The Port Adelaide scholarship is a fully funded trip awarded by the Magpies to an American player on our roster to provide them an opportunity to spend a month training with a professional Australian Football Club in Australia (the Port Adelaide Magpies in South Australia, one of our sister clubs) and to experience a slice of life in Australia.

The scholarship is awarded annually, and is made available through fund raising events held by the club throughout the season. The scholarship program continues the Magpies goal of introducing Australian Football to new players in New York and throughout the United States.

• 2004 scholarship recipient: Joe Discepola – trip report.
• 2003 scholarship recipient: Ojas Desai – trip report.

The recipient of the inaugural scolarship in 2003 was Ojas Desai, who caused quite a bit of interest as evidenced by the newspaper articles and radio interviews below. In 2004, Joe Discepola followed in footsteps of Ojas Desai by travelling to Adelaide, Australia in March 2004, to experience a slice of life at the elite Australian professional football club, Port Adeliade Magpies. Joe spent 3 weeks training with Port Adeliade and learning the finer points of Australian Football (and Australian culture) from the coaching staff.

The Port Adelaide Magpies compete in the local South Australian competition, the SANFL, and is the feeder club for Port Adelaide in the national competition, the AFL. After a stellar introduction to Australian Football last season, Joe is training hard to make an impression with our Port Adelaide counterparts.

Port Adelaide Scholarship 2004 – Joe Discepola

Monday March 8th:

I arrived in Sydney this morning to sunny clear skys and warm weather. A bit of a change from what we're used to in New York this time of year. It was definitely a very long plane ride, but despite the length, it went by rather painlessly. I slept for 2/3 of the flight and just thought about my skills training and game situations while I was awake.

After I made my way through the longest customs line ever, I then waited on line for the longest Taxi queue EVER. I arrived at Guzz and Jo's place around 9-ish, set my things down for a bit, and then Jo took me around Bondi Beach where I went for a run and a swim (which felt great considering I was stationary for about 24 hours prior). It was absolutely beautiful. We had lunch at some Swimmer's club which is renown throughout Sydney and then came back to rest. Guzz started his new job today and we will be going out for dinner later near the Harbor bridge and Opera house.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Port Adelaide and commence my training with the Magpies.

Tuesday, March 9th:

I left Sydney via Virgin Blue and after a short delay, arrived in Adelaide where Jeff Farnham picked me up at the airport. We dropped my bags off and picked up his wife, Milou, to go looking at the local foodmarket. After that, Jeffa took me to meet Paul Belton, the CEO of the Port Adelaide Magpies. Jeffa, Paul, and I sat down in a meeting room at the office and discussed what my training would be like.

Paul wanted to see how I'd fit in and so had me do 8 x 400meter runs with one of their veteran players. So, for each of them, I kept pace with a guy they call "Bangers." My legs were extremely tight since I had been sitting in 3 different airplanes for the past 3 plus days, so I tried to stretch as much as possible during the short recovery distance of maybe 75 meters, and then had to start again. After that, I had a kick with "Bangers" for a while and then watched the players do drills for the last 30 minutes of training. I then went home and had dinner with Jeffa and Milou, who are gourmet chefs. They cooked Barramundi Jamaican style, which was new to me but very tasty.

Wednesday, March 10th:

Port's training schedule is on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, with games on Saturday, so today I woke up late. Jeffa and I went hiking up Mount Lofty and then came home to play tennis in his backyard grass court for a while. He introduced me to Kitchener buns, which are my new favorite thing to eat, and then I had a real MEAT PIE. The meat pie was pretty good as well.

Jeffa and I then went around looking to buy a footy, but all of the good Sherrin's were between A$80-A$130. So after walking around town and looking in stores, we decided to turn back home, stopping in several pubs along the way for refreshments. After I returned home, we had some lasagna, I watched several episodes of the Simpsons with his kids, Jasper and Mikela, played some basketball with them, and then ate an awesome steak that Jeffa prepared with Baked Potatos and mushrooms.

Thursday, March 11th:

I woke up late again today, being that I am on vacation and training wasn't going to start until 6:15pm. I had my morning coffee and then headed into the center of town to go to the natural history museum. I went on a tour of Aboriginee culture and history, with an interesting Aboriginee tourguide. After the tour was over, I was so hungry that I had to find the nearest place to eat. I walked around and looked in many of the shops along the pedestrian street, to find that many of the stores they have here in Adelaide could be found back in New York, the only difference being that things were much more expensive here. A good pair of sneakers were almost twice as expensive as those in the States, as were some clothes. So, that being said, I will not make any significant additions to my wardrobe while I am over here.

I took a bus back from the town center to Jeffa's house, then played some more tennis, and left for training. I arrived at 5:30 to run and stretch. There were two training sessions that night and the coach had me train with the latter group at 6:15. While warming up, I learned how to do a banana kick, and I ended up scoring a behind with my left foot on the first try and a goal with my left foot on the second try. The guy who taught me couldn't believe it and was all excited.

At 6:15, we did some warm up drills which ranged from High Knees, to butt-kickers, to Karaoke, then strides. We stretched and then did 20m sprint, 20 meter jog, 20 meter sprint, 20 meter jog and back again for 2 minutes straight --4 sets. For the first set, I was smoking everyone. After the 2nd set, my legs become incredibly tight and so I lost the lead and just kept with the pack. These guys are incredibly fit. However, after doing that I was pretty confident that I could keep up with whatever drills they had to do, which was comforting since I wasn't sure what to expect.

After our running drill, we then moved to some handball drills about 10 yards apart - similar to what we do at our practices in New York with constant talking and yelling for the ball. Then we switched hands, and back again, alternating one guy throwing down to the ground for the opposite guy to pick up and handball back. We backed up the distance and did some leading, marking, handballing to the man next to you who would then kick the footy across the rectangle we created. We did similar versions of this for a while, increased the distance and then did 3 on 2 weaving handball drills with a kick to midfield to finish it. This was good fun and I saw how these guys move the ball and fake out opponents, which was great.

The last drill we did was a kicking from the goal squre to a leading half back flank, who would then hand ball it forward to a stationary player who would handball it back so the halfback flank would then kick up to a leading forward who would then kick a goal. At every station during the drill you would always follow your kick or handball to support your teammate. They kept emphasizing the importance of this throughout the drill, so that it would be second nature in game situations. This drill went the whole length of the field in both directions for a while. To finish up practice, the had me lead the group in pushups and situps. We stretched and then went back to the lockers.

The Magpies are having a trial game this Saturday. Since they have a lot of numbers,I won't be playing in that, but the coach thinks that Paul Belton could get me in a District game. So hopefully that will work out.

Comments from Super Chef Farnham:

Port Districts, the Port Adelaide affiliated surburban team, had a 6 quarter trial match against Woodville this Saturday. Both sides played a mix of their A and B sides interchanging throughout the match. A beautiful day here, blue skies, 24 degrees and playing at Ocean View College, which is on the beachfront at Taparoo

Joe got 3 straight quarters (the last three) on the half back flank where he seemed to impress the coach.

