It has been a great idea to travel a day earlier than we previously have as it not as rushed. The travel party two days prior to the game consists of the players, coaches and members of the fitness staff and a few officials. There were 20 players on the flight with ‘Gibbsy’ (Bryce Gibbs), ‘Sauce’ (Sam Jacobs) and Jordo (Jordan Russell) all heading to Adelaide on Thursday evening to spend an evening with their families. Steven Browne is the emergency player who has traveled to Adelaide with the team.

 

Big Sauce timed it to perfection when he returned his Europcar hire car to Adelaide airport. He hired the car for a day when he arrived in Adelaide on Thursday. Thinking he would be getting a taxi to the city he got to the airport as our plane arrived so he was able to join us on the bus for the short trip to the Adelaide Hilton.

 

A quick meeting at the hotel before we headed just up the road for dinner at La Trattoria. Just as we did a few weeks ago when we played Adelaide here in Adelaide and once again it was excellent. Not that any of us are superstitious but a few did sit in the exact some spot as a few weeks ago, perhaps trying to keep the winning feeling in Adelaide.

 

When the manager brought around some photos from our last visit that he had framed, we also noticed a few players, including the captain actually had the same top on. We all signed around the photos and I am sure they are now hanging in the restaurant.

 

Back at the hotel it was a quiet night with most of us having a snack around 9pm and sitting back in our rooms watching the football from Perth. While most of us were keen to sit up and watch the cricket from the West Indies it was too late so unfortunately we missed it.

 

At breakfast this morning (Saturday) we were sorry we were unable to see the Aussies sensational victory over Pakistan in the T20 World Championships. There was plenty of talk about the comeback victory at breakfast and again on the bus on the way to training. Some of us are keen cricket followers and we all have a real interest in top sport. The interest in cricket has increased with Peter Siddle regularly using our great facilities at Visy Park as part of his rehabilitation.

 

We headed to AAMI stadium for a short training session late this morning and this was followed by a quick team meeting at the ground. Then it was to the beach for a walk in the water before heading back to the hotel for lunch and a quiet afternoon.

Click here to read Part 2 of Murph's Adelaide Diary