SA FOOTY PHILosophy - 2009 #5 : Live From The West #1
Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 11:42 pmLIVE FROM THE WET & WILD WEST #1
Greetings from Perth.
Now before I get too serious about the state game tomorrow I thought I would share a few highlights of the trip so far, or as I have termed it “Nine ways to raise your heart rate on an interstate football trip.”
1) Have your taxi for the airport still not present to pick you up 15 minutes after it was due. By this time your head starts to spin with the time frame required to pack everything in the car and go yourself, park in the long term car park then walk to the terminal and still make check in. Thankfully the taxi did soon arrive blaming traffic for the delay. Traffic? In Adelaide at 6.15 in the morning?
(Tangent #1 – Has anyone else noticed the old domestic terminal is no more, ie its demolished and slowly being converted to a long term car park? What was the National Trust doing when this happened? How many memories do we all have of long queues, poor facilities and walking out onto the tarmac every time we did this newfangled flying thing? That terminal should have been preserved as a memorial to the fact that every so often Adelaide does evolve.)
2) Leave your laptop behind at the check in desk. Thinking we were bound to be up for excess baggage with our LifeFM gear and then finding out we fitted under the limit I then promptly took off for security without my laptop. Thankfully in the 150 seconds between walking away and realizing my loss no one had “borrowed it” or put out a security alert.
3) Have your airline start boarding 10 minutes before it said it would. With flying it’s all about timing. Knowing it would be a three hour plus flight I took off for some relief and a stretching walk with the plan to get back five minutes before boarding. Sure enough I am about 6 gates away and the boarding call comes over the PA system some 40 minutes before the flight is due to leave. Thankfully John and Big Phil proved faithful friends waiting with my cabin bags for me to return before boarding.
4) Playing the three in a row game. If you know John Nankivell and I you would understand that we are “larger than life” commentators. Hence when we filled up the Isle (John) and middle (me) we were hoping the window seat would be left free so I could slide across and we could spread out. As each latecomer boarded the place we would watch intensely for any body language that would indicate they were 24F. After an agonizingly long wait we thought we were home when the door closed only to have a gentleman escorted to the seat from the back by a none to happy hostess. Seemed the passenger had seen us and decided to site in a vacant seat down the back. This cunning plan was thwarted when the occupants of that seat duly arrived. But all was not lost the hostess said he could move once we had taken off. Sure enough once over Adelaide the passenger went straight to sleep and didn’t move the whole flight.
5) Enduring “good vibrations”. The weather forecast had predicted storms in Perth, they duly arrived yesterday so we knew we would encounter them some time over the flight how we didn’t expect the trubulance to commence only 20 minutes in. Never in my flying history have I heard so many seat belt on / seat belt off announcements. The poor cabin crew trying to do the drinks must have gone back and forth about six times in all. Thankfully we did enjoy about one hour of smooth flying in the middle before the shaky decent into Perth under heavy skies and driving rain about 30 minutes late.
6) Making friends with Jasper. After the Laptop lapse (See 2) it was a tense time checking all bags, radio gear, computers, mobiles, wallets & tickets were accounted for. Thus imagine the spine chilling moment when Jasper the Customs sniffer dog comes past and makes a beeline for my backpack. Sure enough his keen sense of smell had found something. Praying that bottled water, dark chocolate snack packs and savoury rice chips were not quarrentined in the West I emptied all contents much to the amusement of my friends. Turns out the pack has been used by my daughter for school yesterday and it was the odour traces of the fruit she took for lunch that was picked up by Jasper. I was the pronounced free to go.
7) Lost in Leederville. Not too sure just how big the WAFL was in Perth we wondered if Taxi Drivers knew where Leederville Oval actually was, sure enough our young escort had no issues he told us after checking in his Street Directory. Imagine our surpise when he proudly pulls up at a football oval that makes Unley look like the MCG. Turns out a late right instead of left turn had us about 500m off course a discrepancy the driver soon corrected but did not take off the final fare. Don't you love it when the visitors give directions to the locals.
