Competitions 2018 NMFC Player Sponsors - Competition #2 - Skills Session

[Twinkletoes]

ROO BOY IN W.A has moved back to Melbourne in recent months Chad so he should be able to enjoy this prize.

 

[King Corey]

ROO BOY IN W.A can you try to focus the session on teaching them to go front and centre at the fall of the ball and looking upfield to see if there's a North jumper in position before blindly kicking it to a solo Jake Lever?

 

[Chadwiko]

At this stage I'd just be content with ROO BOY IN WA answering his PM

 

[Chadwiko]

Get your entries in before Sunday 8 April, and names will be drawn on Monday 9 April.
I'll need your names/phone numbers, so if you win be ready to answer your PM on Monday 9th April.

Hey all,

Just a reminder; if you're going to enter these during the year, you really need to be someone who can answer your PMs during the day because I need your name/contact details to provide to the club.

In future I'll end the draws with more time ahead of the deadline for getting the details to the club, but in short; make sure your phone has notifications on or something so when I PM you congratulating on your win and asking for details, you can respond promptly

 

[Twinkletoes]

At this stage I'd just be content with ROO BOY IN WA answering his PM

He's probably at work. I've sent you his stalkbook deets anyway Chadley.

 

[Le Grille]

He's probably at work. I've sent you his stalkbook deets anyway Chadley.

Redraw!

 

[Twinkletoes]

Redraw!

I'll send your stalkbook deets as well then.

 

[RooBoyz24]

Thanks I will enjoy it and Cunners my Boy I’m coming for you.

 

[Chadwiko]

Let us know tonight how you went lads

hsquid ROO BOY IN W.A

 

[hsquid]

I'll write something up tonight.
Short answer: great opportunity to mingle and actually chat to the players.

 

[RooBoyz24]

Hi Guys what a fantastic evening it was last night


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[RooBoyz24]

Thanks for the opportunity and it’s something that will e with me for a long time.Had a good chat to LDU and what a great young man he is.
Should be proud to have him wearing the No9.Spoke to him about the draft and he thought he would end up @Fremantle.Then the night before his Manager said it’s the Blues.
The morning of the Draft he was told he would be @ the Roos.So just a little on what the boys go through regarding the draft.


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[RooBoyz24]

Asked about the No 9 jumper and he said there is a lot of history with the jumper and hopes to do the number proud.I said how was it playing the blues last week and said yeah it was crazy out there.



On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[hsquid]

Hi guys, thanks all for a great opportunity.

I arrived there with my wife and boys (4 & 6) a bit before, hanging around a bit uncertain what was going to happen. My wife had bagsed the second slot but when the time came she saw the excitement on the faces of the boys and asked if she could switch out for one of them. The North people were fine with both boys joining in so that's how it went. It turned out there were lots of kids there, although mine were the smallest.

The session was 30 minutes of 'skills' on the oval followed by 90 minutes of hanging out in an upstairs function room. The players were all there, except a few absentees (Cunnington, Preuss, Macmillan, Higgins & Thompson were the ones I noticed).

Skills were in three sessions of 10 minutes. The first was with Maj, Brown, Durdin, Turner and a couple of others rolling a ball to you then bumping you with cushions as you collect, handball, then jump on a speccy bag as someone throws a ball to you. Then you run and crash tackle two dummies, and go to the back of the line. The boys had no clue but were excited anyway. Seeing the 4 y.o. trying a speccy as Ben Brown basically placed the ball in his hands brought a tear to the eye.

The second 10 minutes was handballing. Marshalled by Taz, Jacobs, Ahern, LDU and a couple of other. Me and the boys were in a line receiving and handballing to LDU and running round behind. The boys managed to catch a few but not so great on the handballs. The 6 y.o. was proud that he was making it hard for LDU to catch: will make a shinboner that lad. Then it switched: Get a pair and race handballs. First to 2, first to 4. I don't think the boys caught a single one, but hey, they had fun.

The third 10 minutes was kicking into wheelie bins. Now I live in Malaysia and my boys have never kicked a footy. The 4 y.o. was having a great time kicking it over his head, wherever. The 6 y.o. sulked when he couldn't kick as well as the bigger kids. I managed to get every single one of my kicks off the side of the boot. Consistent.

Then they called us inside and presented a table full of sausages, hamburgers and bread, plus a table of drinks. The room was full of oversized party games. And so began that strangely awkward dance of wanting to talk to the players without wanting to be too much of a dick about it.

