Danny's Journal - April 4-9

As we have entered the autumn season within the last few weeks, cool air covers the night sky and the breezes provide a refreshed feeling. Lately, the weather has been so beautiful with nice breezy afternoons and cool, clear evenings. It’s nice to be able to walk around campus without dropping a sweat. And at footy training, the weather serves us well with the temperature running between low 60s and high 70s.

With the weather keeping up well, I have also been physically well. I am completely over the tonsillitis episode and have yet to secure any injuries on the field (which I am very happy of). I can recall one of the first trainings when Assistant Coach Kondo mentioned that last year just in the first match 6 Senior players were injured and out for a few good weeks. One of which, I believe, was James Brunemier (last year’s scholarship player) so since then I’ve had my fingers crossed that nothing of the like would occur to me. 

This week we were able to train with proper lighting on the field. This is due to the field lights being fully completed over the weekend. Prior to this we had to train until the sun set and then when they were half finished, just with half a lit field. Everyone was impressed with the lights, they really illuminate the field. Apparently they are AFL grade lights and it really does show. Training was tough as usual, the intensity was fully on. The first round of the 2006 was this weekend and it we were to face last year’s premiers (both for the Seniors and Reserves grade). With this known, all the coaches wanted both trainings to be full-on and hard. And so they were.

For the last few weeks I have been training with the Seconds and have really gotten to known the boys. I’ve noticed the Twos have a much closer bond with each other and therefore there is a proper chemistry on the training and game fields. This clearly shows when it comes to facing tough opponents, such was the case on Saturday against Sydney University, last year’s premiers.

I made my way to Sydney U. early Saturday morning dressed in my green and gold MUAFC collar shirt and pants. As soon as I got there, an hour before bounce-off, I could feel the intensity float about the locker room as the boys were preparing for the war on the field. As Inches, the Reserves coach, rounded everyone in closer for the game strategies we knew that the time for footy was just around the corner. I was on the bench starting up, but I still felt that exciting and anxious feeling flow inside me. As the siren sounded, we blasted through the locker room doors sporting the green and gold Macquarie Kookas jumpers and shorts proudly.

The first quarter was close, we held on well with the reigning premiers. But the following quarter was a massive contrast to the previous. The opposing centre was eating up the crumbs and marks and then dumping their forward line with easy marks. This unsettled the coaches quite a bit. They made a few changes, but I along with two others were left on the bench. Halftime sounded and we were down 40 odd points. The coaches reviewed with us our weaknesses on the field and how we must overcome them. This didn’t seem to help out much during the third quarter, as Sydney just came out explosively.

The coaches made a few more changes to our side. Finally, with a few minutes left in the third, I was told to get in there and help the backline out. I ran out there and a rush of adrenaline shook through my body. It was exciting. And I could hear my friends cheering me on as I made my way to the half-back line. Not much happened during my time in defense, our forward line had begun to have some success. We were down by almost 60 points when I got in and then by three-quarter time, cut that to 50 or so. The next quarter was a pure display of pride and team chemistry, as what I aforementioned, on our side. We held the opposition to 2 goals and we dropped 6 goals. We owned that quarter, nothing more said. As for me, the coaches decided to stick me on the half-forward line for the fourth. I had two goal assists during the fourth, but the moment I almost shined was when I dropped a one-handed speccie. One of the wings dropped a long, high kick my way and my defender got ahead of me. He then just stopped under the ball, so I ran up and took my knees with me and landed on his back. For a split second I saw the ball drop to my right, the only thing I could do was attempt to grab it with my right hand. It fell right on my hand and then fumbled out. The crumb was picked up by a Macquarie player, luckily. It was my almost proud moment of the game, but I still think it was sweet to have a try. Although we lost the game, the coaches did praise our valiant effort in the fourth quarter to make it only a 30 point loss to the reigning premiers.

After the game I still had lots of energy left, so myself and my friends decided to watch the first half of the seniors match and then walk around Sydney University as it’s an old, historic campus. Good thing we didn’t stay around to long, the Firsts ended up losing by 21 goals…The rest of the weekend was for a bit of partying in the city with friends and then some homework on Sunday.

- Danny Harris
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