Kings Park Festival

On a little ripper saturday morning with the sun just coming up, I through four little nevilles into the commodore and set off for Kings Park. This month is the start of the Kings Park Festival, so with a big picnic packed in the boot we drove off towards dusty old Perth town. Here's the kiddies in frount of some of the wildflowers that are all through the Park, and wasn't it a little ripper of a day with the bush Thermometer reaching a beauty 29!... you couldn't ask for better.


Some of the ripper wildflowers that you'll see throughout the Park, but not every thing goes to plan when you take my mob out. See my favorite bush flower is the beaut aussie Kangaroo Paw, so all day I was pointing them out to me little mates. But Oscar being me best little mate thought that his dad would love to take some Kangaroo Paws home with him.... You guess it! With me back turned he ran into the bush scrub and came out yelling out that he found some, lets just say that theres now about twenty Kangaroo Paws that will never see the light of day again. God bless his little red head....well it was red after I smacked it!

Then we walked along the path till we
reached our old mate Bob the Boab tree,
it's fairdinkum name is
Gija Jumulu... (Crikey what a mouth full)
so I think i'll just kepping calling him Bob.

Just down from Bob is the Fraser Ave lookout which overlooks the ripper Swan river and towards South Perth, I reckon this is one of the Parks best lookouts and gives you the best view of not just Perth but the surrounding city.









As we walk along one of the paths through the Park we came apon this strange plant sculptors, so out with the old camera and take yet another photo to go with the 4,796 other ones over the two years we have had it..... poor thing. Talking about poor things here is little Sarah at another lookout, doing her little girly pose God help us.
















Then we reached the Lotterywest Federation Walkway which is a fancy little glass and steel arched bridge, which is suspended amongst eucalypts trees about 52 meters from the ground. It's always been a favourite with me little nevilles, and they always want to cross over it whenever where in the Park. I can't believe it's been seven years since it was opened hay, I think we have been over it at least ten times over the years. But it's been promoted as one of the most popular tourist attractions in Perth, but lets be fair dinkum here how many tourists attractions does Perth really have! There's the Bell tower (yeah right), The Perth mint (which you have to pay to get in, same as the Bell tower). We have this Park (Kings Park), Fremantle is a beaut place to have a gander at, and well..... thats about it I think. So as you can see it's not like it has a lot of competition to be named 'The most popular tourist attraction!

Some beaut wildflowers mate.

Kangaroo Paws ssssshhhhh let's not mention them around Oscar!



















There's yours truly with the Paul boys with Perth town in the background, what a little ripper shot by neville Sarah.











Then we reached the DNA Tower which was going to be the first time we have climbed it, and fair dinkum with bloody 102 steps it could be the last time for your's truly!



Well at least I wasn't the only one finding it hard.















And here is the mob at the top of the tower all a-counted for (haven't lost any yet), there wasn't much to see up their as all the bloody trees cut out the view. Okay I reckon you could cut most of then down for a better view, but we are in a National Park and that's where trees are suppose to be right! So we better just leave them there hay. Just have a little gander at Oscar, between you and me I reckon that's just what he's thinking 'Hay dad you don't have a chainsaw handy do you'? He's a little ratbag that boy.



But all good things come to an end at some time and for us it was now, see how this photo was a little cloudy well it was the last photo from our camera before it gave up the ghost! That's right it broke down and now were up for a new one, thank God the aussie dollar is going up we should get one for less the a hundred hay. So after a beaut picnic and with our tummy's full we set off for the drive back towards Middle Swan, and for me the chance to rest my tried legs and sit back and watch the Grand Final on the telly... lives hard hay.

Swannies Grand Final WIN!

Well two years ago the Swanies were beaten in the 2008 Grand Final by Subiaco, so this year was our chance to break our Premiership drought which had lasted two decades. This year we were taking on Claremont Tigers who were the minor premiers with only two loses all year, one of them against our Black ducks funnily enough!


So the stage was set for a ripper Grand Final with Claremont showing $1.21 at the TAB, and the Black n' Whites coming in at a nice $3.90. So with a $6 outlay you were looking at a pack of salt n' vinegar chips, and a beaut six pack of Jim beam n' cola... not a bad little winner if I might say so myself. The only problem was having to beat a deadset champion side like Claremont, but stranger things have happen in life.... like the Swanies making the Final in the first place. So I bundled three of the kiddies into the commodore and set off to the magnificent Subiaco Oval, home of the wooden spooners West Coast eagles and the famous Fremantle Dockers.


Here's the little nevilles outside Subiaco Oval on a beaut barmy 22 degree day, with the sun shining could you ask for a more ripper day....no way. This was your's truly's second time to the stadium but the first time for all the kiddies, and it was going to become one that we wouldn't forget easily. The little ones were just blown away with the size of this place, see were use to watching the Black Ducks at places like our home ground (Steel blue oval) where we normally would pack out the place with a crowd of about 2,500. But after saying that we did have two matches of over 4000 this year, and fairdinkum at home in our last game against East Perth we had 11,251 stone the bloody crows there's not that many people live in Bassadean! Fairdinkum, but here today we saw our largest crowd ever as the attendance came in at 24,638!!!! Crikey mate.