The first quarter he let his man push off on him and he gave him about a 6 pace start, but Joe's speed allowed him to catch up when caught out. He spoiled a couple of marks with good punches and got a few touches and kicks.

His second quarter was much better, by standing right on his man he effectively took him out as an option in the forward line, as they weren't willing to kick it to him. Once again, some good strong spoils, a tackle on a bloke running into an open goal that prevented the goal and allowed Port Districts to clear, as well as a couple of clearing kicks.

Last quarter saw Port Districts get back into it which took some pressure and some of the play away from there backline. Joe played well in the last quarter, spoiling marks, clearing the ball a couple of times out of the backline and some gaining some good hard fought posessions by getting into the pack.

Well its beer o'clock. I'll catch you later.

Friday, March 12th:

Since I don't have training on Fridays, I decided to go out the night before and have a few drinks at an Irish pub where there was a band playing some popular American music. That was good fun, and afterwards, I took a taxi back. I got a good nights rest, and then went to the local market with Jeffa on Friday early afternoon to buy food for the Friday night feast. One of my favorite dishes is a hearty lamb shank, and so Jeff, being the master chef that he is, picked up a few hard to find shanks with some tasty sides to go with it.

After we unloaded the car, Jeffa and I went for a kick at a local park that had a footy/cricket oval. Since I had a game the following day with Port Districts, Jeff worked with me to get my kicks lower and was giving me some tips on marking and accelerating after a lead and a mark, which helped a lot. When we had exhausted ourselves, we went shopping for some refreshments at a nearby liquor store. Now, the liquor stores are unlike anything I have ever seen. In Australia, or maybe it's just Adelaide, there are Drive-thru liquor stores. It's pretty "full-on."

Later on Jeff showed me how to cook the lamb shanks, after which, Jeffa, Malou and I polished off with a bottle or two of wine. Needless to say dinner was awesome and since I had a game the following day, I made it a short night.

Saturday, March 13th:

Game day. Jeffa, Malou, the kids and I all packed up the car and headed for the footy ground. It was about a 45 minute drive, and right off the beach. It was a hot, clear, and beautiful day. I met the Port District players, warmed up with them and got to play the last 3 quarters which were 20 minutes each. The coach put me in at halfback flank which ended up being more of a fullback position. I wasn't used to playing there and would have preferred to have been in a more offensive position, but I was just glad to be out there playing and learning from some of the more experienced blokes. I didn't see a whole lot of action down there that day, but I did manage to interrupt several marks, make a few key spoils and blocked two clear goal attempts--one by tackling a guy in the goal square just as he was about to kick it through, and then blocking another kick in the goal square. All in all it was great to get in there and have a run with these guys! The rest of the day consisted of relaxation.

Sunday, March 14th:

Originally, Jeffa's family and I were planning on going camping and fishing after the game on Saturday. However, due to an AFL game drawing a large crowd near the grounds plus the fact that the trial game didn't end till much later than anticipated, we decided to go fishing on Sunday morning out in Moonta. The beaches there are the kind you'd see on a postcard. Clear water, a nice breeze, and sunny skies. The only problem was that I didn't put lotion on my legs. Everything else was covered and protected, but at the end of the day, from the back of my knees down to my ankles and my shins, there was nothing but hardcore sunburn, which is just starting to go away--about a week later.

Fishing was a great getaway, peaceful, and serene, but didn't pan out to be as fruitful as we had hoped. After Jeffa rigged my fishing rod with a new sinker and gave it a bit of "the magic" as he calls it, I immediately caught two fish as did his little girl, who by the way puts me to shame. She may only be 7 years old but she can cast a line out there better than most people on the jetty. However, after that short burst of catching fish too small to really eat, we came up empty handed the rest of the day. Jeffa was persistent and determined to at least catch a squid or two. However, our efforts proved unsuccessful. All in all it was an enjoyable day.

Monday, March 15th:

I went to the local shopping mall in the city center, walked around, had lunch, and read a little bit. Training was at the Port Adelaide clubhouse today rather than the stadium. Our training consisted of just lifting and running, which was pretty easy. I was lifting just as much if not more than most of the guys on the team and the running drills were medium paced 80m runs followed by 40m recoveries. Little by little my fitness has been improving so this was no big deal.

Tuesday, March 16th:

Since this is my only vacation for the whole year, I have been making the most of my free time by reading, relaxing, and enjoying the weather. That being said, I went to the public library and village shopping area for lunch and to send out some postcards to my family.

Around 5 o'clock, Jeffa drove me to train with the Port Districts team, which is the club I played with the previous Saturday. That practice turned out to be a great workout. We did a lot of quick hand and foot drills, where we'd do over and under hand passes, then switch sides left to right with two balls going at the same time. Then there knockdowns, pickups, multi-partner handpassing, half-volley kicking and marking, which were followed up by some quick sprints starting out in 3 point stances. This was very familiar to me having run track and played football. The purpose of these sprints was to have explosive starts, which is important in leading and after marking or picking up a ball.

The rest of the practice consisted of a lot of ball movement around the 50 meter line, goal square and flanks. Each station worked on some aspect of the game, whether it was running multiple leads, to kicking goals, to kicking across the field or hitting low kicks as a teammate would lead across the field. There was a good bit of running involved, which helped with our fitness and proved to be quite tiring. We finished off practice with a little more skill work, which was similar to the beginning of practice.

Wednesday, March 17th (St. Patty's Day):

I don't have training on Wednesdays, so Jeffa and I went out to the Claire Valley just outside of Adelaide to do some wine tasting. I had never gone wine tasting before, so it was a completely new experience for me.

To start the day off, Jeffa and I woke up, and headed directly for the bakery for our Kitchener buns, Meatpies, and Pizza. After having our fill with spare Kitchener buns for later, we were ready to go. It took about 1-2 hours to get out there. We tasted some really good Shiraz and some pretty terrible Shiraz as well. We also ran into some strange folks, to say the least. One trailer park couple, who was a true motley crew, seemed to follow us everywhere. They were a little haughty and obnoxious at the first place we went to, where the guy who hosted the wine tasting had the most ridiculous overbite and ugly wooden teeth I have ever seen - so bad that it caused him to have an unidentifiable accent. It could have been British, it could have been Australian, and it could have been Chinese. Jeffa and I were quite disturbed by this poor soul, so we got the hell out of there quickly. At first Jeffa wanted to tell him to "buggar off" but had a hard time restraining his laughter, so instead motioned to me that it was time to get out of there.

We stopped by a few more wineries, and finally had a nice lunch at Skillagalee. It was an indoor/outdoor restaurant with picturesque backdrop. The only problem was that every wasp in the entire country had gone on holiday to Skillagallee as well. So when our food came out we were swarmed by these annoying pests to the point where we had to go inside just to finish our food. The waitresses there were a bit on the nutty side as well. After lunch, we took off and headed back to Adelaide. Jeffa and I learned two things that day: 1) Australian Wine is cheaper in a liquor store than directly from the suppliers and 2) living out in the country in a very rural area with few people is NOT A GOOD IDEA.

