Couldn't get anyone to come with me to this one - they're all glad they stayed home, or whatever it else is they were doing, I'm sure.
Things I learnt:
We won't play finals.
Westies goals are effing massive.
Westies have the hottest drink runner in the league.
The deck in front of the past players' bar is the best place to view the game with a beer in hand in the SANFL, sorry Coopers Hill.
No matter how old they are, former players are just as big a bunch a kids around their team-mates as they ever were.
Ken Eustice has suffered nothing, in the eyes of his former team-mates, for all of his trials and tribulations over the past 20 years - they still revere and love him as much as they ever have.
The Gowans boys can charm anyone (I should've already known this).
After watching the Dogs' reserves squander a lead and then scramble a draw, I was hoping for a positive contest from our boys in the seniors.
It was a must-win game in the context of the season.
The opening two minutes showed promise, in that we were moving forward and sending the ball into attack - what looked like promise,though, was a portent for the remainder of the game, the scene was set.
We delivered poorly to our forwards and with poor delivery comes predictability. This continued throughout the game.
We don't have the big bodies up forward to just bang the ball into contests and Retzlaff really needs to become more imposing if that is to happen.
Once the Bloods hit the scoreboard, their confidence rose and we started chasing guernseys.
They kicked goals with just about every opportunity they had, whereas we were wasteful moving forward, not only missing targets over distance but also in close.
For the second straight week, we saw comical mishandling of the ball in the forward line, resulting in a missed opportunity to score - second quarter, Retzlaff to a running Bulldog. Instead of landing in space and allowing the ball to run forward and the player to run into an open goal, the ball was kicked high and arced to the side of our player who was quickly over run.
We produce plenty of forward entries but our delivery lets us down time and time again. With our talent pool of the moment, we need to kick all of our 'sodas' and we miss far too many of them.
Wasteful use of possession and allowing Westies to break tackles, or run past, with ease were major concerns.
How we controlled much of the second half but scored so little is an indictment.
Westies were good and co-ordinated, but we gave them so much latitude that they looked a premiership contender, not the previously winless side they were.
Surpisingly, we were considered a chance, given our flood of forward entries in the third, to sneak past Westies in the final term and there was a feeling among the Centrals supporters that anything was possible. However, the Bloods withstood the torrent and went on to bang five goals, while we recorded our second goalless term for the game.
Had a very brief chat with James Gowans during the last term.
He reckons he could still outplay half the side that was out there. You'd expect him to say nothing less, given the personality of the boy, but...he may just be right.
Thommo was gutsy and battled hard, Barmby is a rare shining light for us this season and Glenn had his moments. Hard to mention many others.
Second efforts ordinary, gut running lacking and football nouse not evident. Some of the young fellows are plain lazy and play bruise-free footy - but, are all of the senior players setting the right example for them?
I don't like to post negatively about the lads and have not had much reason too for quite a few years, but yesterday was one of the worst performances I've ever seen from a CDFC outfit. It was back to the footy the club played in my childhood, the style that left us in the wilderness for so many years.
If I didn't have such a strong supporter code, I'd have done a 'Crowparture' and packed up and left at half-time. I stuck it out to the bitter end.
It's a long way back for us from here and while I'm not writing the season off totally, I would hope our recruiters are already working hard for next season and those in charge of player development are working on getting that take-no-prisoners work ethic and culture back to what it was in the not-so-distant past.
And...another thing:
Seriously, leave the female umpire alone. Some of the verbal directed at her from supporters of all sides, including my own, during the games in which I've seen her officiate are just terrible.
It was hilarious yesterday hearing an older Westies supporter having a go at her when his side was already six goals up.
Give her a break, folks. I reckon she's actually not doing a bad job.