It began on a high for the Navy Blues, with a trip to the indoor paint ball centre, based in Port Melbourne. The morning kicked off with a press conference with Richard Hadley, who fielded plenty of questions about where Carlton was headed following two losses on the field and the loss of Matthew Kreuzer and Brock Mclean due to injury, plus of course the state of Chris Judd’s rolled ankle and if the Carlton captain needed more protection from his teammates.

The rest of the boys weren’t there to answer questions for the media, they were there to play paintball, and Richard Hadley soon joined them. The players appeared extremely relaxed as they entered the pit and each talked themselves up in terms of who was going  to win the bragging rights at the end of this agonising experience. Some players had to sit out because of injury (not Juddy), while others were just a bit alarmed of the thought of pain and the mess involved.  The side was split into red and blue teams with Chris Judd taking side with the red and Eddie Betts taking side with the blue. The first round was fairly tame, with the players getting used to the game and the pain involved. Even members of the media copped a spray of paint from behind the netting, unintentional of course.  The players came out of the pit with shots everywhere to the body and many spotted bright yellow paint to parts of the head. Aaron Joseph lifted his top to show the red glowing marks made to his abdominal area.

In the second round, team members had to carry a flag from the centre of the pit to their position from where they originated.  Both teams were eager to get underway, though many of them had to reload before re-entering as they were firing off the paintballs too quickly. The second round commenced with players keen to find cover. Though Heath Scotland excited onlookers with his on field heroics as he charged in to take the flag with little regard for the paintballs being fired in is direction. He did not realise the pain involved and his gallant effort cost his team the game. All guts and no glory for Scotto on this occasion!

In the next part of the game the red team was more careful in its approach to retrieving the flag. Both sides were beset by problems with players running out of ammo or having weapon malfunctions. Regardless the red team retrieved the flag with anticipation and patience.

The final round was a process of elimination where players had one shot at it. The blue team began strongly with a strategic movement of getting close to the enemy, and it worked, as many opposition team members were under fire. Some however weren’t keen to come out of hiding and were camping for the majority of the round. In the end the blue team emerged with another win and had the bragging rights for the day, with two out of three wins overall.

Unfortunately for the members of the blue team the bragging rights will not amount to much as the players are now away from the club for a few days enjoying their mid-season break. However watching the boys after the exercise I am sure the winners will still get some bragging over the losers when they return to Visy Park.