Hi Tony,
Home safe and sound now and all settled in. Just emailing you about my experience with the footy program and going down to play with the Gingin Eagles. Both semesters, the footy program between Notre Dame and the Claremont Football Club was great. Being coached by Dan,Sam, Mitch and Tony, guys who obviously loved the game and had a huge amount of knowledge about the game, was brilliant and a hugely motivating factor in learning the game. Learning how to play footy and not just watch it on TV was a great experience and was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. The program was a fantastic way for all the students to get to know each other really well in a team environment and through the hard work of training. Learning about how hard work is critical to the game is something that will stick with me for a long time to come. We played a game in November 2013 against the international students from UWA and won the game. The game was a great way to finish the semester and to win was even better. It was a great feeling scoring in the game too!
Although the footy program was smaller in the second semester than the first, it was nevertheless another great experience. Having had the experience of the first semester I was able to assist the new students in learning the game and this culminated in me taking the final session under the guidance of Tony and this was a real highlight of my trip. But the biggest thing was definitely going out to play for the Gingin Eagles reserve team in the WA Country Football League. I obviously had the pre-game nerves but all the boys out in Gingin were very welcoming in making me feel part of the team. Paul the player coach was great in introducing me to the team and helping me with whatever I needed. Beginning with the warm-up, the pre-match talks and the final talk before bounce down, all of these got me really up for the game and it was great to have that feeling again. I played left wing alongside boys in the midfield like Sean, J.C and Millzy. The way Gingin play footy is the right way, through skill, hard work and spreading the ball to all players, the emphasis is on the team as a unit. While I didn't score a goal, I had a couple of assists which I was delighted with, giving me a feeling of contributing to the team unit. We ran out winners by 154-17 on a great day for the club. In the dressing rooms after we a had good debrief of a very good performance and sang the club song with the boys putting me in the middle alongside two others, another amazing experience. Overall, travelling out the Gingin was a proud moment and an experience I will never forget. Thank you so much to everybody at Gingin, all the coaches throughout the year and especially Tony Fairhead for all his hard work and providing me with the opportunity to go out to Gingin. Hopefully I'll get out there again one day.
Kind regards,
Peter
Last Modified on 11/07/2014 12:08