This week, Ladies Who League columnist Mary Kaye goes through both the highs and lows of life as a footy fan. Remember you can find more of her work on ladieswholeague.com.
What a week of football it has been.
The highlight was certainly last Wednesday night.
For all the other New South Wales fans out there, I hope that you enjoyed our Origin success. We can now proudly boast #oneinarow.
Despite the success for the Blues, congratulations must go to the Maroons on what has been State of Origin dominance for 8 years, the likes of which we can only compare to Sir Donald Bradman's Invincibles.
I think Jarryd Hayne's tears of joy summed up how much this victory means to New South Wales, both for the players and the fans. I know I certainly rode the high until Sunday afternoon when the Eels took on the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park.
Following our 46-20 defeat, I imagine that the players and some fans will be disappointed with the result. However, there are a series of lessons we can take away from our performance last weekend.
As we all know the score line is deceiving, because with 15 minutes to go, the Eels were still well and truly in the game, despite being 18 nil down for most of the first half.
Any chance of a comeback, however, was extinguished however when Chris Sandow left the field for 10 minutes. With one of our key playmakers off the field, it was always going to be hard for the Eels to come back, especially after the Storm scored 18 points in 10 minutes.
Many teams struggle during this time of the year - State of Origin often takes its toll and teams are left either without their key players, or with their key players coming off the back off a very physical game of State of Origin. The Eels certainly were not at their best last Sunday.
This is not to take away from the Melbourne Storm on the weekend, who played very well. The Storm are a very classy outfit and with players like Cameron Smith and Billy Slater any team that ventures down to AAMI Park has to be at their very best to compete with them.
However, it is a long season and we are only half way though. The Eels still sit comfortably in the top 8 and only remain 4 points away from the teams at the top of the ladder, so we must look forward.
This week, we are back at home against the Newcastle Knights and I know how pleased the boys will be to run out in front of their home crowd at Pirtek Stadium.
Despite the Knights coming off the back of a 36-28 win over the North Queensland Cowboys and with the Eels still missing some key personnel because of injury, including Nathan Peats, Lee Mossop and Will Hopoate, the team will be strengthened with the return of both Darcy Lussick and Mitch "It's" Allgood as well as the home crowd.
I know how much fans love Sunday afternoon football, so make sure you all head out to the game this weekend to support the boys as they continue their run to September!
