KEW Hockey Club

Kew vs. Doncaster (1-2)

Kew opened its finals campaign with a qualifying final against the lemon and lime’s of Doncaster in a top of the table Qualifying Final.

But before we look at the game we it might be worthwhile examining the ‘parable of the broken window’.

The parable describes a shopkeeper whose window is broken by a little boy. Everyone sympathizes with the man whose window was broken, but pretty soon they start to suggest that the broken window makes work for the glazier, who will then buy bread, benefiting the baker, who will then buy shoes, benefiting the cobbler, etc. Finally, the onlookers conclude that the little boy was not guilty of vandalism; instead he was a public benefactor, creating economic benefits for everyone in town.

The fallacy of the onlookers’ argument is that they considered only the benefits of purchasing a new window, but they ignored the cost to the shopkeeper. As the shopkeeper was forced to spend his money on a new window, he could not spend it on something else. For example, the shopkeeper might have preferred to spend the money on bread and shoes for himself (thus enriching the baker and cobbler), but now cannot because he must fix his window.

Thus, the child did not bring any net benefit to the town. Instead, he made the town poorer by at least the value of one window, if not more. His actions benefited the glazier, but at the expense not only of the shopkeeper, but the baker and cobbler as well.

Everyone is free to make their own judgements on whether the broken window was a good or a bad thing. The argument goes round in circles…

But back to the game… Despite the significance of the occasion, selection got no easier. Winny was not ready to return from his ‘hammy’ and TC ruled himself out to serve lattes at an internet café. (Don’t worry TC – we’re holding centre forward for you in the Grand Final)

In an inspired piece of fixturing, HV scheduled this epic clash at Monash (they obviously all have petrol vouchers at HQ). And even more  oddly, despite Kew having seven club teams playing for the round, it couldn’t manage to squeeze another club team into the Saturday rosters.

Kew started the match sprightly. We seemed to have our opponents on the back foot, but without ever really threatening. Tags enjoyed plenty of the ball in his customary centre half. Hamish and Hubba combined well down the right and Jono and Nath looked solid at the back.

However it was through a slightly contentious penalty corner that Doncaster took the early lead. (Contentious because Nick Reid didn’t agree with it)

Their second, just a couple of minutes later, was more calamitous. Our opponents intercepted a dicey pass and with a couple of quick passes of their own, the score was 0-2 and we were looking down the barrel.

After a re-think at half time, we came out with a renewed sense of purpose. We promised ourselves the first goal and thanks to a Ben Johnston thunderbolt off a corner we got back to 2-1 down.

We prodded and probed and went close several times (and received plenty of death threats for our endeavours). But despite all our best efforts, that’s what the score remained.

So Kew are thrown into a sudden death preliminary final with Greensborough. Its certainly not the route we would have chosen. But like the parable of the broken window, perhaps it’s the best course we could travel. Whilst everyone has sympathised with us about what has been lost, the players are now focused on what is to gain. We get to win two more games this year instead of one. And that means everyone will get fed.