Football Poets

The Legend of the Cooma Seventeen.

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 At the Downer Club in Dickson, seventeen brave men and true
Gathered soberly, our minds affixed on what we had to do.
Though our lead-up form was poor and we were grossly undermanned,
For the arvo of the 17th a daring raid was planned.

¶ 2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 In a distant one-club town there can be few more trying missions,
So we left for Cooma early to get used to the conditions.
Deano Kuo sampled the coffee, meanwhile others checked out Macca’s,
And by 1 we were prepared to tackle all would-be attackers.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Danny carved them up the left flank in a fifteen minute burst.
We were playing like a team possessed when Deano scored our first
And I’m sure he thought it just reward for having made the hike,
Then our lead was quickly doubled with a marvellous Macca strike!

¶ 4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 On a barren foreign field beneath a struggling winter sun,
Though we dominated early, at halftime it was 2-1.
Leading 2-1 in the first round, we had let them out of jail –
With that jail now behind us, there was no way we could fail!

¶ 5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 So returning to the fray we knew we had a point to prove –
Cooma didn’t get a look in as we slipped back in the groove,
And we knew, when Keegs scored two, that this time they would not survive,
And a tap-in by yours truly brought our final score to 5.

¶ 6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 So we’d come a hundred k’s to get our first win in the Twos,
But the mission wasn’t over and we hadn’t come to lose!
So with only three fresh men we took a breath and took the field –
We had come to do a job and were determined not to yield!

¶ 7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 With the State League 1 top-scorer they were sure that we would crack.
With our legs on auto-pilot we repelled every attack!
When they got a shot on target they were still denied the spoils,
‘Cause it seemed as though, in goals, we had not one but two Shane Boyles!

¶ 8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 We had played with meanness rarely seen since Phar Lap won the Cup
And we’d held them out until, at last, the fat lady piped up.
Every man who made that journey on the 17th of June
Is a player in the legend that we’ll tell our grandkids soon …

¶ 9 Leave a comment on verse 9 0 There was Chris O of the monstrous throw, Dean Kuo and Matty Forno,
There was Bruce and Ro and Thom and Col and Danny Santosuosso,
There was Simon, Macca, me and Dave and Pete and Gav and Xavier,
And Keegan Knowles, who scored two goals, and Shane, who proved a saviour!

¶ 10 Leave a comment on verse 10 0 And so when you’re up against it, when your backs are to the wall,
And your troops think that your chance is slim, or p’raps no chance at all,
Remind ‘em to play positive, remind ‘em to play mean,
Remind ‘em of the Legend of the Cooma Seventeen!

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