Perth Footy Live Rd 6: C3 Brentwood Booragoon v Ellenbrook

~ A Recap by Scully ~
 

With Carlton Draught in hand, the Perth Footy Live team headed off to Karoonda Park to broadcast the C3 Brentwood Booragoon Bulldogs versus Ellenbrook Eels match. With Ellenbrook sitting on top of the ladder after four straight wins, it was going to be quite the task for the home side to de-head some eels. But, being the proud pawrent of a French Bulldog, I have a soft spot for things that snuffle, snort and drool, so I was still barracking for Brentwood Booragoon. My affection for stumpy grunters might also explain why I don’t mind hanging out with Craig Wilson.

We mixed things up in the Perth Footy Live commentary tent for the Bulldogs visit, with American Josh being dropped for sticking a chip into the steak lasagne last week, and All-Australian Hayden returning behind the sports camera. Ward Harris was benched for disciplinary reasons; he consumed something that was sweet with a hint of raspberry last Saturday after the game, and we simply can’t have that on Carlton Draught watch.

While we had plenty of Bulldogs and Eels visitors through the tent over the day, a great deal of the match’s commentary was spent with Cam flicking through his Rolodex of notable contacts. If Cam keeps dropping any more names we’ll have to start referring to him by a pseudonym.

Alan Mincherton was our first special guest for Brentwood Booragoon. Al is a 300 plus game player, premiership winner, life member, and current coach of the Colts’ team. As someone who comes all the way from Coogee, he spoke about how it’s the club’s family orientated values and the spirit of mateship that makes the drive worth it. He also said something that epitomises much of what I’ve come to learn about community footy, “When you pull that jumper on, you’ve just committed yourself for life. So it doesn’t matter if you’re playing on the footy field or at the pub, you look after your mates.”

Al knows his players so well that he did warn us ahead of time about Bendy, who managed to drop the f-bomb during his interview with Macca at quarter time. To Bendy’s credit, he didn’t reveal the name of the person responsible for his team’s draw that day, but if anyone feels like bagging him out now, please direct yourself to the comments section.

Earlier in the day I was chatting to some Bulldogs on the sidelines and they told me to find Fiona Berden who they said, “basically runs the place”. We were lucky enough to speak to the vice president of club operations herself, along with the vice president of football operations, Ryan Gillam. Both were very humble, with Fiona insisting that the club’s success all came down to teamwork, and Ryan glossing over the five goals he’d kicked earlier in the day.

Brentwood Booragoon were also hosting a reunion for their 1995 Colts premiership side, and so we had a few laughs with past players, Paul and Adrian. Paul even brought along a bag full of memorabilia including his premiership medal, the game ball, the team sheet, actual Kodak-printed photographs, and a swag of other things. He must have been a superstar show-and-tell kid at school.

Switching tack, we chatted with the Eel’s president, Davin Baxter, along with his second-in-charge, Matt Gray, who spoke passionately about their club. While Ellenbrook has had quite a bit of success in its 18 years, they’re still very goal orientated and future focussed, and I was left with no doubt that they’ll achieve whatever they set their minds to. It helps when you have loyal sponsors, such as Mark Anderson from Proform, who Davin described as a “ripper bloke who loves the club” and was thankful for his continued support despite these challenging Covid-19 times.

Something of particular note to me at Ellenbrook Eels is an unusual award they call the ‘Hot Sauce Player of the Week’. Every week the club hands out a bottle of hot sauce to a lucky player. Life member, Jesse Manning, explained to us that one taste of the hot sauce and “you’ll shit for days”. He elaborated that, “It’s not for the best player. It’s for someone who’s been courageous, or just, shit hot.”

I have to wonder whether Fraser Davies was last week’s hot sauce winner because his partner came on to tell us about a blow-out he’d had with his jocks before the game. Fortunately, she always carries a spare pair of his jocks with her so he didn’t have to go commando for the game. But Fraser, everyone now knows that Kate keeps your emergency undies with her in case of “accidents”. Yeah mate, it’s officially on record. For the love of footy, eh.

Not to be outdone in the family slanging match stakes, the sister of Zachary Wilton, half-back for the Bulldogs, also threw her brother under the bus, describing him as “a bit slow”. Perhaps he was matched up with Mitch Schofield and that’s why he kicked nine goals for the match? Actually, the whole Bulldogs team could have been matched up with Mitch Schofield and he’d still have kicked nine.

And finally, to the most important part of the day – our free feed from the Brentwood Booragoon canteen. The renowned Stacky burger was hand-delivered by Stacky and cooked by Mrs Stacky, and the jalapeno twist got our tastebuds tingling and our scoring zinging, receiving an impressive 9.75 points. As always, I do my best commentary 10 minutes after the game over some Carlton Draught, and it was during this time that Stacky actually revealed to us that he’d been experimenting with his own homemade jalapeno and sweet chilli sauce. Had the burgers been slathered in Stacky’s spicy sauce, we might have given it the perfect score. Next time.

The match didn’t go Brentwood Booragoon’s way with Ellenbrook running over them by 47 points on the Clancy’s Canning Bridge scoreboard. But, as we packed up and left Karoonda Park, the sound of the happy clinking of empty beer bottles hitting the recycling bins told us that it was still going to be a huge night for the Bulldogs.

If you enjoy hearing about local footy antics, then this Saturday you’ll find us at Ridgewood Park live streaming the C1 Quinns District versus Warnbro Swans match from 2:45 onwards.