Now, since the Magpies are just over a half-hour away, I don't really know anyone locally to go out with. However, being that it was St. Patrick's Day, that was a non-issue. Jeffa dropped me off in the city center at some Irish Pub. I pulled up to the bar and had nice cold Guiness from the tap. Shortly after assessing the scene, I met a group of Aussies that were my age and spent the rest of the night partying with a handful of Sheilas and Blokes. I was just looking to go out and have a drink or two, but the night turned out to be a lot crazier than I expected. For more in-depth details, you'll have to wait till I return. On the whole, it was good fun.

Thursday, March 18th:

Due to the fact that I got in after 4am, I slept most of the day. I went out for a nice extended lunch followed by a nice afternoon nap. Training was only an hour and was a bit disappointing. We had some hard sprints in the beginning with a little bit of working the ball around the field. Then practice ended. Due to it being much lighter, I didn't really seem to get much out of it. [Ed note - most trainings on a Thursday night during the season at Australian clubs are lighter, skill session, as the teams seek to be fresh for the weekend's game.]

Thursday night I went out again and was tutored on "HOW TO SPEAK AUSTRALIAN." That is a work in progress.

Friday, March 19th:

On Thursday night I met up with several Aussie mates that I met on St. Patty's Day. Since the Clipsal was going on this weekend, tons of people were out partying. So, the night extended into morning, leaving me exhausted and tired. Luckily I was able to find a Mackers (Australian's nickname for McDonalds) to keep me going. Since Friday was pretty much shot as a result, I bummed around the house, read, checked emails and before I knew it, it was time for the Friday night feast at the Farnhams' once again. Dinner consisted of Jeff's famous Lamb Shanks with potatoes, vegetables, and some vino. I went to town on about 4 or 5 shanks until I could barely move. Jeffa then dropped me off in town to have some coffee with me mates. Since I had a game Saturday afternoon, I cut the night short and made my way back to Tusmore.

Saturday, March 20th:

I woke up feeling refreshed after the Thursday night/Friday morning's debauchery. Jeffa, his son Jasper, and I drove out to the second trial game with Port Districts. I played with the B side again as a halfback flank for one quarter, and then since we were short 2 men, the coach moved me up to a half forward position. We didn't have as many guys as the week before and the ones that did show up, I didn't really recognize. As a result, we got our asses handed to us by a team from a place that sounds like "No longer." I feel as though I played pretty well and stuck it to the forward I was guarding in the first quarter and then won a few contests as a half forward. However, there was no harmony on our side, little leading and communication, so our standard was a bit on the messy side. All in all, I had a good run and learned a few lessons in each position, one being to never stop moving and always run through your kicks ! This lesson came after I got laid out from behind about a second or two after I won a contest and kicked the ball upfield.

After the game, Jeffa, Jasper and I went to the beach for a bit and then he dropped me off at the Port Adelaide Magpies stadium to watch the rest of their trial game. When the game was over, I showered up and got ready to go on a boat cruise around the harbor with the Magpies. The boat cruise was meant to be a fun social activity for all of the fellas to kickback and get to know everyone on the team a little better. This turned out to be a blast. I got a chance to talk to just about everyone at length. Several of the players kept buying me drinks which would be a recipe for disaster under normal circumstances given my low tolerance. However, due to the fact that I cleaned off every tray of food they brought out to us throughout the cruise, I wasn't really affected by the exorbitant amount of alcohol that I drank.

By the time the cruise was over, just about everybody was pissed. Some of the guys wanted to stay locally and other wanted to into the city center. It was a tough choice because everyone was promising that they were going to show me "THE BEST TIME EVA IN ADELAIDE." When it came down to it, Port Adelaide is a $50 cab ride back to Jeffa's house, so I opted to go with the blokes who were citybound. Those Magpies came through as it turned out to be one of the best nights EVER.

To be continued...

March 20th-Saturday Night Continued...

After the booze cruise around the Port Adelaide Harbor, a few of the Magpie blokes took me out to a fancy lounge/club called Savvy. 5 of us roll up to the joint and cut the line because we thought we were hot shit. We brought a few girls in with us to speed up the process and then continued our debauchery inside. I scoped out the scene and the ladies for the first half hour. After that, I thought I recognized a girl from the night before and so started talking to her. Apparently I was mistaken, but it didn't matter anyway as we talked for a while, danced, and whatnot. After a while, I decided that I needed another drink. That's when the rest of the story begins.

As I walked up to the bar, I saw this really pretty girl throwing me some serious eyes. She then threw me a wink and a smile. Now, I am not used to having one of the hottest girls in the place checking me out like that, so I incredulously look over both shoulders to see who the hell she was winking at. I couldn't believe it was me. I had a shaved head, a cheap ass beard, etc., - basically, I was not in my usual form. But when I realized that it WAS me she was flirting with, I decided not to let this opportunity pass.

So I approached her and said, G'day in my best Australian accent. No, actually I don't really remember what I said due to the state of shock that I was in at the time. All I know, is that she and I clicked immediately and I spent the rest of the night sitting with her and having seriously deep and philosophical conversations in the corner of the place. At the end of the evening at 6am she and her friends offered to drive me home so I accepted without hesitation.

Now comes Jeffa's favorite part...Just before I get out of the car, she asks me for my number. I reach for my wallet and pull out the number to read off to her. Not even a minute later, this lovely Sheila and I get out of the back seat of this two door hatchback, and say goodnight. The girls pull away and I open up the gate to the driveway. Just then I reach for my wallet, and I realize, that it is no longer in my pocket. Several possibilities raced through my head -

1. I must have dropped it in the back seat of her friend's car,
2. It must have fell out when I got out of the car or opened up the gate,
3. She picked my pocket.

Problem was

1. The key to the house was in my wallet
2. All of my money and IDs, insurance cards, etc. were in there,
3. I didn't have her contact info.

So basically, I was screwed. I had no way of getting into the house now. It was 6:30am and still dark out. I felt like a schmuck and so didn't want to ring the doorbell and wake anyone. Therefore I searched the entire area of the gate and driveway about 47 times hoping to find that I dropped it on my way from the car to the gate. Unfortunately, that was a fruitless search. So I walked around the block and then decided to lay down in the backyard looking up at the stars contemplating what the hell just happened and why. If I had been played by this girl, then I would have been really pissed. If I dropped it as I got out of the car, then I would feel much better, but still foolish. So the ball was in this girl's court and it was now just a waiting game where I had to hope she called me. I had to pray that the Discepola charm worked well enough to keep her interest.

Sunday, March 21st:

8am rolls around, I am freezing my bollucks off and just want to sleep, so I ring the bell and Jasper, Jeff's son, answers the door half asleep to let me in. I crash for a while and then decide to worry about the problem after I woke up. I told Jeffa and he and I proceeded to search the white pages. Unfortunately she wasn't listed. Fortunately, the Discepola charm worked and she called around 2pm. Ironically, her friend who had driven me home, crashed the car into a tree after dropping off the girl I met. Luckily, she wasn't injured. But, now, it was a Sunday afternoon and the car was impounded in some lot that was closed. When Jeff overheard this conversation, he lost it. He found this almost as funny as the wooden-bucktoothed-bandit who tried selling terrible wine to us in the Claire Valley the week before. In actuality, it was pretty ridiculous so then I started laughing hysterically with him.

