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Sunday's game had almost everything your classic Tigers fan could want: an epic Western Sydney road trip. Crunching tackles. Bloodied faces. A near total lack of decent passing football. The drinking of Camden's beer.

The only thing missing (Abe hopes) was the shagging of Camden's women. And more to the point sadly, our famous victory tune.

From my vantage point under Camden's big old tree, even if we had have taken three points, it would hardly have been deserved. After the bulk of a match shaded by a stuttering Balmain machine, in the end Camden's equaliser came when a deflected long shot that Delaney could only parry landed in the path of a lucky Camden striker. That was enough for Camden, who looked happy with a 1-1 draw.

Rewind 90 minutes though, and after witnessing one of the great Tigers comebacks in Under 20s (more on that later) just prior to kickoff, the boys started brightly. Tackles flying in. A whirlwind of movement. Possession in the opposition half - the game promised so much! But then, the story of the season so far reared its ugly head. The boys just couldn't maintain control of the match. From midway through the first-half, Balmain gave up field position and possession and let Camden off the hook.

The second half started thankfully with some improvement and then - behold - with a goal! The breakthrough came when Deasey jinked down the right flank. Beating his man, the tricky winger dinked a ball in from the byline over the keeper to find Flower who bundled the ball over the line from point blank range. Calls for handball from the Camden side were politely declined. After all, Balmain had a football match to play!

Over the next quarter of an hour, the boys had a couple more chances. Young Sasha nodded a header into the post and Snape hit one from 40 yards that only just went over. Unfortunately, the cutting edge couldn't be found. Slowly, rhythm was lost as dubious Camden challenges on Tiger warriors Flower and Byrnes made for extended stoppages. Minutes later Camden were level and before long the Tiger tussle ended all square.

The same couldn't be said about cutting edges in the Under 20s match, which appeared more like a trip to your local Stihl shop. First it came from Camden, who leaped to a 4-2 lead. Then from Balmain, who roared back into it with a miraculous three goals in the final ten minutes to take it 5-4. Abe hadn't seen anything like it since those crazy days of division seven in the 1980s. Starring was Captain Pirelli's Mandarin man Hardwick, who notched up a hat-trick on his return from China. Credit must go to the whole team though, of which not one player let his head drop. True Tiger spirit gents!

With the Camden trip behind them now, most of the boys have plenty of work to do this week to prepare for their toughest test yet on Saturday - trying to keep pace with the club's experienced drinkers at the season's first Saturday night at the Exchange. That will (hopefully) follow our glorious double victory over current league leaders UNSW. Should be a great day and night - Abe will see you there!

And finally, my apologies to the Camden club - I would have loved to join you for a beer again this year after the game, but I had to shoot off back home to cook dinner for my daughter. I'll see you gentlemen at Birchgrove later on in the season.