James & Jared Brunmeier arrive in Australia

Perth Week in Review:  11/11/2006 – 11/19/2006

We arrived in Perth on Saturday November 11th after about 34 hours of travel via Chicago to Los Angeles to Auckland to Melbourne and finally to the sunny west coast city of Perth. Tony Fairhead, who has been organizing our trip, met us at the airport.  We dropped our bags off at his place in Fremantle and he whisked us to a bar called 'The Saint' in a suburb of Perth.  

There we met the Coach of the West Perth Falcons, Todd Curley and several other past players including the Football Manager Ryan Lasscock.  After a couple of beers and before jet lag knocked us out, Tony took us to another bar called the Left Bank to meet some of the current footy players.  Not letting our expectations down with the typical Australian flare for nicknames we meet Ducky, Burnsie, and Razor. 

They were all good guys with the highlight of the night happening when Burnsie gave us his car to use indefinitely for the price of 10 jager bombs (yet to be paid for the Nissan Patrol).  With our eyes getting heavier we said our goodbyes and headed back to Tony’s with our “new car” in tow.  At Tony’s we meet his wife Ros and after a quick dinner went straight to bed.

We were up early the next morning (before 6am) and were on the road with Tony in his 1965 convertible Mustang heading to the beach.  There we had an easy run along the water and then a dip in the ocean.  It was a beautiful morning with the temperature around 70 and the water a little warmer.  From the beach we headed to South Terrace in downtown Fremantle.  This is called Cappuccino Strip because the street is lined on both sides with outdoor cafes.  Tony was slowing introducing us to the laid back lifestyle that is Perth so after a leisurely cup of coffee we headed back for a shower and breakfast.  Later on in the day we meet one of Tony and Ros’s sons Tim and his two children Patrick and Meg.  That evening Tony took us to mass at Notre Dame, a small Catholic University in Fremantle.  Afterwards with a couple of students and the priest we went to a local brewery for a couple beers (which was a first for us, having a beer with a priest).  Then it was home to bed since jet lag was kicking in pretty hard core! 

Monday saw the return of Brett Cousins to Perth.  We met up with him at one of his Aunt and Uncle’s house for a BBQ to welcome him home.  We experienced a bit of car trouble on the way there that involved pushing the Mustang up a bit of a hill to a side road and then parking in the shade to try and diagnose the problem.  All seemed well with the car (it eventually made it safely to Cuz’s BBQ) and when we left that evening the first half of the ride went smoothly.  An hour and fifteen minutes later we finally made it back to Fremantle with the car stalling 7 times along the way (turned out to be a problem with a recently installed anti-theft device that was overheating and causing the car to stall out). 

Tuesday we helped Brett move back into his house.  Wednesday was the first day of Falcon training that involved introductions and a 3km time trial.  Before that we walked Patrick to his school in Fremantle so he could show us around, there we were spotted by the Principal and upon hearing we were Americans come over to play footie were asked to come back and help out with some of the sport classes.  We were able to help the physical education teacher, Mr. Sash, teach a lesson to 3rd graders on ultimate Frisbee, a neat experience to have before footy training that evening. 

Training started at 6pm with about 60 guys present for the time trial.  Our memories were taxed trying to remember the names of all the guys we met, all very nice and welcoming.  We survived the time trial without puking and managed to post decent times considering jet lag (Jared 10:54, James 11:02).  After training we moved to our new temporary home with Geoff and Judy Lasscock (parents of Ryan the Football Manager and Clayton the Team Captain) who were very welcoming, giving us a home away from home. 

Thursday training was strength testing.  We were all tested on bench press, chin ups, leg raises for abs, vertical jump, and squatting.  A bit sore we headed back home where Geoff and Judy took us on a nice 5km walk around a little lake by their house.  Having stretched the legs we settled down for a quite BBQ outside on their porch.   

Friday training was the ever exciting beep-test.  This is a continuous shuttle run to the cadence of beeping that progressively gets quicker (for example it starts off as 1.1 then 1.2, 1.3……2.1, 2.2….etc), the object being to keep running as long as possible without missing a beep.  Once again James and I made it without puking, since it was done in a stuffy gym that was a mean feat, our times weren’t bad either (Jared 13.11, James 13.2).  That evening we had dinner at the Lasscock’s and then spent the night at Brett’s place where he was catching up with friends. 

Saturday one of the guys from the team (Rob Hunt) picked us up to head out to lunch.  We met about 20 other guys from the team at a café on the beach in Scarborough (a suburb a little north of the City Center).  It was a good opportunity to get to know some of the West Perth players away from footy.  Rob dropped us off after a couple of hours; it was a gorgeous day so we decided to hit the beach. 

There we met up with some of my friends from Uni in Melbourne who were now living in Perth.  We spent the evening catching up on what had been happening in our lives during the last couple years since we’d seen each other.  Such a small world!

Sunday morning we took a train into Perth city center for the Red Bull air show that was happening on the Swan River.  The trains were absolutely jammed with people; once we got to the river it wasn’t much better.  It looked as if everyone from Perth had decided to descend on the river to watch the spectacle, there were several roads closed off near the river to allow civilian access unhindered by cars.  The show was a bit disappointing since nothing was announced, we couldn’t tell if the planes were doing practice runs or if the time trials had already begun. 

After about two hours of negotiating through the press of people we decided to head out of Perth.  After a bit of relaxing we are meeting GD and Brett for dinner.  Tomorrow footy training starts in earnest, it will be interesting to see how we go as we start going through skill drills.  Time will tell!                 
 
Editors note:  James are Jared are in Perth on the Milwaukee/West Perth Scholarship program

- Jared Brunmeier
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