This girl was a champ though. She got her friend's spare keys, drove over to this lot, climbed on her friend's shoulders, hopped over the barbed wire fence, got into the car, and found my wallet on the floor of the backseat. She called me with the good news. I was sooooo pumped. In turn, I went out with her that night to celebrate. And the next night. And the night after that...until I left. Basically, she turned out to be an amazing Italian Aussie Sheila...and I think she might find her way to New York City soon, so hopefully you guys will get to meet her.

Monday, March 22nd:

I went to training at the Port Magpies clubhouse. I had strained my shoulder in the game on Saturday and so had the trainer and doctor look at it. It turns out that I had sprained ligaments. Therefore I didn't lift, but rather did the running drills. This workout was exactly like the week before where we formed 4 groups and ran in rectangles. We would sprint about 80 yards, slowly jog for 40 meters, and repeat in the rectangle for 3 sets of 5 minutes each. I worked these sprints hard with the backmen and lead the pack each time. There was no ball work.

Tuesday, March 23rd:

I lounged around all day and then went to training with the Port Districts. This workout was all about drills and game situations. It was much more intense that the Port Magpies practice the day before.

We worked the ball up and down the field running in packs, taking marks, and doing goal kicking with a backmen kicking out of the goal square to get the ball moving back in the opposite direction down the field. Towards the end of practice we did full-on sprinting and marking. It was an awesome workout.

Wednesday, March 24th:

Jeffa took me to Victor Harbor, a seaside town about an hour outside of Adelaide to walk around, take pictures, and also see some Kangaroos, Koalas, Dingos, Crocs, etc. in a near by animal farm/zoo. That was pretty interesting. While there we had fried and breaded leather sandwiches for lunch disguised as Beef Schnitzel marinated in a liter of bacon fat and oil. The price was right, and the bar included a beer and a ticket for a horse race so we couldn't complain too much. On the whole we had a good time and thought of a creative and artistic internet enterprise. You can ask Jeffa for details on that business venture. I'll give you a hint-it has to do with crack, and I am not talking about the narcotic.

Thursday, March 25th:

During the day I did some shopping for a few souveneirs, relaxed, and got ready for the last day of training.

Training was light since the last trial game was coming up on Saturday. We did a lot of goal kicking and marking. Practice ended after 45 minutes, I said my goodbyes, thanked Paul Belton (the CEO), the rest of the club, and the players for giving me the chance to train with them. They gave me a Burley Ball to take home and a nice collared Port Adelaide Magpies shirt. I gave them our NY Magpies t-shirts on behalf of our club as a token of appreciation.

Since Jeffa and Malou had been cooking amazing dinners everynight, I took them and the champ out to dinner that night. We went to an Italian Ristorante around the corner. Dinner was excellent and we had a few good laughs.

Friday, March 26th:

I woke up, packed, and headed off to the airport with Jeffa and his brother Richard. We had planned on going to watch the Collingwood vs. Richmond opening AFL game at the MCG in Melbourne. As soon as we arrived, we unloaded our things and decided to get our drink on. Strangely, our hotel was located near some of the queerest bars/pubs, if you could even classify them as that, we have ever been to. The first drinking hole we went into had an open room with no tables, chairs, or stools. Just a bar and a couple of back rooms with 2 other people there. They served us urine sample sized plastic cups of beer. We tried to figure out what the hell was going on, came up without any real answers, and so left.

The next place we went to was trendy, but had the motliest crew of patrons in all of Australia, and possibly the southern hemisphere. I mean, it looked like a four-eyed, buck-toothed, large nosed,, hairy armpit and buttcrack convention in there. I think the name of the bar might have been called REJECTS, and Jeff, Rich, and I were caught staring with expressions of utter disgust several times. We couldn't stay there long due to the lackluster ambiance so we thought we'd find a decent place on the other side of town.

We walked quite a distance to a main drag. We stopped in several other disappointing places and saw several disappointing faces as well. We started playing the "yes/no" game which turned into the predominantly "NO! NO! NO!!!" game. Prior to coming here, my impression of Australian women was that they were very attractive on average. Better looking than the average Americana. I guess that is because they kicked all of the homely folks out of Sydney and Adelaide and sent them to Melbourne. Melbourne had the highest concentration of horrendous looking people that I have ever encountered. We were only there for a day, so I could have just had a bad impression. But the three of us concurred, so I feel confident in that statistic.

By the time the game was about to start, I was ready to pass out from all of the BEEEEEER I had. Jeffa and Rich were just getting warmed up though. So we headed for the MCG, found our seats and got our game faces on. The game was awesome. I have never seen a crowd so into their teams. Everyone was dressed up, carrying flags, painted, etc. just to support their teams. Apparently many fans had agreements with management to serve as unofficial coaches during the game where they could yell out instructions which the players were supposed to follow. The Richmond Tigers dominated the Collingwood Magpies. It was incredible to watch the game live and at such a high level with so much energy surrounding it.

After the game, we headed back to the hotel, called up Robbo but weren't able to get in touch with him, and then after about two hours of kicking back, we made our way to the Crown Casino. While there, we gathered more supporting data that our initial statistical commentary on the Melbourne scenery was extremely accurate. It was like being in Reno, which leads me to making two suggestions: 1) Never go to Reno 2) If you happen to go to Melbourne, bring a lady friend with you or drink yourself into oblivion until your standards disappear. And even then, still say NO!

Saturday, March 27th:

I woke up and headed for the airport. I flew back to Sydney, then to Los Angeles, and finally to Newark. It was a long and tiring journey back home. One that was not nearly as exciting as the trip to Australia.

What I learned from my HOW TO SPEAK AUSTRALIAN lessons:

Cheers, G'day means Hello/goodbye
Throw another Shrimp on the Barbie is bull because Aussies call Shrimp PRAWN and I never heard anyone say it
Straightaway means straightaway
Full-on means all out or hardcore
Mate means friend or buddy
Bloke means guy
Sheila means girl
Buggar, Buggar-off, Buggar-all mean many things, but usually used as an expression out of anger or frustration
Bollucks means B.S. or Balls
Trackydaks means Running pants
Mackers means McDonalds
Hungry Jacks means Burger King
Chips means French Fries
Tomato Sauce means Ketchup
Pasta Sauce means Tomato Sauce
Noooooyyyy means (No),
Whateva is self-explanatory
Bum means butt
Tosser means fagela
Tah means your welcome/goodbye
Oy - Hey (I am not sure)

And that is the end of my journal entries. That being said, I had an awesome time down under. It went perfectly. The only thing that could have made my trip better would have been to been asked to play in the AFL. My scholarship trip was that amazing. I'd like to thank the New York Magpies for offering me this incredible opportunity. It was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had, and one I will never forget.

