Now, where to start? Ah, Adelaide…we’re back in the city of churches. It doesn’t feel that long since we were last here.
We arrived at the hotel in Adelaide and went for a walk and stretch with Paul Turk. Then there was time to catch the end of the Formula One Qualifying session before an early dinner which comprised of a nice little pasta selection, chicken risotto and pancakes for dessert.
Tomorrow we take on Port Adelaide and we come face-to-face with our former cockroach (coach) Dean Laidley. It’ll be interesting to see how much influence he’s had over Port…last time we played them was in round 22 last year and we won, just.
I’m really looking forward to starting the year though as it has been a massive build-up. Fitness wise I feel like I’m in great shape and now it’s time for us to put it on display for all to see.
It’s been a long week for us at North because we had last weekend off. It’s been a bit unusual for the boys with Brad also giving us Wednesday and Friday off to recharge the batteries and freshen up ahead of round one.
I had a pretty relaxing week and caught up with two former players in Blake Grima and Daniel McConnell with Hamish McIntosh and Ed Lower at Knox. It’s a really nice place, just a long way away!
Other highlights during my pre-season included: the night Elise and I spent at the Hyatt after some dinner in the city, the lack of money left in my account after Elise’s shopping spree in the city, dinner at Dracula’s theatre restaurant and going to Cats the musical.
Kanga lotto made a welcomed return to Arden Street this week. That’s where your name gets pulled out of a barrel and then someone spins the wheel and some funny dares are handed out. Ben Ross and Leigh Harding had to shave their heads - so did Brent Harvey but he hasn’t complied as yet. I didn’t realise he was so vain! C’mon Boomer you’re not that old, it’ll grow back.
The young blokes were spared this time around…speaking of which, I spotted Matty Campbell giving advice to some of them which is great. He sees himself as a bit of a father figure to the draftees which I think is great.
Matty and Lindsay Thomas aren’t talking to anyone at the moment though…they brought their Playstation over to Adelaide so they could play FIFA soccer tonight but Scott Thompson and Brent Harvey secretly stole the batteries from the controllers. They left little notes around their hotel room with clues on how to find them. One of them said “Try looking in the bathroom.” The boys were not impressed.
There’s a fair bit of shenanigans going on around the club at the moment. Some practical jokers grabbed my phone and changed all the numbers in it. I was trying to contact Elise the other day and kept getting connected to someone else. I only figured it out after she sent me a text message and her name didn’t come up. I will have my revenge.
It better not have been Ben Warren, otherwise his week will go from bad to worse. His ego has taken a battering this week. First he got cauliflower-ear after he copped a hit during boxing training. It swelled up really bad after a blow to the side of the head. Making matters worse - he developed a massive boil-like pimple on his forehead which the club doctor tried to drain with a needle and that was followed up by a black eye a few days after. He won’t be looking too pretty on television for round one.
He’s not the only one I’ve been laughing at though…Earlier in the week it was Daniel Pratt. He came to the club on Thursday with a thousand red pimples scattered all over his legs. It was disgusting and seriously looked like he had some sort of infectious disease. We were getting ready for training and Pratty whipped off his pants which was followed by a collective gasp from all the guys in the locker room for all the wrong reasons…as it turns out, it was a reaction to a leg wax that he’d had the previous night. I’m not sure how much of a waxing he had but he was walking okay so it mustn’t have been the full-monty if you catch my drift.
Today I couldn’t stop laughing at Lachie Hansen. I found out that he has been pretending that his iPod is an iPhone because he feels left out being about the only player without one. He was walking around the airport terminal today in Adelaide when we landed with his iPod against his ear. He is one in a million.
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