) come the playoffs, they will definitely be a contender.

After the last three games, one almost wonders if this had been the plan all along. Much like a pool shark in a bar, it almost seems possible that the Hawks executive's strategy was to feign a weak side to the entire OAFL in order to capitalize on underestimating opponents when it really mattered.

Later that night, 14 Hawks and Hawkettes attended the OAFL Awards ceremony in style arriving in a luxurious stretch limo. Apologies had to be constantly made to the driver for a coach who had no idea where the Cool Brewery was and yet was still giving directions. Nick "I sometimes get mistaken for a Giraffe" Shuttleworth claimed the Leading Goalkicker Award while he and Stefan "the darkest I can go is Mayonnaise white" Leyhane placed in the OAFL All-star team. In other achievements, it looked like Danny "I eat more than Oprah" Walker was able to eat his fill for a growing boy his age. And definite props need to be shouted out to OAFL President, Scotty "You don't need to know the rules of footy to be president" Jobin-Bevans for actually managing to silence a room full of football players well into their drink at an open bar party. Many firsts, many feats... a good day, all in all.