I'd also like to thank Ojas (Juicer) for introducing me to Footy and setting a fine example, Pato for taking the time to work with me on all aspects of the game, Doug and the rest of the executive board for believing in and supporting me, Gazz for helping arrange all of the finances to make this trip happen, Chucky for starting the club in New York and helping me train, Rob Oliver for helping organize tickets to the Collingwood vs. Richmond game, Matty B for getting the journal entries up on the website, Guzz for looking out for me while I was in Sydney (Thanks to you and Jo for sending my digeridoo CD), and last but certainly not least, Jeffrey Farnham-Super Chef Extraordinaire and his family for being such tremendous hosts. You really made me feel like part of the family. Thanks for taking such good care of me while I was there. I'd also like to thank everyone else for all of your help and support since I first joined the team. If I failed to mention anyone I apologize, but there are just so many.

Sincerely,

Joseph P. Discepola

Port Adelaide Scholarship 2003 – Ojas Desai

Radio interview 1 (Windows Media) Radio interview 2 (Windows Media) Radio interview 3 (Windows Media)

Juice’s Journal

Sunday, March 2

I arrived in Adelaide and was picked up by Paul Belton, the CEO of the Port Adelaide Magpies, the New York Magpies sister club based in the South Australia League (SANFL), and his family. I am staying at their house. They drove me around the city, showed me some sights and also the Port Adelaide Magpies training facility and locker rooms. Its nice to see such beautiful footy ovals everywhere. I had an interview with "The Advertiser" (Adelaide's main/only paper) and met one the Port players. Its a pretty relaxing day after that, just watched the Wold Cup cricket, slept and ate.

Monday, March 3

Slept close to 15 hours and woke up, and cruised the beach around the Belton's house and saw some local sites. Tonight was the 1st training session and after arriving and meeting some of the players, I was thrown right in. After an initial 20min run and some handball lane work, we did a length of the ground drill - it involved a kick from the back 50m line through to center half fwd, and then hands to a player who either kicks a goal or kicks down a leading full forward. These guys are awesome, every kick is on the money. Almost a quarter of the guys training here have AFL experience (the SANFL is one level below the AFL) and two of the coaches have played AFL for a long time (Matthew Knights from Richmond and Darren Meade from Port Adelaide Power). To end it, we did some specialty position work. I went with the backmen and were we taught ways to defend different attacks coming from up the field, and then setting up different ways to move the ball upfield from fullback. Essentially I didn't do too bad, my hands are good, but the kicking here is amazing and the game is very fast, but I am here to learn.

Tuesday, March 4.

Cruised downtown a little bit. Its nice, like Kansas City with some Cali steez. Took in some sights did some touristy stuff. Before training today I had an interview with Channel 7 here in Adelaide and! they also took some footage of me practicing. I also did a radio interview with the local sports station. Everyone is really curious about football in the states and shocked to hear the amount of teams and how quickly the game is growing. Practice started off today with a handball game (pretty much a game of footy without kicking) and I did well at this. Then we did a long kicking drill to leading targets. It was setup like a rectangle and you receive a kick, then hands off to a running player who kicks the ball up the field. This was tough for me and I had a couple of mongrel kicks.

We ended with lane work handball and kicking for about 20mins. I have been doing more practice work with the reserves side as the A side (Seniors) are really good. Training ended and I come home, ate and slept.

Wednesday, March 5

Have no footy today so I went to the gym. This place was considered nice but compared to gyms in the states I thought it was sub par. After that we went around to Henley Beach and Glenelg (another yuppie beach town) with Rebecca, Jess (Paul Belton's daughters) and their friend Lisa. Had a couple of beers and chilled. Came home, ate some barbi and watched the news and saw myself on the tele, which was pretty exciting. Then went to see the girls play net-ball. Its not bad but basketball is better.

Thursday, March 6

Today I hung out with Lisa and she took me to a museum and downtown a little bit, we also got a behind the scenes tour of Football Park ("Footy Park" to the locals), the home of the Adelaide Crows. We saw the Crows facility and met their CEO (sorry Slater), one of their players also recognized me from the news, which was pretty cool.

Had lunch and then later off to practice. Started off with the 3 man weave handball drill but had two guys with pads checking in the middle. That was fun and again with hand balling drills I am fine. Then we did a 5 pt kicking drill around the goal square and 50m line. I did better today but had a couple of bad kicks. Finished off with lane work hands and then a lane work kicking drill with an emphasis on backing up. I also got some sh#t from some of the players for being on TV after 3 days in Oz.

Friday, March 7

No footy today, but had another interview with a local paper and also got to see the Power train, these guys do everything Pato says, playing on, talking, shepherding etc. It was nice to see. Later in the day a couple of the guys from the team took me around town to the Universities, to the Adelaide Hills, and to the mall to look for women, which was fun. Came home ate and went out with Rebecca and Jess to some pubs. I got recognized while I was out at a bar, which was cool, but I didn't go out too hard as we have a trial game tommorow, though I will just be an observer and not playing.

Saturday, March 8

Today was a trial game vs West Adelaide. I am just here to observe and go through the motions with the reserves side and see how they go. There is the initial warm up and motivational speeches and also the coaches tell us their game plan. We head out on to the oval and warm up and do some hands and kicking. We start off well and the Port boys are ready to play. Its only a trial game but the intensity is awesome. Near the end of the game, they tell me to loosen up. Shocked! was my reaction, but ready to go. I line upon half back flank and stick with my man, though he ends up scoring a goal off a loose ball. Not bad, it was good to get a run however. I was in for a minute or so, but just happy to get in. I should get a few minutes next weeknd. We then stick around to watch the seniors play and t hey do really well also. Port has a good side this year and ! the A side looks good.

After the game, I come home, eat up and relax as I am going to the footy tonight, Adelaide Crows vs Kangaroos (sorry Slats, Chucky). I end up sitting in the Magpies box and had a great time, watching the game. It was close and fun to a cross section of Aussie people. I saw dudes with mullets and fancy, city yuppies sipping wine during the footy. It was great to see the skills on these guys, and they are some big dudes. After the game I just go home and sleep, its been a long day.

Sunday March 9

Wake up at 7:30 and go to a recovery session at the pool. Just some jogging in the pool and a couple of laps. It was an easy session, but just a hassle to wake up. I go through that and go home to sleep. Later in the day I wake up and see a local baseball club with Rebecca and her friends. There are not bad talent wise and are like an above average high school team in the USA, though one of their players played with the Atlanta Braves single A team. That was fun and after that I went for a 5 mile beach run and worked on my kicking a little bit. After that, just watched Big Daddy and went to bed.

Monday March, 10

Today, I went into the downtown area to do some shopping and to cruise around a bit. Called my parents and my sister and just enjoyed the nice weather. At training tonight we starting off with shuttle runs. This was tough it was 2 mins on and 2 mins off and we did it 5 times. I held my own and it felt good to get a tough workout. Then we went into some handball work, and next moved onto a drill where one player takes a mark from half forward flank and quickly plays on and kicks to a bloke running up the ground from the goal square or a bloke run down from about Centre Half Forward. It was a good drill and my kicks were pretty good. From there we did a basic triangle kicking drill and then practiced goal kicking. At the end Darren Meade (one of the coaches) reviewed how the back-men did during the game, which finished it for the day.