Dialling for nothing. Having found the oval we had to find our broadcast spot and test the line back to Adelaide. This is why we came over a day early and was the only job we had to do all day (besides write this article). Sure enough it took a few calls to the WAFL and much carrying of gear around the stand to find the location of the line and our broadcast position so we set up. Alas we just couldnt get the line to connect. After at least 20 minutes of changing chords & touching base with the station someone from the Subiaco club kindly came up and told is that the line we were allocated couldn't be fixed in time
and we were to use a line in a totally different location instead.
9) What Is It With Taxi's Today Part 3. Done at last it was time to meet our prebooked Taxi, relax at the hotel and get some lunch. With a crew of four and a mountain of gear we had ordered a stationwagon to pick us up but 10 minutes after the agreed picl up time no taxi. Ringing back base they said they were still trying to find one (an hour after we booked!). As if by providence an opposition firms stationwagon pulled up out the front. Again intimited by John & I it promtly waved us off and drove away. After another 20 minutes we rang a rival company. Given we rang Black and White then Yellow Cabs and eventually a Swan Taxi pulled up so we are not entirely sure which company has now blacklisted me for a fake booking.
Anyway back to the football and a preview ;
The weather will certainly suit South Australia. Imagine Anzac Day and the cold conditions in recent weeks combined and that is what will confront both teams tomorrow. Local sources advise that it has been an "Indian Summer" so far this WAFL season and this is the first rain they have seen. The way Leederville is configured there is a wind tunnel that tomorrow should be a South to North (or right to left on your TV) gale so expect the toss to be critical in gaining early ascendancy.
Leederville Oval is massive, similar in size to the larger grounds like Woodville & Elizabeth. The condition of the ground, given the weather is excellent. There is the odd patch of mud on the grandstand wing and some newly planted grass in the centre square but whatever rain had come earlier it has all been soaked up and the ground still looked firm.
Teams wise, the Black Swans (aka WAFL) are still to announce their final 22 with John and I forced to learn 26 new names for the match.
Meanwhile SA is unchanged since Monday, with just 22 coming over and a four man interchange bench here's hoping everyone stays healthy for another 24 hours.
Otherwise Clay Sampson may have a shock unretirement or worse still Big Phil could be called off the boundary.
Running late like us the SANFL side have now arrived at the hotel, whilst denied training on the oval this afternoon (no doubt a cunning ploy by the WAFL to cancel their practice yesterday so SA could not train today) we believe they went there for a look anyway (Hopefully not by taxi).
Obviously I think SA will win, I guess when I see former SANFL players Aiden Parker and Brent LeCras playing state football for WA I know that we probably have greater depth than the West. However Bell, Graham and Farmer bring 572 games of AFL experience into the WAFL side and they are due for a win over us having not beaten Victoria or South Australia since 1994.
Media coverage in the local paper today was good with daily articles on both the Perth Now and theWest.com.au sites during the week. Alas I can only wonder what organisers were thinking when they planned the timing of this match. We have Freo and the Crows playing at the same time as this game with the Eagles hosting Collingwood at Subiaco just hours later. Combined with poor weather and a $15 entrance fee ($12 for WAFL club members) I am not sure the crowd will surpass the 3,000 mark although I will be more than happy to be proved wrong.
Finally key Ruckman Brad Dabrowski may suffer from an indentity crisis tomorrow when he looks at the profile photos in the WAFL Football Budget and find out he has been replaced with a Brant Chambers clone. Two Chambers in the forward line, now that would be a side to behold.
All going to plan I hope to do some live blogs tomorrow from the ground (in amongst Life FM commitments) so keep an eye on this site.
ONE FINAL THING
- What a wonderful way to start the day to find out Peter Carey was now in the Australian Football (thanks Mighty Eagles) Hall of Fame. For mine Carey's continial ommission from this group was one of those Victorian "dominating the game" injustices. Some today may comment more on why it took so long but for me, I am just glad he is there. I remember in the Woodville Cheer Squad days singing anti Peter Carey chants but let's face it, only the legends of opposition clubs ever got such songs created for them.
Well done Super.
