The "G"

Trip Start Aug 22, 2008
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Trip End Sep 16, 2008


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Flag of Australia  , Victoria,
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I am back, and I have finally gotten over the jet lag.  The last couple days, and especially today, have been fantastic.  We have had two-a-day footy sessions mixing tactical work with skills work.  It's an interesting dilemma trying to get used to players you only see a handful of times a year.  That's actually one advantage some of the smaller countries (including tomorrow's opponent Denmark) have on the larger countries.  The small countries send their representatives from fewer clubs, so there is a lot more opportunity for them to practice and train together and develop some chemistry.  Hopefully we will gel quickly!

Our coach announced the starting side for tomorrow.  We brought 34 players, but only 24 can dress for the match.  Beyond that only 18 start, and I got the nod to start at Full Forward which I am happy with.  The purpose of full forward is to kick as many goals as possible.  

Tonight we had a function held to kick off the tournament at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG) Telstra Dome
Telstra Dome
 .  The MCG is the Mecca of Aussie Rules Football, and it's affectionately known to Aussies as "the G".  It is where the Grand Final (Aussie Rules' Super Bowl) is held every year, and it seats over 100,000 people. Mix the history of Yankee Stadium with the Size of Penn State's Beaver Stadium and you've got the MCG. Should we make it out of our pool and win the semi-final we would get
to play the final at the MCG as a curtain raiser (the game before) a
playoff game which means there'd be upwards of 80,000 people watching
us play. 


 The function was great as we got to mingle with players from the 15 other teams.  We were also treated to famous Aussie musician Mike Brady singing "One Day in September" live.  The song is all about winning the grand final as it takes place in december.  Here's a youtube link to the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6KpyGtSYWg
I think the guy is a bit of an Aussie legend as well. 

Also, Kevin Sheedy spoke to us all.  He would be the Aussie equivalent to someone like Joe Paterno.  Although he's not quite as old as JoePa.  Anyways I managed to get some great photos of some of the other teams as well as the MCG and the city themselves. 
Hopefully my next blog post will be talking about our victory over Denmark.  The game is at 1pm Melbourne time, so I believe that's about 14 hrs ahead of the east coast of the US.  Go the Revolution!

 
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