BTW there was a drive by shooting at one of the night clubs and some of the players gave me sh#t about it saying I brought some NY attitude to the nice, quiet country town of Adelaide.

Tuesday, March 11

Today I checked out the West Lakes mall. It was like any US mall, but was something to do. At training today we began with 20 x 20m sprints, starting off in different positions like standing, sitting, and lying down, which wasn't too difficult. Then we did the handball game I described last week as it is a great way to get ready to train. From there we progressed into a 5 point kicking drill with 4 of the groups around the 50m and the other group at Full Back, which we performed with with 3 balls.

We then split up into 2 groups, with the A side and few of the better reserves doing some 18 on 18 work, while the rest of us worked on our hands and kicking skills. That was it for the day and then I went home and watched the cricket for 6 hours.

Wednesday, March 12

Pretty slow day, went to gym, ate, watched TV, took a walk, watched more TV, saw the Belton girls play netball. A very exciting day.

Thursday, March 13

After waking up, I had like 5 mile run and then ate and relaxed for while. After cruising around the beach I went to training, where we again started with the handball game. We then played a handball keep away drill, where two groups of 3 people line up across each other and try to keep the ball away from 2 blokes in the middle trying to take it away. Finished with long lane working kicking emphasizing backing up and talking. Later that night I watched the footy show and then lights out.

Friday, March 14

Today is the big day - I will be hanging out with Jeff Farnham. After cruising the city for a while, I met up with Jeffa and went to see his son play cricket while we were drinking some VB's. Then Jeff and I grabbed dinner at his Dad's restaurant and then went out to a few bars. It was a pretty dead night so we made it an early one as there were no women around.

Saturday, March 15

Trial games today, but I can't play in them for a variety of reasons. So I hung out in the stands with the injured guys and others and watch both games. Port Adelaide was beaten both times by Central Districts, one of the better teams in the South Australian competition (SANFL). Port did, however, have a lot of injured guys. The game was played at Port Elizabeth, an industrial area filled with a bunch of Australian Jerry Springer wannabes. Later in the evening we watched the Wizard Cup Grand Final (the pre-season competition for the AFL) where the Adelaide Crows beat our sister AFL club, Collingwood. After that I went out with! a few of the boys on the team for a wild night out. I got home at 6:45 am. More details to come as soon as I get them.

Sunday, March 16

Today, I worked with Jeff Farnham at his Dad's restaurant at the Norwood Food and Wine Festival (Norwood is a suburb of Adelaide). I worked for about 9 hours straight serving beer to thousands of drunks. It was a great festival lots of booze, food, great weather and hot women. Not a bad way to spend the day and get paid !

Monday, March 17

Hung out with Jeff and his family during the day and then he gave me a ride back to the Belton's place. It a hot day in Adelaide today, around 90-95 degrees, although luckily it's not humid. Training tonight starts off with shuttle runs, 1.5 mins on and 1.5 mins off, and we did 2 sets of 4. Feeling pretty tired, we went into simple handball work and then some more complicated handball games eg. two people and two footies; then one person in the middle and with 3 blokes around him and 2 footies. Following that, we went into a quick goal kicking drill.

Finally, we split up by position and talked about the game over the weekend. I stuck with the backmen and we listened to Darren Meade review our performance on the weekend. After training I worked out a little bit and then I was back home.

Tuesday, March 18

I went to the downtown Adelaide area and checked out a couple of more museums and got a haircut. It was hot again - closer to 95 today. Training was physical today, starting off with the handball game, and then moving on to a full ground drill, This drill involved taking a kick at Full Back with 3 guys running forward, who were being pressured by tacklers, with their goal to move the ball out to the Half Back Flanks or to the wing. These players were then to continue to run and provide options as the ball moved upfield eventually to Centre Half Forward or Full Forward before kicking a goal. This was a tiring drill because after running the length of the field you only just made it back to Full Back in time to do the drill again.

Finally, we ended with a tackling game. 4 blokes in the middle and 4 lines on both sides of them who try to play a handball keep away and not be tackled. This was fun and I held my own in the tackling. The players said I looked like a little Gridiron player in the drill and that they liked my 2nd and 3rd efforts and that I wasn't scared of throwing my body into the mess of players. After training I stayed up and watch the cricket and went to bed late.

Wednesday, March 19

Once again off to the gym today to lift after waking up late from cricket. It was another fairly dull day, I then watched some tele and went to the beach. I then went for a run and just sort of hung out.

Thursday, March 20

Today I went to the Clipsal 500 with the Port Adelaide statistician (Mark). It was like the Daytona 500 in that it is only big in Australia (as Daytona is only big in the US)and not so much on a global scale. It was just a practice day and a good chance to see the cars up close and see them on the practice runs. The crowd was an interesting mix but it was a fun day. While there I ate 2 yiros (gyros)and had 2 VB's; luckily though training will be light tonight as there is a match tommorow.

At training, we started off with some light half pace sprints and then went into lane work kicking. Then we a 3 point drill around the 50 m line, with one group in the goal square, one at half forward flank, and the other group at Centre Half Forward. The kick came from the goal square and was marked by the blokes at Half Forward Flank who then hand passed to the guys running down from Centre Half Forward, who finished the cycle by kicking a goal. We varied this up by also having the guys at Centre Half Forward swap from marking the ball to occasionally punch the ball to ground and having one bloke crumb and then hands off for a goal. That was pretty much it for training, as it is game day tommorow.

Friday, March 21

I caught the train to the city and cruised around for a while. I went to the Art museum and walked around the University of Adelaide. Today is the last trial match vs Woodville. Its local Friday night footy a nd its a nice atmosphere; it felt like Friday night high school football in the US, with the town coming down to watch their boys play. While Port Adelaide lost both games, they were trial matches with players out of position and injured, and the team looks ready to go for the season.

After that I went to the Port club and had a couple of beers. I met some "interesting" people there who were kind enough to buy me brewskys - can't say no to that.

Saturday, March 22

Off with the Farnham clan to Port Victoria to do some fishing. Its a small country town in South Australia where people go to relax and fish which is what we did. Very much a small country town feel to the place. I caught no fish or no women as the bar was 8 guys to every 2 old women. At least the beers were cold.

Sunday, March 23

The next day we went to Moonta, which is a bit nicer town but similar to Port Victoria. I caught a squid which was huge and enjoyed the nicer weather as it was freezing in Port Victoria. We then headed off and went to a BBQ at Papa Farnhams. Had some wine, ate the fresh squid and watched the Cricket World Cup. No problems here trying to find the game on the Tele. It was a nice relaxing weekend.

Monday, March 24

Woke up at Jeffa's place after the weekend and just chilled and watched television. Later Jeff and I came into the city and just walked around as he had a couple of errands to run. He then dropped me off and I hung around by myself before catching a train back.

