CAPTAIN’S DIARY – EDITION 6
Friday, 29 August 2008 1:00pm
with Emirates Western Force UK Tour Captain David Pocock
With the tour drawing to a close I thought it might be best to share with a few of the new nicknames and allegiances that have been formed over the past few weeks in England.
The flouro crew – You’ve heard about these guys – Dane H-P, Justin Turner (now simply known as Greg after Mr Greg Greggson off the ABC's Summer Heights High), Tommy Murday (known as Bones due to his lankiness) and Jimmy O'Connor (rabbit) are still walking around in their short shorts (or skinny jeans when its cold) and lairy t-shirts thinking they own the place.
Lenny Tia Tia, Dion Berryman and Kieran (known by most as K-Bomb - possibly for his explosive moves on the dance floor) and Filipe Manu (Flipper) have formed a little movie club, spending almost all of their days on the pillow with the in-house movies on.
Flipper continues to sing all day and all night… anything from Luther Vandross (which he does really well) to Usher. He may have a really good voice and puts it to good use but after four long weeks a few of the guys have asked him not to sing ALL the time.
Head of the Latte set Gareth Hardy (Boof) and Troy Takiari (Chicken) can usually be seen having a coffee in the lobby between training sessions speaking their own front row language.
Table tennis has been a popular way to pass time and Big Murph (Brent Murphy) has dominated everyone on the tables. The boys have really gotten into it after watching some of Olympic table tennis. Challengers like Junior Pelesasa, Chris O'Young and Scott Daruda have been battling out for the silver.
On that note, we are all sick and tired of hearing how 'Team GB' finished with more medals than Australia... Oh how sweet it would be to win more medals than them in London in 4 years time...everyone loves to hate a Pom whinging about losing at sport.
It was very sad to see Caleb Brown head back to the gold coast after he tweaked his hammie at training. He has become one of the real characters of the team, and has been missed since he left. We all wish him well with his rehab... ‘Prehab brown’ will become rehab Brown for a few weeks no doubt.
One of the characters to emerge on the tour is our team doctor, Mark de Cruz. He has really added life to the tour and is always enthusiastic and positive about things and the players appreciate this… as well as keeping us entertained with his (unique) running style as he usually runs laps around the ovals during our training sessions.
I've got to hand out a few raps for our staff as well, as everyone has worked tirelessly to make sure everything has run smoothly throughout a long and tough tour.
Physios Greg (Mullet, Mullington or Gregski) Mullings and Robert (Naishy, Roberto) Naish have done a fantastic job in dealing with and preventing soft tissue injuries during the tour. There’s been a fair few injured blokes to work on and every time i walk past the physio rooms, whether it be on my way to breakfast or in the arvo after training, they have been hard at it.
Our strength and conditioner, Warren Andrews, or Waz, has also done a great job, squeezing in weights sessions around games and our field sessions.
One last hurdle before we head home and a tough one too, against Leicester tomorrow afternoon. Let’s hope we can finish the tour with a big win.
