They both have similarities.
After monumental victories over the auld enemy, Scottish armies, non paid had to retire from the battle field to tend to their families needs, crops etc.
Carnoustie after a fantastic victory retire to what seems to come naturally, massaging their ego.
If you have advanced so far over the weeks, beating the top team what better way to celebrate. Get your feet up and chill out for the week. Cool beans.It makes sense.NOT
Its obvious it doesn't work. We need to realise after coming off the pitch against Alloa, that what seemed like a 100% effort from 15 men probably wasn't that true. Some put more in than others.
I always thought that when I entered the privileged position of being a 1st 15 player, I would have to fight for my position tooth and nail. Obviously not being the most talented player, you have to train harder and play harder. From the Ist game at 17 to the age of 32 I never came off the pitch or never called off even though I was ruined on numerous occasions. Totally discarding my injuries and concussions. Until a cup game against Cowdenbeath I came off with 5 minutes to go with a dead leg. George Taylor started laughing, being the historian he said that's the first time you have retired from the field of play. I didn't even realise as all I wanted was to nail the opposition. I know I'm a muppet LOL and you would be mad to follow.
Its not supposed to be a boast, but a reflection on how I committed my life to the team. I have a stupidly partisan attitude as well, but that's just me.
So when you think you're just there to make up the numbers you're not. These sort of attitudes do the team no good at all. Every player is there to make his mark on the team. Every player has a responsibility.Every game is different, some Saturdays we may not field potentially the best team, but these are the opportunities given to the team of the day.
We are in the transition this year of building and improving the team on the field and off. Its happening, but we are just asking for a bit more of faith in yourselves.
As you read the blog (if anyone is) its not all negative, this year so far I have enjoyed myself meeting up with old friends and meeting new. Its a great feeling to be involved in the club.
The only draw back was sitting in the van coming back from Waid with John, I'm glad I didn't have any razor blades. Talk about taking a defeat hard. Its shows that during our youth someone must have dropped some sort of bitter mind altering drug on Carnoustie which has effected Billy, John and me. To name just a few (wink).I couldn't get to sleep last night thinking about Saturday.
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Since I was also pretty stunned and had to depart straight afterwards (later to be hosed down with vomit!), I didn't really get a chance to talk to anyone about the game which was a bit frustrating.
Your blog, as always, is thought provoking, however I think you may be "doon the wrong dreel". Whilst I agree that commitment (we played in the same team for many of your years, so I know what your talking about) is essential, I don't think that was what was missing on Saturday. I think we had a team there who could've (and to be honest if we'd not run our kickable penalties), should've, won the game. What was missing for me was........guile.
"insidious cunning in attaining a goal; crafty or artful deception; duplicity."
It's a small word but it makes a big difference in the scheme of things. If you have a bit of it, you can turn things around despite the odds. We were the better team on the day and played the better rugby, what we lacked was an ability to impart our "will" onto the game. For 15 minutes it looked as though there would be a cricket score in our favour....then came the guile. They tied the ball in and we didn't adapt and seemed unable to counter this tactic. It's a time when you rely on the "old heads" to settle things down, spot the change in gameplan and put it into action. All the yelling from the touch doesn't make a blind bit of difference if the team can't adapt. In essence I think we lost to the smarter team on Saturday. They identified their one chance to win and rolled the dice. Let's not get down about it, however there is an unanswered question "where does the guile come from?". In my view, for what it's worth, it comes from guys training together, playing together and drinking together (not fighting each other, well maybe a bit!). This we are doing, the Alloa game showed it and to be honest the last 60 minutes of the Mackie game showed it. We were missing some playes, granted, but those that played put in the effort from my point of view.
Keep things in perspective, keep following Bill and Pete and the guile will come.
Just in case you are reading this just saying, this is the first comment that is longer than the blog post!
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