Cheers
Phil Herden
(** CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE - Phil Herden was a taxi driver in Brisbane in 1994-5)
Greetings from Perth.
Now before I get too serious about the state game tomorrow I thought I would share a few highlights of the trip so far, or as I have termed it “Nine ways to raise your heart rate on an interstate football trip.”
1) Have your taxi for the airport still not present to pick you up 15 minutes after it was due. By this time your head starts to spin with the time frame required to pack everything in the car and go yourself, park in the long term car park then walk to the terminal and still make check in. Thankfully the taxi did soon arrive blaming traffic for the delay. Traffic? In Adelaide at 6.15 in the morning?
(Tangent #1 – Has anyone else noticed the old domestic terminal is no more, ie its demolished and slowly being converted to a long term car park? What was the National Trust doing when this happened? How many memories do we all have of long queues, poor facilities and walking out onto the tarmac every time we did this newfangled flying thing? That terminal should have been preserved as a memorial to the fact that every so often Adelaide does evolve.)
2) Leave your laptop behind at the check in desk. Thinking we were bound to be up for excess baggage with our LifeFM gear and then finding out we fitted under the limit I then promptly took off for security without my laptop. Thankfully in the 150 seconds between walking away and realizing my loss no one had “borrowed it” or put out a security alert.
3) Have your airline start boarding 10 minutes before it said it would. With flying it’s all about timing. Knowing it would be a three hour plus flight I took off for some relief and a stretching walk with the plan to get back five minutes before boarding. Sure enough I am about 6 gates away and the boarding call comes over the PA system some 40 minutes before the flight is due to leave. Thankfully John and Big Phil proved faithful friends waiting with my cabin bags for me to return before boarding.
4) Playing the three in a row game. If you know John Nankivell and I you would understand that we are “larger than life” commentators. Hence when we filled up the Isle (John) and middle (me) we were hoping the window seat would be left free so I could slide across and we could spread out. As each latecomer boarded the place we would watch intensely for any body language that would indicate they were 24F. After an agonizingly long wait we thought we were home when the door closed only to have a gentleman escorted to the seat from the back by a none to happy hostess. Seemed the passenger had seen us and decided to site in a vacant seat down the back. This cunning plan was thwarted when the occupants of that seat duly arrived. But all was not lost the hostess said he could move once we had taken off. Sure enough once over Adelaide the passenger went straight to sleep and didn’t move the whole flight.
5) Enduring “good vibrations”. The weather forecast had predicted storms in Perth, they duly arrived yesterday so we knew we would encounter them some time over the flight how we didn’t expect the trubulance to commence only 20 minutes in. Never in my flying history have I heard so many seat belt on / seat belt off announcements. The poor cabin crew trying to do the drinks must have gone back and forth about six times in all. Thankfully we did enjoy about one hour of smooth flying in the middle before the shaky decent into Perth under heavy skies and driving rain about 30 minutes late.
6) Making friends with Jasper. After the Laptop lapse (See 2) it was a tense time checking all bags, radio gear, computers, mobiles, wallets & tickets were accounted for. Thus imagine the spine chilling moment when Jasper the Customs sniffer dog comes past and makes a beeline for my backpack. Sure enough his keen sense of smell had found something. Praying that bottled water, dark chocolate snack packs and savoury rice chips were not quarrentined in the West I emptied all contents much to the amusement of my friends. Turns out the pack has been used by my daughter for school yesterday and it was the odour traces of the fruit she took for lunch that was picked up by Jasper. I was the pronounced free to go.
7) Lost in Leederville. Not too sure just how big the WAFL was in Perth we wondered if Taxi Drivers knew where Leederville Oval actually was, sure enough our young escort had no issues he told us after checking in his Street Directory. Imagine our surpise when he proudly pulls up at a football oval that makes Unley look like the MCG. Turns out a late right instead of left turn had us about 500m off course a discrepancy the driver soon corrected but did not take off the final fare. Don't you love it when the visitors give directions to the locals.
