Thursday April 16
I joined ‘Juddy’ and ‘Fev’ on Thursday afternoon for our flight to Sydney, the rest of the team will be travelling on Friday. We were accompanied by President Stephen Kernahan, CEO Greg Swann and Director of Sales & Sponsorship Anthony Barham. The trip to Sydney generally gives us the opportunity to meet with sponsors, many of them with head offices in Sydney.
On arrival we headed to our hotel where we caught up with ‘Ratts’ (Brett Ratten) who had flown up to Sydney earlier in the day. There was time for a quick shower and then we had dinner with a number of our key sponsors. ‘Juddy’, ‘Fev’ and I headed back to the hotel as soon as we had finished dinner. For us it was a quiet night with a little tv, while the remainder of the Carlton group stayed at the dinner a little longer to entertain the sponsors.
Friday April 17
Following a walk and a quick breakfast it was time to battle the Sydney traffic and head to the offices of our joint major sponsor Hyundai for a meet and greet with staff.
We arrived at Hyundai just before 10am where we were officially welcomed, each of us were interviewed on stage. It probably sounds too formal but it wasn’t it was a relaxed session for everyone and we even conducted a handball competition for Hyundai staff.
While we were at Hyundai, the rest of the team were on their way to Sydney. Before we knew it, we received a call from team manager, Shane O’Sullivan letting us know that the team had landed. Of course that signalled ‘back to business’ and we headed to the SCG for a training session.
It’s been nearly two years since we have played at the SCG and in that time a new stand had been built. Saturday’s game will be the first AFL game played in front of the new stand. And indeed it will be the first traditional Saturday afternoon game at the SCG (2.10pm start).
A lot of our boys have never played at the SCG, let alone been to Sydney, so when we met the rest of the team for our training session at around 12.30pm, it was great opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the ground and the surroundings.
I think everyone knows it’s a relatively short ground, but I think what can get you in trouble when playing there is the width of the ground, it’s something we will have to keep our eye on during the game.
We trained for just over an hour, the conditions were fantastic and it was great to see about 50 or so supporters at the ground to watch us train.
We had a brief team meeting following training then headed to the team bus. As soon as we arrived at the hotel we headed for the pool for some recovery. The pool at the team hotel is located on the 31st floor and it is a fantastic view over Sydney harbour.
After the swim, the boys headed strait to the dining room for lunch. Following lunch we all had some time to kill. A few boys headed for a walk around Circular Quay, while others went for a coffee or played cards, while I headed to my room to write my diary for visitors to carltonfc.com.au.
We haven’t got much on for the rest of the day; we have a team dinner later tonight so there is plenty of time to see our physios, get a massage to prepare for tomorrow’s game.
Marc Murphy
# 3