At training today after warming up, we started off with 40 short acceleration sprints. You start by jogging 10m then sprint for 20m. Some of these you jogged sideways or backwards before doing the sprint. Then Darren Meade took us and we did hand pass drill. There were 3 lines, two pretty much facing each other and one group line up behind one of the groups. Meady kicked the ball to one the groups who got the ball handed off the the opposing group who then passed off the the 3rd group who tried to create a new angle by going out wide.

From that we went into a kicking drill to a lead. After taking a mark around Centre Half Forward we would then play on and kick to a bloke leading up from Full Forward. Finally we finished up with a similar drill this time, with a Full Back playing defense. He stood about 7-10m up the ground to cut off the lead from Full Forward and try to force a high kick that could be punched. After training I lifted and then jogged home.

Tuesday, March 25

Today I went down to the central food market in Adelaide. It's in the center of the city and has lots of fresh produce/meats and baked goods for sale. It also has a lot of places to eat and has a great variety of food options. I took a trip around the world, food wise, at some Turkish and Vietnamese sweets, some Italian rolls, some Greek olives and had lunch at a Thai place. It was good fun.

Training today started off with simple lanework kicking to get the legs warmed up. Then we went into the whole length of field drill I described last week, where you start off at Full Back and end up trying to kick into Full Forward. Finally we just did a handball drill with 3 lanes on each end facing each other and 3 guys in the middle with pads hitting them as they went through. That's it for today, I lifted after practice and headed off.

Wednesday, March 26

Again its a day off. So I went to a local oval (it's so nice to be able to walk and do that) and worked on my kicking. It was good to do this because I need as much repetition as I can get. After that I watched some tv and headed off into the city. I am meeting Jeff and his wife for dinner tonight at this great Indian restaurant named Jasmin. After a very dinner we headed to a local pub Jeff used to frequent in the 70's and had some Coopers. Then we split and I headed home.

Thursday, March 27

Today I went to the Migration museum here in Adelaide. It was great to learn about the stories of immigrants who came to Australia and in particular South Australia. Definitely felt like I came away with some knowledge after that visit.

Training tonight will be light as the boys have their first game tommorow night vs arch rival Norwood. Again, we started off with lanework kicking, then did a quick drill practicing different types of attacks on kickouts. This was done by grouping in the middle near Centre Half Forward and then coming up with an attack plan against either a zone or man on man. We ended with a 5 point handball drill which we do at training ourselves in NY. Thats it for that as I will be in Melbourne tommorow. Looking forward to that.

Melbourne, Friday to Monday March 28-31

It was all a blur and the days overlapped so I will just summarize.

Got in at around 12 on Friday arvo and took a bus to the city and then caught a cab to Port Melbourne where I will be staying with one of Pato's mates (Nappa). I got settled in and then took a walk around the area and saw the beach and ate at a local cafe. I am going to the footy tonight at the MCG to see Richmond (my new team) vs Collingwood (our sister team) It was a great atmosphere with 61,000 at the MCG, but with the southern stand missing the wind was hell on kicks. I went to game with a mate of Pato's (Faichs) and one of his mates Matt. We were the coalition of the willing as I was from the US, Faichs from Australia and Matt from the UK (Wales). At the game, I ate two meat pies for dinner because I felt like I had to. After the game which Collingwood won, we went out. First we went to a pub right off Punt Rd in Richmond and then we hung out in St Kilda till like 5 am. Pato's mates can sure booze and they all said the same thing about Pato, that being he doesn't party hard and that he is too responsible.

3 hours later I get a call from Wayne Campbell saying he is going to pick me up and take me to Richmond's recovery session. I am not taking part as I am very hungover, I will just be watching and sipping water. It was cool to meet some of the guys from team and see what they do after game days. After the session, he dropped me back and I slept off my hangover.

Sometime Saturday afternoon, I got a ride to downtown where I walked around for a couple of hours and saw Federation Square, and walked around the Yarra River and saw some other sights. Then I took the tram back to Nappa's place, which was an experience on its own. Back at Nappa's I watched some footy and then went for a run. This was a good way to work out and see some sights and the local talent.

Once I got back, we got ready to head out. We ate some Thai, watched some footy and then went out with Faichs and Matt to Fitzroy St to meet up with other friends of theirs. It was a very cool area with plenty of bars and cafes. We boozed it up and then went to a club where Nappa knew the owner. There we danced till about 6 am before heading out.

Woke up at 2pm on Sunday and had some food. Then after having watching more footy we went to a local pub where Nappa's buddies were playing in a band. Drank at the pub from about 4 - 9:30. It was a good, relaxing Sunday session which helped bring the trip to its logical end. We then ate some Hungry Jacks (Burger King) and then headed off. The great Melbourne trip was over and the next morning I was back in Adelaide.

Monday, March 31

Came back from Melbourne and arrived back in Adelaide. I took a long nap and relaxed and got ready for training. Today is a tough day. After warming up we do some running around the circumference of the two ovals. We start off jogging, then up to half speed and then up to three quarter speed and then back to a jog. At the end of the lap, we set up a tackling dummy where one bloke would go thru and tackle the dummy and sprint back to the group. Within the lap, there were 4 times where we changed speeds. We did this for 5 laps. This was a tough exercise in general but considering I had a lot of booze from Melbourne still flowing through my system it made it even tougher.

After that, Matty Knights spoke about looking to always play on and giving support to whoever takes a mark. We did a couple of drills where someone would take a mark and then quickly play on to someone running past them. He emphasized how you have to bust your arse to get into the vision of the mark taker so he can hand pass the ball. That was it for training as the Maggies had their first game two days prior, which they lost to Norwood. After training, I lifted some weights and then headed back home.

Tuesday, April 1

I went back into Adelaide city for what will be the last time. I walked around Rundle Mall and Hindley St and the North Terrace which is the best area to people watch in the city. I took a couple of pictures (figured I had to). After eating and surfing the net I headed back home and got ready to train at the 2nd to last training session. Started off with a warm up. Started off with a drill we have done in NY in the past. This is where we ran around in a large circle with a 2 or 3 footies where you had to use your voice to get the ball and you were always looking to keep running and trying to practice playing on. We did this with just hands and then we used a larger circle and added kicks also. I noticed my kicks getting better and felt more comfortable calling for the ball. After doing that we went into some 18 v 18 game style work and then called it a day. I lifted after training and then headed back home.

Wednesday, Apr il 2

Up early this morning as I am going to Barossa Valley today with a travel group that caters to backpackers. We met in the city at 8 am. On the tour bus there were the two female guides, a Japanese chick, one chick from Austria, one chick from France who looked exactly like Corey Feldman and one cute American chick from Cali. We drove through some beautiful countryside and got to the Barossa. While there we went to a few wine tastings and I learned a lot about S.A. wine. We had a BBQ lunch where I ate some Kangaroo and then went to some more wine tastings. I bought a couple of bottles and enjoyed the day. It was cool to meet some people from different parts of the world and drink with them. I also really enjoyed the wines and began to appreciate wine a bit more (Before this I was a High Life or Pabst Blue Ribbon man). Eventually, we got home and I thought it was a good touristy thing to do and something I wanted to do for a while.

