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Sometimes it feels like so much has happened since the last time I wrote on here that I don’t have time to stop and get it down. And that makes it worse because then there is even more that has happened.

So this is not so much an attempt at a catch up as just a rambling post covering various things that have happened to me recently.

Football

We played a night game Saturday night. We won in the last few minutes after a pretty tough contest. They got an early lead and then we had to peg them back. I played defence for 3 quarters with one entire quarter off the ground. I did give away a 50 metre penalty in the last quarter with a few minutes to go and we were leading by 5. Fortunately he missed his kick at goal and we rushed it through for a behind. We ended up winning by 4 points.

I had to get up at 6:35 this morning. Was on the road by 6:45 and at the ground by 7:15. We stood around talking for a few minutes then headed into the change rooms to get rubbed, strapped and dressed. Coming  out on to the ground we discovered it was still quite wet with dew, and very small for an AFL ground. I think it was probably 30-40 metres short and probably 20 metres less wide. This made for an interesting game as 36 blokes got very close together – not a lot of room for kicking.

I was put at fullback for the entire game. The first bloke I had to mark up on playing full forward was way too fast for me. He got in front of me and took an easy mark. So I played a little in front of him for a it and spoiled the next couple of marks he ran for, and then a ball cam spiraling down toward us – I held him off and the ball sailed over my head and he grabbed it. Very annoying. Two goals scored on me. The next ball that came our way was way out on the sideline and was being tussled over by the forward pocket and half forward for their team and our back pocket and half back flank. My man went running there looking for the ball and as he got there I hit him hard. He didn’t come back for the rest of the game and I had a succession of other players rotate through full forward. One was a good 8 inches taller than me, but he was the easiest to mark. All though he ran hard he wasn’t too fast and i was able to keep body contact on him long enough to spoil his runs. I was also able to hold him away from the ball and stopped him getting involved in numerous passages of play. I did have one other chap that subbed for him who kicked two easy goals on me which was also annoying, but the rest of the guys who came in I either blocked them from marking or punched the ball away.

I had never played in the back line before the last game, and now I have had 2 games at full back, got coaches award for one and was mentioned second today. I didn’t think I had that good a game, but the other blokes all reckoned I did. Maybe I am just too hard on myself.

The Russians must have had a spray from the coach at half time because they came out a different looking side. They took the attack to Spain right from the kick off. This opened the play up somewhat and both sides

had opportunities but with no result in the first 15 minutes.The Spanish forwards are carving up the Russian backline. As a result every time Russia get control now they slow the game down. Spain keep sending through balls in. The last one I just saw cam flying down the field and the keeper actually cam outside the box sliding in to clear it away from under the attackers feet.

Another goal for Spain and a hat trick now for David Villa on his debut for Spain. The through ball was an incisive pass across the lagging defence to Villa who jinked around his man and then dodged the rushing in other backs and put it over the keeper in the 75th minute.

The boys & I have been making a night of it.After I got home from football training, Judith, Jamie, Michael & I played a game of Munchkins. Following that it was onto the Playstation for FIFA 2007.After helping AC Milan beat Inter & then lose to Chelsea we got ready to watch a game of Euro 2008.

This game is being played in Innsbruck in Austria & is between Russia & Spain.

Spain kicked off and got off to a slow start but after applying pressure for  15 minutes or so scored about 20 minutes in. Russia came straight back & only the post saved Spain. The next 5 minutes Spain just knocked it around the each other while Russia kept a tight defence. The next 20 minutes were more the same. Very unexciting football, though Russia had a chance at 38 minutes but was narrowly offside.

with 1 minute to go Spain scored again will an awesome through ball and go to the halftime break with good lead.