So here are the nevilles on there old fashioned wooden seats in the 2 tier Subiaco road stand, no creature comforts like new-age plastic seats for my mob... if it was good enough for your's truly to sit on them at Macquarie United matches it's good enough for them. And by the way it was cheaper!! Well it did cost me friggin' $40 as it was, strewth I didn't even pay that much when I last took the misses out for dinner, but even that night the misses went for the most expensive thing on the menu.... a friggin' Big Mac!


But as for the match it was the greatest Grand Final in WAFL history, fairdinkum it was something worth spending that much money to have a gander at. The first Quarter wasn't all that great as we missed shot after shot at goals, and when your playing a team thats only been beaten twice you need to hit the spot. But after the siren it was Claremont winning 3.3 21 to the Swanies 1.6 12, then we started playing better and finished the half with 5.10 40 to Claremont 5.6 36. The third Quarter was neck to neck with the Swanies in frount with 9.15 69, and the Tigers 9.11 65. Crikey what a close match and it was unreal to here the crowd whenever a Swan tackled a Tiger, the crowd would go up as one. it was just amazing to watch as the Swanies played together just like anything you see in the AFL level.

Just have a squizz at this beaut goal during the match...






So with a drink and a hotdog in their little tummies the kiddies were in their element, and of cause they loved watching the footy as well. For the Swanies we had a beaut mob of players like Richmond castaway Thomas Roach with 22 possessions, Werribee boy Wayde Twomey 21 possessions and captain and old Midland Brick shed's boy Josh Roberts with 20 possessions, layed a ripper foundation for the fellas to work off. But the player of the match and our year, was an old fella (27) by the name of Andrew Krakouer who joined the club a few years ago from Richmond Footy Club. He had 40 possessions, 29 kicks, 11 handballs, 11 marks and kicked 4 goals, which handed him the Simpson Medal for best on ground.





But the last Quarter would become the greatest in WAFL History with the lead changing six times, Andrew Foster kicked two goals in a minute to put the tigers in frount. We then drove the ball down to their end with every player running about like chocks with their heads chopped off, then just like when Mosses parted the water every player either went left or right and left one little fella all by himself. The kick in was spot on and he took a ripper mark about 15 out in frount, it was our little kiddie Stephen Coniglio (16.. a future No1 draught pick) who kicked the goal and put the Swanies in frount again (Please almighty God ring that final siren!!!!). Then Claremont took a massive mark in frount by Crawford, fairdinkum their must of been 56 Swanies went up for the ball, but as they all came falling down one friggin' Tiger was still standing with the ball in his hands... bugger! he then went on to put it between the big posts to put the tigers back in frount (Please almighty God don't ring that friggin' siren!!!!). That put the Tigers in frount by five points with the clock ticking over at the 29 minute mark, then with the ball being kicked all over the place and with Claremont with the pill. They kicked a poor shot which was jumped on by the Swanies and who was the Swan that had it.... you guessed it Simpson Medal winner Krakouer, who had been as busy as a centipede on a hot plate all day, snapped at goal from about 30 out and about 24,638 people watched as the ball sailed through the large sticks to give the Swanies a lead with 30 seconds to go! And fairdinkum I reckon every Swanie supported thought the same thing... Please almighty God ring the friggin' siren!!!! And with our heart rate's going haywire we watched what seemed like twenty bloody minutes, as the ball was won then lost then won again till we heard that beautiful noise YOU BLOODY BEAUTY!!!!


We had won the unwindable Grand Final and the crowd went crazy, to win a match in the dying seconds is unreal but to win a Grand Final in the dying seconds is just unbelievable! we won by ONE POINT!



Claremont Tigers 14 15 99
Swan Districts 14 16 100






Our coach Brian Dawson who was coaching his last match for us, praised Krakouer's ability and that last goal. 'He's won everything, he's won every media award, he's won the Sandover, he's got the Simpson and he's got a premiership medal to boot'. 'If someone was writing the script, I suppose they got it just about right','It was a crazy game, a great spectacle all day. It was just a real hard scrap as you probably expect Grand Finals to be. Claremont are horribly unlucky to lose a game by a point'. And as you can see the nevilles just went off! all I can say is
YOU BLOODY BEAUTY!!!




So what a great day for the little Swanie nevilles to witness, and you could say they wrote a little page into the Paul Family History Book. To win a Grand Final by one friggin' point in the last 30 seconds! Strewth you couldn't of asked for a better way to finish a ripper day out at Subiaco Oval..... GO THE SWANIES