Thursday, April 3

The last day in Adelaide is upon me. I woke up early and went to an early training session. I got a bit of one on one with Matty Knights and then did some extra kicking work. After that I did a bit of weights and then went to the Magpies offices. I saw their facilities and then went home to relax for a while.

This being my last day, Paul Belton and his wife Dee took me to the Mclaren Vale wine region. While there we had some more wine and went to about 4 wine tastings. I feel like I have become a bit of a wine connoisseur and it was nice to spend some time with the Beltons. Eventually we got back home and I got prepared to go to training with some wine floating around my stomach. This would be the last session.

Before the session I got a bit of send off and the guys presented me a guernsey for me to take home. This was a light session being that it was before game day. We again started of with the same the circle drill from Tuesday and then went into a 5 pt kicking drill around the 50m line. Then we went into lane work kicking with 3 people - one kicking, one as a back up and one person to run past for hands. Finally, we went into a five point handball drill and then called it a day. That is the end for me. I said my goodbyes and chatted with some of the players. These guys are serious about their football and don?t go out during the week so that was the last time I would see these guys. Later in the evening, I went out to a local pub called the Ramsgate with Pauls daughter Rebecca and some of her friends. It was a good night I made some new friends and helped prevent a fight between some dumb yobbos. I also drank a lot of Coopers Pale on the tap. We got home at 1 and that was it in Adelaide.

Friday, April 4

After saying my goodbyes to the Beltons I hopped on a 7 am flight to Sydney. I got into to town at 9 am and was at my cousins place at 10. I was really tired so I slept and relaxed for a while. Later in the evening after dinner I took the train into the city and met up with Guzzs mate Rob in Wolloomoolloo bay. I had a few drinks with him and his friends and met some drunken rednecks from Queensland who loved me because I was an American and because they consisdered I was fighting the Iraqis. Eventually the night ended and I went to Harrys Cafi de Wheels ate a pie and went home.

Saturday, April 5

Today my cousin took me to Bondi beach. We hung out there and had some food, its a nice beach but I heard people say its a bit touristy. After that, we drove to the Gap (not the store) and saw some beautiful scenery of the ocean, the cliffs and Watson Bay. Sydney is absolutely gorgeous and everything I have heard about its beauty is true. Then we went to Doyles at Watsons Bay and had some fish and chips and a couple of beers (Tooheys of course since I was in Sydney). Later in the evening we went home and had a BBQ. In the evening we went to a local pub called the Epping Hotel and had a few drinks there before calling it a night.

Sunday, April 6

Today I went out to the Rocks market and bummed around Sydney. I cruised around the Harbour Bridge area and Dawes point and then went to the Opera House. I also took a bunch of pictures finally. I then took a ferry to Manly Beach, which was an awesome ride. There was great scenery and lots of pretty women ready to get nekid on the beach. Manly is a lot better than Bondi and it was fun to cruise around and people watch while I was there. Later I got back to the city and just walked around but it was 5 on a Sunday and things were starting to close so I hopped on a train and headed back.

Monday, April 7

Today I went to Darling Harbor. Its a very nice area with good shopping and lots of bars and cafis. It seems like a great area to party at night. However for me it was about 11:30 in the afternoon and I was by myself so I really didnt experience much of the partying. After eating lunch with my uncle downtown I walked through what could be considered the Greenwich Village of Sydney. The area was called Paddington and it was on Oxford st. It is a very fashionable area but it was an interesting walk with lots of trendy shops and cafes. Later I walked around Hyde Park and near the Australian Museum before calling it a day and heading back home.

Tuesday, April 8

I went shopping downtown to the Pitt St mall and bought some gifts for some people. Then I went on a Pub crawl by myself. First, I went to the Hero of Waterloo and had a beer there. Its a quaint nice pub that goes off on Sundays. Later, I went to the Lord Nelson, which is the oldest pub in Sydney. It was a nice spot to go and I had a beer and lunch while I was there. After that I went to Observation Hill and took some pictures while there. Later I found an outdoor exercise area and did some pull-ups and dips before I took a walk over the Harbour bridge and went to North Sydney and hung out there for a while. I had another beer at the Kirribilli Hotel and then walked back to downtown Sydney. Another long day was over and I headed home.

Wednesday, April 9

Today was an awesome day because I went surfing for the first time in my life. I woke up at 6:15 and got to Manly around 8:30 for my surf lesson. After an initial lesson on the sand we w ere ready to head out. On the first wave, I was able to stand and it was quite a thrill. We were out there for about 1.5 hours and I loved every minute of it. I have wanted to go surfing ever since I was 13 and it was awesome to live out my dream. The instructor Adam said I was a natural at it. I just hope I can keep up with it and at least surf occasionally. After that I hung out with Jane who is Matty Bs friend. She took me to some more beaches. We went up to Newport Beach and had lunch and a couple of beers at the Newport Pub. Then drove up to Palm Beach, which is an area for the rich and famous. While there we hiked up to a lighthouse and got a great view of the ocean and the bay with a strip of land in between. Then we got some ice cream and I went back to the city. Then I left and went home as it was a long, tiring day. That was pretty much it for Sydney.

Thursday, April 10

I had a 2 pm flight back to NYC so I did some shopping at a local market and then headed off to the airport. Then about 20 hours later I was in New York and my great Australian adventure was over.

Final thoughts and thanks:

First I want to thanks the Magpies - both the New York Magpies and the Port Adelaide Magpies. Without them I would never have had the opportunity to travel to Australia like I did. Getting a chance to play football in Australia was a great experience and one that I will never forget.

The biggest thanks has to go to Paul Belton and family. They took me into their home and made me feel like family. I am very grateful for that. Next, I want to thank the players and staff of Port Adelaide who were so nice and helpful that they made feel like part of the club.

I also want to thank Jeff Farnham and family. Jeff was obviously huge in setting up the scholarship and was good enough to show me around a bit while I was out there. I also have to thank Pato. Besides for helping me with all the little things surrounding the scholarship he was huge in setting up my accommodations in Melbourne and then with my final radio interview with 3AW in Melbourne. Also, I have to thank Guzz and Gary for helping me some of the financial aspects and details of the trip, and finally thanks to Chucky for some helpful advice before I went to P.A and I guess for founding the club.

My favorite things about Australia:

Weather, footy, Four n twenty pies, beaches, yiros, women, wine, BEER (especially Coopers on tap and Tooheys New) pubs, beetroot and shredded carrots on sandwiches

Things I wasn’t a fan of:

Pizza here sucks, there is not enough sauce (not ketchup) and it just plain stinks and I had it in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. Jeff knows all about this complaint. Ready made sandwiches on baguettes. I hate that, its so European, plus there wasnt enough meat on it. Aussie TV shows, most are pretty bad, no wonder they get some many US shows. Rugby League, I saw some on TV in Sydney its not too exciting.

Once again thanks and I cant wait to get going in NY with the Pies.