Andrew Werner Blog

Andrew Werner ......“throwing a shrimp on the barbie“.

Blog entry 5/18/2009
G'day US Footy,

It's been a little while since my last entry and a lot has happened since then. Our footy season is well under way already as we just finished up with week 6 this past weekend. The Mt. Barker Bulls, the team I play for, got their first win this past weekend and it felt really good to finally get one. It's starting to cool down here as autumn rolls on and the days are getting shorter. We've been training on Wednesday and Friday nights with our games being on Sundays. So far we've had great weather for our games, but I've been told that it gets pretty cold and pretty wet for winters in southern Western Australia. Just as long as there isn't any snow over here I think I'll be alright, being that when we left Minnesota to come down to Australia there was still a foot of snow on the ground.

            Getting used to the Australian lifestyle has been a big change for me but also a welcome and enjoyable one. Mt. Barker being a town of about 2,000 is a little bit different from the 3.2 million people who live in the metro area of Minneapolis and St. Paul where I had been living for the last 9 months. It's incredible to see the amount of support provided for the football club by the community. It's also neat to see the large amount of involvement in football from people of all ages. One great activity that has a lot of volunteer help and that I've had the opportunity to help out with on the weekends is Auskick. Auskick is a program here in Australia for the development of junior footy for kids from ages 6 to 10. It's been fun to be able to go out and help the kids with their skills work and learning how to play the game. You can  tell that it's the highlight of their week to come out with all of their mates, donning their favorite AFL jumper, and kicking the footy around for a couple of hours. This weekend the kids are going up to the match between West Coast and Collingwood and they getting the chance to play during halftime and it will be fun to see them out there showing off there skills for the big crowd at Subiaco Oval.
 
Cheers
Andrew Werner

Brent Mergen, Andrew Werner, Grant Williams (AFL) and Alan McConnell (AFL). Photo taken at Visy Park, home of the Carlton Blues FC, on the boys way to Western Australia.

Listen to a radio interview Andrew did in Aus here....and check out this great story about Andrew, his brother Joe and sister-in-law Katy on usfootynews.com

Blog entry 4/8/2009
G'day US Footy,

Hello again gentlemen. I'm sorry it's been a while since my last trip entry but we have been really busy here in Australia. After a week spent in Melbourne, Brent Mergen and I headed out to stay with Tony  for a week in Fremantle.

We had a pretty footy intensive week while in Fremantle. On Tuesday and Thursday we trained with the CBC Fremantle team, and it was great to see that we didn't stick out too much. The months of training and kicking indoors back in Minnesota had paid off. We also trained with the American exchange students who are studying abroad at the Notre Dame campus of Fremantle on Wednesday and Friday, and it was great to see their interest in the sport of Aussie Rules and how quickly they have learned the sport in just a few short weeks. It was encouraging to see how excited the students were in learning Aussie Rules and becoming members of the footy sporting community.

One of the highlights from the week was when Cameron Knapton arranged for us a kicking lesson at Subiaco Oval, home of the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers, with Rob Wiley, who has played in the AFL and is a skills coach for the Eagles. He first talked us through a DVD he had just put together that highlighted the basics of kicking in Aussie Rules football and he explained some of the finer points of how to correctly kick the footy. He then took Brent and I down onto the field to give us a few tips on our kicking. When we got down to the field the West Coast Eagles were still on the field finishing up some goal kicking drills. Rob took us right out onto the field when the team was still on the field, so that was really exciting to be on the field at the same time as an AFL team. We got to chat a little bit with some of the players and it was great to be kicking on Subiaco Oval at the same time as the West Coast Eagles training.

Thanks again for all your help is setting up this wonderful experience.

 - Andrew Werner
 

- Andrew Werner