Friday Night Footy

Gotta love kid's ingenuity! Sean has used a proxy to enable me to blog from the school, hopefully.
And with a little luck there'll be pictures too.

It's been another big day in the home of football.
We split into two groups this morning, one set off to see Essendon train at Windy Hill, the other headed for Gosch's Paddock to watch Collingwood train.
There were lots of people at both sessions and the kids took photos, got autographs and enjoyed seeing AFL players up close. Dale Thomas was the big drawcard at Collingwood but Dana was very disappointed with Anthony Rocca's non-appearance. There was a funny, and telling, moment when a little kid in a Magpie jumper pinched one of the footies the players were using for goal-kicking practice and took off with it. But he didn't get away with it, the trainer behind the goals took off in pursuit and caught him and got the ball back.
Angus Monfries was the only Essendon player who paused long enough to sign autographs at Essendon, the rest headed straight into the rooms for their warm-down. Rhys and Troy got to kick a footy on Windy Hill which should keep them happy for the rest of the trip.

The two groups reunited at Gosch's Paddock and we then took a tram into the city so we could go up to the Eureka Tower Skydeck on the southbank.
It only cost the kids $7 and it was money well spent as we enjoyed panoramic views of Melbourne from the 88th floor, some 297 metres in the air! If you're ever in Melbourne I thoroughly recommend it, the views are stunning, although I will have to confess to Sean that the land mass he could see in the distance across Port Phillip Bay was actually Geelong, not Tasmania.

Next up was a bit of culture, a visit to the Melbourne Museum. The kids groaned and protested but in the end they appreciated it, it's a very cool museum, the star attraction of which is the body of Aussie icon Phar Lap. There was a vast collection of beetles and bugs and 4 live specimens of that most feared Aussie creature, the Funnel Web Spider and very nasty looking they were too. I also pointed out two of the fish sculptures that had been a feature on the Yarra River during the Commonwealth Games. I have a particular interest in these fish because I was able to purchase one of them on ebay after the Games, on behalf of a group of people in Busselton, and am proud to say that it is the only one of the 72 fish to have been taken outside Victoria. It is currently at the school awaiting some finishing touches before installation.

An hour of culture was about all the boys and Dana could stand and I found them out on the forecourt doing what they've been doing at every opportunity since we left Perth, kicking a footy!

We hurried home to the school via tram and train so that the kids could shower, change and get ready to go out for our first AFL game, Carlton V St Kilda at the MCG. There were 55,653 people there and the noise and atmosphere were fantastic. We had excellent seats, on the second level behind the goal at the city end. It was a good game too. Carlton started well but kicked poorly. In the 2nd quarter St Kilda started to get on top. In the third they got out to about a 6 goal lead but in the last the Blues got some momentum courtesy of a couple of great snapped goals by Eddie Betts and reduced the margin to just 7 points. Most of the kids were barracking for Carlton (who knows why!) (the Judd factor probably) but the small group of us barracking for the Saints were rewarded when St Kilda kicked away again and ended up winning by 29 points.

There was a final train ride back to Glenroy then the bus back to the school. Hopefully the boys have done the right thing and settled down by now after a big day. I tried to impress upon them the need for sleep in light of the even bigger day ahead tomorrow. We'll see when I get back to the room after posting this!

The kids have had a great day, they loved being at the MCG for Friday night football and are looking forward to the next chapters of the Melbourne Footy Trip.