Sam Beasley
Sunday 6th of April
Up early Sunday morning to get ready for the best footy experience in my life, we all gathered at the car park near the Shepparton library. We all catch up again and boys are up and about. We meet our bus driver Dale and then we were off. It was a pretty quite bus trip on the way there with everyone focusing on the next three days, when we reached the place we were staying at we were greeted by the manager and given our keys. I roomed with Tom Boyd from Picola, he’s a funny bloke when you get to know him and saved me from being late to a lot of things. We then got organised for a light training session, all the boys were ready for a big carnival with it being the best training we had in all our time together.
Some of my team mates went for a very quick swim with the pool being very cold, then we got ready to go to the pub down the road it was a really good meal with all the boys having a Parma (everyone loves a Parma). We arrived back to the hotel and grabbed a few sheets and a pen for our team meeting. Our team meetings were good with the coaches covering all points and helping us as a team improve. After that we headed up to bed and watched some TV.
Monday 7th of April
All the boys were up early for breakfast and ready for the big game ahead, we were all pumped to play our first game and our preparation was great with all the boys being ready at the lobby ready to jump on the bus. We headed off to Victoria Park, Collingwood’s original home ground, the ground was in great condition and the facilities were covered in Collingwood colours. We warmed up well and had a talk with the coach Greg Shannon and our line coaches, we got a quick team snap and then we were into it.
We had a slow start to the game with North Central Murray taking a good lead, we started playing some of our best footy in the second quarter coming back from a twenty point defecit at quarter time. There was three points in it at half time and three quarter time, with the boys full of confidence we managed to come back in the last two minutes of the game with a goal in the dying minutes. The feeling of winning was great with all the boys playing well and giving there all, we had lunch after the game and went back to the hotel for a swim in the freezing pool.
We went to the new Essendon training facility and were shown around it was amazing, the gym, offices, indoor warm up area, ovals with one being the exact size of the MCG and the other being Ethiad stadium. We got to go in the locker room and check out the lockers with Brendon Goddard walking in and getting a photo with us. We then headed for dinner at the Cramers St footy ground, it was a top feed and we had Steele Sidebottom, Shaun Atley and two other AFL players that had been through the Bushrangers program. We then headed to the super market to stock up on drinks and snacks, after the long but very enjoyable day we headed home to have a team meeting and go to bed.
Tuesday 8th of April
We were up early for breakfast and another big day - all the boys were sore, we had breakfast then put our runners on for a light walk around the block. We stretched along the way to help loosen our bodies for the game ahead. We then got our gear ready and jumped on the bus and headed for Victoria Park again, we watched the girl’s team play. As we were preparing the Melbourne weather arrived with rain setting in and as we went on to the field it got heavy. We were in for a physical wet game of footy for four long quarters, we started slowly but kept ourselves in the game with the wet conditions madding it hard to score. In the last quarter the team lifted with all the boys putting in a solid effort to make a close finish with the team going down by nine points. We did our recovery and had some lunch then headed back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes than into that freezing pool. We then headed for the shopping centre and all the boys grabbed a bit to eat, all of the boys ended up the games arcade having a go at all the games, with all the tickets won some of the boys got hats, basketballs, masks and all sorts of cheap trash. With all the guys having some fun we headed to the Cramers St football ground for some dinner. We met the girls team there and talked about our experiences so far, we had a nice meal and then headed back to the hotel. We then headed to bed for a big game tomorrow.
Wednesday 10th of April
It was the last day of our carnival and the last time the team would ever play together, so we made the most of it. We got up early in the morning and headed for breakfast, we tidied our rooms and gave our keys back then headed to the foyer with all our gear ready to play again in the wet conditions. We had a team meeting at the hotel before jumping on the bus we all were pumped for the last game, we got the ground it had a cricket pitch in the middle and it had been raining for two days so it was pretty muddy. We got prepared it was going to be the last game as a team and the last time we would play with one another, so we made the most of it, with the boys up and about we started ok but in the wet it made it hard to score. We were a goal in front throughout most of the game but the second half was great with the team playing some of their best footy. We got up by ten points in the end with a very low scoring match. Once we cleaned ourselves up we had our carnival awards given out to the boys, on the way home we had a bit off a laugh with all the boys feeling good about the win and amazing experience. We got back to the car park and said goodbye to each other and we thanked the coaches for giving up their time to help us learn and improve our football. This was an amazing experience that all the boys will remember forever.
Last Modified on 22/11/2016 19:09