Clontarf: Centralian Academy-News: Representing Clontarf

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Words: Tilman Lowe
Photos: Scott Appleton
September 10th, 2009

REPRESENTING THE CLONTARF FOUNDATION IN MELBOURNE

SOME OF THE local players went to Melbourne and Adelaide for the week to meet the sponsors and take in some of the sites like the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) and the Woodside Army Barracks in Adelaide.

The leadership group from the Centralian Clontarf Football Academy have just returned from a trip from Melbourne and Adelaide which went from the 6th to the 11th of August. The group took the midday flight out of Alice to Melbourne to begin their tour of the south-east. The first event of the trip was the Marngrook footy show which finished the first day. It was fun to get on telly and meet the fellas on the show. After a good sleep the boys were pumped and ready to go and see the sites and meet new people.

The next few days consisted of sponsor meetings and seeing some of the AFL matches played. The sponsors seemed to get along great with us as the fellas told their stories of their lives and how the Clontarf Foundation had affected their lives. The fellas and the supervisors enjoyed the AFL games. West Coast Eagles v Western Bulldogs and also Carlton v Geelong, with West Coast and Carlton being the two victors, which made some of the guys very happy for the rest of the trip. Also we visited the Lexus centre where the Collingwood Magpies train to see what a training facility of an AFL team looks like. We also visited the Melbourne Demons training to see how the pros do it. We caught up with Liam Jurrah!

When we arrived in Adelaide we headed straight for the hills, to the Woodside barracks where we spent two days learning about what its like to be in the army. The early morning army had some of the fellas getting angry with each other, but the tempers soon stopped when they were given a go on the obstacle course which was above a heated indoor pool. The guys got shown the tools of the trade like the weapons that are used like rocket launchers and machine guns, the training that had to be done and the facilities that are used. By the end of the trip all the fellas were happy to be going home to catch up on some much needed sleep, but at the same time they didn’t want to leave.

I interviewed Sam Paynter, who was one of the fellas who went on the trip with me. He said “The trip was really good, it was great to see Melbourne because it is a big city and different from Alice Springs. I gained better friendships with some of the other guys as well, which is good. I liked how friendly the people we met were and how they wanted to know so much about my life.” Many of the guys that went had the same feelings about the trip. When asked, the guys said that some of their favourite things on the trip was going to the AFL matches and seeing their teams win and others said that they liked going up in the tall buildings and seeing the view of the city from the top. All the fella’s can’t wait til the next trip to see what happens then.