Warning: If you’re wearing rose coloured glasses, leave now.  If you’re a ra-ra fan, leave now.  If you were at yesterday’s game and are pissed that we lost, please read on.

It’s not often I’ll start a blog post with a disclaimer, but as there are those who feel fans should not speak ill of a team they support, i wanted to give them a heads up so they can leave now before being blessed with my words of wisdom.

Yesterday’s loss to the Melbourne Ice was a tough one to take.  The Tongues played hard for most the game, but fell into a serious lack of discipline at times which cost us dearly.  The Melbourne Ice are one of the smartest teams in the AIHL.  They knew which players to go after and they targeted our weaknesses, and right on queue the Tongues responded in kind.  In short, they fell into the Ice’s plans and suffered accordingly.

But it was with 5 minutes left in the first period where the wheels fell off the bus, and the blame should fall squarely on the shoulders of Matt Amado and Alex Boyd.

Those not at the game, here’s how it went down.  Amado drops the stick and challenges Joey Hughes to a fight.  Hughes is all for it and goes at Amado.  Amado cowers from the fight and tries to get away.  Meanwhile, Alex Boyd jumps off the bench and has a go at Hughes.  Game misconducts are handed out and the Tongues end up with a 5 minute penalty kill.  The Ice go on to score the game winning goal on that powerplay.

It was a stupid penalty to take and an absolutely gutless play.  If you’re going to challenge a guy to a fight, either man up and hit him or expect to get knocked the hell out.  It was a pathetic cowardly move by Amado and his team mates should be disgusted with him for that.  And as for Boyd, to jump off the bench and get involved is a cardinal sin and sheer stupidity.  It is an act unbecoming a player at this level!   For a so-called MVP player, Amado displayed a total lack of thought on what was a classless play.  It was selfish, gutless and it cost us a goal, and the game!

That chain of events entirely changed the game completely.  Sure, the reffing was atrocious towards both teams, but that play was the game changer.

Positives from the game…

Adam Geric being back in the lineup adds a much needed defensive forward punch to the squad.  Jack Conner was playing really well and that goal by Dave Upton was a thing of pure beauty.  Luke Fiveash was shaky in the first period, but stellar when we needed him to be and has been a consistent presence between the pipes for the Tongues.  It would be nice to see CJ start a game, but as they say, when a goalie is hot, you keep playing him.  At least Kane isn’t playing.  Tobias Falk has been consistently solid all season and deserves to be the top nominee for an MVP award.  On defense Bob Sannemo has been incredible and helps drive the special teams incredibly well.  I also want to send a special kudos to those guys who give 110% every single game and never get the credit they deserve, so this is to the likes of Ben Spillane, Ross Howell, Cam Trew, Alex Hall and others who play depth roles.  You guys make this team what it is.  Superstars may score the goals, but without you guys playing the depth roles, they would have no ability to do so.  So as a fan, thank you.  We do notice you on the ice, and we appreciate every single thing you do for this team.

This last weekend was the final home game of the season.  It’s sad that we wont see our boys again at home until next season, but this season is not over, and our boys are more than capable of being in the finals this season.  Good luck in the next few weeks guys… GO TONGUES!

As always, comments are welcome below.