The best time was approx 11.5 minutes from one of the South African boys. The best time around by an AFL player is 9.5 minutes by Chris Judd captian of the Carlton Football Club
After a dinner of spaghetti and meat sauce we went to the common room of the college and did a team bonding session with a team bonding leader named Alea. We had to communicate to each other using signals and no words.
It’s officially the beginning of the World XVIII coming together as one team.
June 28th 2010
Today we had a 7:00 o’clock wake-up, breakfast was at 7:30, good old cereal and toasts with some hard boiled eggs. At 9am we had a team meeting, coach Michael O’Loughlin took us through our team rules; beat your opponent, use the ball, play for the team, and most importantly, Compete. Training started after the meeting, we used the artificial hockey fields because the footy field was recovering from the rain. Coach took us through some drills, basic lanework, mad ball, a drill where you are covering a man and trying to prevent him from getting the ball while they are running around to different stations trying to get the ball, it was tiring.
Following our training session Greg Everett, our team runner, took us to the pool for a recovery session. It was more than helpful it helps us recovery from the extra workloads are bodies are taking on with the training and playing of games. We are being treated by the AFL just like the elite under age teams across Australia when they come together as reprenstative teams. We are getting a good understanding of what it takes to be a professional Australian Footballer. After lunch we all went to the National Sports Museum, which was in the MCG stadium. There was an interactive part to the museum, and for sure the best part, where there was a place to simulate goal kicking, hand-balling, and other random sports. We then got an inside tour of MCG, we saw the changing rooms, the box seats, the newspaper and radio rooms. After that, was dinner and then a small team meeting and then sleep.
June 29th 2010
Today we had our first practice match against South Pacific it consisted of 6 x 10 minute questers allowing the coahces a chance to see us att at various stages of the game. Not many playrers/people were very optimistic about how the game would go, but when it was underway we realized we could compete with them and match them in size and skill level. We were competing and fighting for the ball and it was just a real team effort. Our team wanted to give em a run for their money. We lost only by a couple goals, but if the team just comes together some more we can tune our skills and actually have a good crack at beating the boys. Afterwards we went and had dinner, and met Shae McNamara of the Collingwood F.C, who is an American who chased his dream and sent the club a DVD of himself doing skill work. He was invited to Australia for a 2 week tryout and was rookie listed by the club. He is currently playing with their VFL side at the moment. He told us his story of how he came about into footy, and now he’s playing some good footy and training with the elite of another sport. He had a choice between a professional basketball career in Germany or challenging himself by trying Australian Football. In the end he choose footy. He’s been watching DVD's of games all the time and just trying to do what the elite players are doing and such. Pretty inspiring story alright since he’d never touched a footy till seven months ago.
Last Modified on 05/01/2011 08:09