Over the summer

Another great pre-season has passed us and we’re now well into the season but I thought I’d take the chance to look back for one week and fill you in on a few of the events from 04-05 pre-season here at the Power.

The man who leads us through pre-season training, our new fitness coach, has slotted in very nicely and has done a fantastic job. Darren Burgess is his name and the guys love him. He is a soccer fan and I have often had a kick of the soccer ball in the gym with him and Scott Barrow our weights coach and I have to thank those sessions for my goal against the Crows!

As some of you will know, there were many marriages over the summer, specifically D. Wakelin, S. Cochrane, and W. Tredrea.

I hear Wakes’ wedding was a great day over in Melbourne with family and friends.

Stuey’s was again a great day here in sunny Adelaide which I was lucky enough to attend. All the girls looked great as did the guys as the temperature was quite high with the mercury up around 40c and the “lagoon’ sweat marks in the shirts were quite prominent so the jackets stayed on. Although someone didn’t wear a jacket!! Guess who?!

And finally Wazza’s, whose wedding to Rachael over the summer was from what I hear a great day, no cost was spared, and received almost as much publicity as Charles and Camilla! At least Wazza and Rach are good looking!

There were also many engagements – M. Bishop, M. Primus, K. Cornes, D. Brogan.

None of these came as a surprise to the boys although I’m not much of a betting man as my money was on Kane to beat the rest. Instead, he came in last but good things come to those who wait.

Summer also saw the arrival of a baby for Kingers. Let’s hope Nadine picks the clothes for the young girl as it’s well publicised that Kingers doesn’t have the best wardrobe.

Gavin Wanganeen purchased a blowfish over the summer and thought that it was lonely so he bought 30 little fish to keep it company. Except Gavin found it was not only lonely but was also quite hungry and 30 fish later at $3 dollars each and the blowfish is still lonely but no longer hungry.

Jacob Surjan had a car accident (not his fault) and then proceeded to have an accident in the loan car (his fault) so if anyone wants a rating 10 driver give Surj a call.

Toby has a new pet snake called Trouser, who made its first TV appearance barely two weeks after Toby had got him.

Ryan “Bruce” Willits won the award for the first spew of the new guys’ pre season after a hard running session up hills. Don’t worry Brucey we have all been there!

A few of the boys have ventured into business lately and the group that is Matthew Primus, Warren Tredrea, Chad Cornes, Josh Francou, and yours truly have gone in with the Franzon Group (which is Tony, Pete, Vicki, and Matty) to buy the Hyde Park Tavern on King William Road. Nice place and great food so head down there for a look and put it all on Tredders account I’m sure he won’t mind or even notice as I’ve been doing it for the last few weeks and he hasn’t said anything. Thursday night the boys will be in there earning their keep so we are looking forward to it! Good function room for hire upstairs too with great facilities including a bar, kitchen facilities and sound system with 2 plasmas and a couple of balconies looking over the trendy precinct that is King William Road. So if you’re having an 18th, 21st, 50th or engagement or you just want to throw a party because you can, ring the Hyde Park Tavern and tell them I sent you on 8272 0800. Enough of the plug…

We have a fines system at the club to raise money for a trip that we deduct at the end of the year except someone forgot to tell Jimmy Ezard we pay at the end of the season as he was fined $20 in his 1st week for being drafted and on the next Monday he walked up to Ladey who documents the fines and gave him $20. So we fined him another $20 for trying to pay early! He is in quite a predicament as now we fine him if he doesn’t pay on the spot or we fine him for paying early, so any donations for the Jimmy Ezard fund can be dropped off at reception of the Allan Scott Headquarters under my name and I’ll gladly pass it on.

Our trip to Tasmania was quite a success and was a great chance to get to know the new guys a lot better. We did a few different things like kayaking and also orienteering. The six hour hike was a highlight for most of the players. The team that Matty Primus and I were in took out the trophy for best team after a stirring effort from the boys in the orienteering, not to mention some experience from myself who had $20 in my sock just in case we were running late to get back to camp. It turned out we were and it came in very handy for paying some locals for a car ride back which was a great move especially when we passed a couple of teams pounding the pavement only for them to not quite make it back in time! The organisers did say do the course ‘by any means’. Myself and Poults have now been in winning teams for our camps in New Zealand and now Tasmania so wherever we go next year I want him by my side.

Now it’s time for the Overdewww ‘SPOTTED’ section… It seems to be all the rage to publish where people have been seen, so I thought I’d better follow suit in my column.

This week Darryl Wakelin was SPOTTED having boxing lessons. Better late than never.

I was looking at some of the photos of the boys on the website and have come up with some look-a-likes that I will reveal over the next few weeks but I’ve kicked it off with young Brad Symes and Eddie Munster. You can find it HERE. Let me know what you think.

Just finally I know everyone might want a David Arnfield update who I debuted Overdewww with last week and I’m happy to report his vehicle has once again found its way onto Alberton Oval, this time wedged between the southern end goalposts. Never have the boys kicked so straight at goals which prompted me to seek permission from the AFL to be able to park Arny’s car directly behind the goals this Friday night against the Cats to straighten up our kicking after last week! I haven’t heard back from them yet...