The 4 y.o. had sat himself down at a small table with sheets of paper with kangaroos on them and coloured pencils and started colouring in. EVW sat next to him and they did it together.

I'd already had some contact with Majak: I used to work in South Sudan and I'd sent him a note asking if my 6 y.o. could meet him, so I strode over to introduce myself. He was really friendly and we talked for about 20 minutes about all sorts of stuff: learning English, traveling in Portugal, "Hello Darkness My Old Friend", his dad was a school teacher etc. Nothing about football really so I'll spare you the details. Summary: He was really approachable and down-to-earth.

Meanwhile my two boys were playing a giant game of Connect 4 with Jack Ziebel and Josh Williams. They were a lot more interested in the game than in the players. I went and talked to Paul Ahern, introducing myself as one of the bigfooty sponsors. This was much more of a football conversation. The highlights were:

• He didn't have any explanation for why the VFL team started slowly.
• He agrees we have a pretty good VFL team on paper.
• He's running out games well, body is feeling good, it's just a matter of getting back into habits of playing.
• He started back off the HBF to ease himself into it, easier to get into the rhythm with the ball in front of him.

I looked around and my boys were now playing Connect 4 with EVW. He was letting them win. I took that as an opening and went over. Ed is everything we know he is. A genuine clean cut guy that likes to think about the game. I asked him if the defence was disorganised against Melbourne because Taz was missing. He bristled a bit, saying it's all more complicated, that there are a lot of moving pieces and it's not as simple as one thing. I said the St. Kilda game was fantastic in that it we always seemed to win the ball by outnumbering them at the contest. But Melbourne was the opposite. He said, well yes, that was it. I asked him how he manages playing on the talls and he said he just studies them closely and knows what his relative strengths and weaknesses are, that he might just have 3-4 one-on-one contested situations in a game, and he just has to work out how to win those somehow. I got the sense that he manages to play on talls just by thinking it all through a bit more clearly than his opponent. The value of smarts.

Last off I asked my 6 year old if he wanted to meet Ben Brown. Not yet, he says, he needs to finish his game. C'mon, there's only a couple of minutes left. Ok he says and armed with my excuse I go. Ben Brown is as warm and generous as you expect. Bending all the way down to try to engage the boys and posing for a photo. There's not much time left, so just a few more fairly formulaic comments and the night is done. I got in the taxi and went straight to the airport for an overnight flight back to Malaysia, very pleased to have postponed my flight a couple of days.

All in all, a well run event. The players were all really approachable and down-to-earth if you had something interesting to engage them on. They also seemed to know some of the individual player sponsors and just be hanging out with them really naturally. Thanks NMFC, thanks to the player-sponsorship group and thanks again to Chadwicko for organising. A really special night.

One last thing: those KPP have REALLY BIG HANDS. Mine got lost in the handshakes.



"Aim for the feet".


“When the wave functions of the nuclei are coherent within a Heisenberg radius...”


"Don't worry bro, that's his knee"


"Jack, for god's sake LOOK first"

 

[Twinkletoes]

Superb writeup hsquid. Don't be fooled by EVW colouring-in alongside your son. It's quite possible that he was explaining nuclear fusion with each stroke of the pencil.

 

[Chadwiko]

Great writeup hsquid - hoping it inspires more people to sign up as player sponsors next year!

 

[blackshadow]

Sounds like a fantastic experience! Excellent write up hsquid!

Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk

 

[hsquid]

Superb writeup hsquid. Don't be fooled by EVW colouring-in alongside your son. It's quite possible that he was explaining nuclear fusion with each stroke of the pencil.

Lol. Added an appropriate caption.

 

[gokangas]

Hi guys, thanks all for a great opportunity.

I arrived there with my wife and boys (4 & 6) a bit before, hanging around a bit uncertain what was going to happen. My wife had bagsed the second slot but when the time came she saw the excitement on the faces of the boys and asked if she could switch out for one of them. The North people were fine with both boys joining in so that's how it went. It turned out there were lots of kids there, although mine were the smallest.

The session was 30 minutes of 'skills' on the oval followed by 90 minutes of hanging out in an upstairs function room. The players were all there, except a few absentees (Cunnington, Preuss, Macmillan, Higgins & Thompson were the ones I noticed).

