[Under editing] You and I - Marcus Bontempelli

Eighty One

Blackburn calls us in for a huddle as the siren rings to signal that the game is going to start soon.

"Alright girls, we're going to go out there and show them what we are made of. I know that Christina is playing for Geelong, and we all know what happened between Emilia and her. It's our duty, as teammates and friends, to work together to protect Emilia. She's already been through hell and back to try and get here. And now that she's finally here, we are not going to let anything bad happen to her. So, if any of you see any of the Geelong players giving it to her, it's your duty to go in there and help her. Also, aside from that, we need to win! It's round one and we got a lot to prove! Last year, we didn't finish where we wanted to, so this year, we're going to do better and show them who we are!"

"YEAH!" We all yell then we head to our positions.

"Thanks Ellie." I say and she smiles

"No worries. Play dirty if you have to." She says with a wink as we walk into our positions.

I nod and put my mouth guard in as the siren goes. Christina stands next to me and bumps me a bit, so I bump her back. That's when I know that she's going to be playing dirty.

So bring it on....

The umpire blows the whistle and the ball is bounced. The two rucks go up and try to tap the ball out. Before I know it the ball is in my hands, so I run, I dodge Christina's tackle and run to the 50m line and kick it to Brooke Lochland who marks it. She has a shot, about 20 metres out, it soars straight through the two big sticks. We all gather around her and pull her in for a hug. Then we set up for the next centre bounce....

It's quarter time and we lead by 6 points. Burke huddles us up and we are given a message. He tells us what we are doing really well but also what we need to improve. Before we know it the siren goes for the second quarter. We get in our positions and Christina is again. She nudges me so I nudge her back.

"You think I'm gonna go easy on ya now?" She says with a smirk and I roll my eyes.

"I don't care whether you go easy on me or not. The score board is all that matters." I say with a wink. And she pushes me with full force and I fall to the ground. One of the umpires see it and blows their whistle.

"Free kick Bulldogs." He says and Christina fumes

"She fell." She says arguing with the umpire

"You pushed her with intense force, when the ball has not been bounced." The umpire says and Christina gives me a greasy. The ball is passed to me and I kick it to Sophia who runs in and kicks a goal. I run up to her and pull her in for a hug

"Let's gooo." I say and she celebrates her goal. From then on, we smash Geelong out of the centre and by half time we're 5 goals in front. We walk down into the rooms for our halftime break

"You okay Em?" Blackburn says coming up to me and I nod

"Yeah I'm okay." I say with a smile and Blackburn nods

"Okay. But don't let her push you around." She says and I nod. The half time break goes by pretty fast. We spend it talking on our groups of midfielders, forwards and defenders. After that Burke pulls us in for a half-time speech