Dialling for nothing. Having found the oval we had to find our broadcast spot and test the line back to Adelaide. This is why we came over a day early and was the only job we had to do all day (besides write this article). Sure enough it took a few calls to the WAFL and much carrying of gear around the stand to find the location of the line and our broadcast position so we set up. Alas we just couldnt get the line to connect. After at least 20 minutes of changing chords & touching base with the station someone from the Subiaco club kindly came up and told is that the line we were allocated couldn't be fixed in time and we were to use a line in a totally different location instead.
9) What Is It With Taxi's Today Part 3. Done at last it was time to meet our prebooked Taxi, relax at the hotel and get some lunch. With a crew of four and a mountain of gear we had ordered a stationwagon to pick us up but 10 minutes after the agreed picl up time no taxi. Ringing back base they said they were still trying to find one (an hour after we booked!). As if by providence an opposition firms stationwagon pulled up out the front. Again intimited by John & I it promtly waved us off and drove away. After another 20 minutes we rang a rival company. Given we rang Black and White then Yellow Cabs and eventually a Swan Taxi pulled up so we are not entirely sure which company has now blacklisted me for a fake booking.
Anyway back to the football and a preview ;
The weather will certainly suit South Australia. Imagine Anzac Day and the cold conditions in recent weeks combined and that is what will confront both teams tomorrow. Local sources advise that it has been an "Indian Summer" so far this WAFL season and this is the first rain they have seen. The way Leederville is configured there is a wind tunnel that tomorrow should be a South to North (or right to left on your TV) gale so expect the toss to be critical in gaining early ascendancy.
Leederville Oval is massive, similar in size to the larger grounds like Woodville & Elizabeth. The condition of the ground, given the weather is excellent. There is the odd patch of mud on the grandstand wing and some newly planted grass in the centre square but whatever rain had come earlier it has all been soaked up and the ground still looked firm.
Teams wise, the Black Swans (aka WAFL) are still to announce their final 22 with John and I forced to learn 26 new names for the match.
Meanwhile SA is unchanged since Monday, with just 22 coming over and a four man interchange bench here's hoping everyone stays healthy for another 24 hours.
Otherwise Clay Sampson may have a shock unretirement or worse still Big Phil could be called off the boundary.
Running late like us the SANFL side have now arrived at the hotel, whilst denied training on the oval this afternoon (no doubt a cunning ploy by the WAFL to cancel their practice yesterday so SA could not train today) we believe they went there for a look anyway (Hopefully not by taxi).
Obviously I think SA will win, I guess when I see former SANFL players Aiden Parker and Brent LeCras playing state football for WA I know that we probably have greater depth than the West. However Bell, Graham and Farmer bring 572 games of AFL experience into the WAFL side and they are due for a win over us having not beaten Victoria or South Australia since 1994.
Media coverage in the local paper today was good with daily articles on both the Perth Now and theWest.com.au sites during the week. Alas I can only wonder what organisers were thinking when they planned the timing of this match. We have Freo and the Crows playing at the same time as this game with the Eagles hosting Collingwood at Subiaco just hours later. Combined with poor weather and a $15 entrance fee ($12 for WAFL club members) I am not sure the crowd will surpass the 3,000 mark although I will be more than happy to be proved wrong.
Finally key Ruckman Brad Dabrowski may suffer from an indentity crisis tomorrow when he looks at the profile photos in the WAFL Football Budget and find out he has been replaced with a Brant Chambers clone. Two Chambers in the forward line, now that would be a side to behold.
All going to plan I hope to do some live blogs tomorrow from the ground (in amongst Life FM commitments) so keep an eye on this site.
ONE FINAL THING
- What a wonderful way to start the day to find out Peter Carey was now in the Australian Football (thanks Mighty Eagles) Hall of Fame. For mine Carey's continial ommission from this group was one of those Victorian "dominating the game" injustices. Some today may comment more on why it took so long but for me, I am just glad he is there. I remember in the Woodville Cheer Squad days singing anti Peter Carey chants but let's face it, only the legends of opposition clubs ever got such songs created for them.
Well done Super.
Cheers
Phil Herden
(** CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE - Phil Herden was a taxi driver in Brisbane in 1994-5)