Skills were in three sessions of 10 minutes. The first was with Maj, Brown, Durdin, Turner and a couple of others rolling a ball to you then bumping you with cushions as you collect, handball, then jump on a speccy bag as someone throws a ball to you. Then you run and crash tackle two dummies, and go to the back of the line. The boys had no clue but were excited anyway. Seeing the 4 y.o. trying a speccy as Ben Brown basically placed the ball in his hands brought a tear to the eye.

The second 10 minutes was handballing. Marshalled by Taz, Jacobs, Ahern, LDU and a couple of other. Me and the boys were in a line receiving and handballing to LDU and running round behind. The boys managed to catch a few but not so great on the handballs. The 6 y.o. was proud that he was making it hard for LDU to catch: will make a shinboner that lad. Then it switched: Get a pair and race handballs. First to 2, first to 4. I don't think the boys caught a single one, but hey, they had fun.

The third 10 minutes was kicking into wheelie bins. Now I live in Malaysia and my boys have never kicked a footy. The 4 y.o. was having a great time kicking it over his head, wherever. The 6 y.o. sulked when he couldn't kick as well as the bigger kids. I managed to get every single one of my kicks off the side of the boot. Consistent.

Then they called us inside and presented a table full of sausages, hamburgers and bread, plus a table of drinks. The room was full of oversized party games. And so began that strangely awkward dance of wanting to talk to the players without wanting to be too much of a dick about it.

The 4 y.o. had sat himself down at a small table with sheets of paper with kangaroos on them and coloured pencils and started colouring in. EVW sat next to him and they did it together.

I'd already had some contact with Majak: I used to work in South Sudan and I'd sent him a note asking if my 6 y.o. could meet him, so I strode over to introduce myself. He was really friendly and we talked for about 20 minutes about all sorts of stuff: learning English, traveling in Portugal, "Hello Darkness My Old Friend", his dad was a school teacher etc. Nothing about football really so I'll spare you the details. Summary: He was really approachable and down-to-earth.

Meanwhile my two boys were playing a giant game of Connect 4 with Jack Ziebel and Josh Williams. They were a lot more interested in the game than in the players. I went and talked to Paul Ahern, introducing myself as one of the bigfooty sponsors. This was much more of a football conversation. The highlights were:

• He didn't have any explanation for why the VFL team started slowly.
• He agrees we have a pretty good VFL team on paper.
• He's running out games well, body is feeling good, it's just a matter of getting back into habits of playing.
• He started back off the HBF to ease himself into it, easier to get into the rhythm with the ball in front of him.

I looked around and my boys were now playing Connect 4 with EVW. He was letting them win. I took that as an opening and went over. Ed is everything we know he is. A genuine clean cut guy that likes to think about the game. I asked him if the defence was disorganised against Melbourne because Taz was missing. He bristled a bit, saying it's all more complicated, that there are a lot of moving pieces and it's not as simple as one thing. I said the St. Kilda game was fantastic in that it we always seemed to win the ball by outnumbering them at the contest. But Melbourne was the opposite. He said, well yes, that was it. I asked him how he manages playing on the talls and he said he just studies them closely and knows what his relative strengths and weaknesses are, that he might just have 3-4 one-on-one contested situations in a game, and he just has to work out how to win those somehow. I got the sense that he manages to play on talls just by thinking it all through a bit more clearly than his opponent. The value of smarts.

Last off I asked my 6 year old if he wanted to meet Ben Brown. Not yet, he says, he needs to finish his game. C'mon, there's only a couple of minutes left. Ok he says and armed with my excuse I go. Ben Brown is as warm and generous as you expect. Bending all the way down to try to engage the boys and posing for a photo. There's not much time left, so just a few more fairly formulaic comments and the night is done. I got in the taxi and went straight to the airport for an overnight flight back to Malaysia, very pleased to have postponed my flight a couple of days.

All in all, a well run event. The players were all really approachable and down-to-earth if you had something interesting to engage them on. They also seemed to know some of the individual player sponsors and just be hanging out with them really naturally. Thanks NMFC, thanks to the player-sponsorship group and thanks again to Chadwicko for organising. A really special night.

One last thing: those KPP have REALLY BIG HANDS. Mine got lost in the handshakes.


View attachment 485121 View attachment 485122
"Aim for the feet".

View attachment 485123
“When the wave functions of the nuclei are coherent within a Heisenberg radius...”

View attachment 485124
"Don't worry bro, that's his knee"

View attachment 485125 View attachment 485127
"Jack, for god's sake LOOK first"

Ripper report - thanks.