everyone needs introductions

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Name: Tom
Screen name: A (not so) clever play on my surname. It does however become much funnier as my boss and I conspire to get ever higher levels of management within my company to start calling me sleezy in meetings.
Age: 26
Location: Perth - as of 4 days ago, formerly Karratha & Melbourne.
Occupation: Engineer
AFL Team: Port Adelaide
Other Sports: Cricket, Cycling, Badminton & Surf Life Saving
Footy club/history in the family:
No athletes in the family - though dad turned down the opportunity to train with South Melbourne as a teenager. Was even made fun of on Adam Hills for it:



Supporting Port: Support in may family is a patchwork - no two members of my family support the same team (Dad - Williamstown in the VFL; Mum - Hawthorn Bandwagoner; etc.). As a result I had no strong allegiance for years - I just liked to watch. I loved the old port jumpers as a little one as a little one and started watching lots of our games. The more I watched the more I started to learn about our history and I was hooked. This has recently evolved into me spending far more time than is healthy reading other people talk about port on the internet.
Favourite premiership: 2004 - only one I have seen, but I have a feeling not for long.
Favourite players: I have the 16 on the jumper of the great WG Tredrae. As the avatar might have hinted in I was a bit of a fan of Stewey Dew. Of the current crop - Schulz.
 
Hello All,

Looks like no ones posted in here for a while so I figured I'd join and introduce myself. Actually, I would like to ask a question about attending a game as a first timer but I need more posts so this is my first one towards the minimum required to create a thread. I'll be in Adelaide in a few weeks time and I hope to be in attendance at the match vs Essendon. I've pledged my allegiance to Port Adelaide by becoming an official International member.

Name: Rich
Age: 30
Location: Wilmington, Delaware - USA
AFL Team: Port Adelaide, as of a few months ago.
Other Teams: Southampton Football Club
First Port game: Hopefully
8 April 2016 vs Essendon.
Footy/Club History in the family: None but an Australian colleague warned that real men watch Rugby but I disagree and Aussie Rules seems more interesting.
 

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Welcome aboard mate. If you know anything about what has been going on with those Essendon campaigners, the game should be a massacre.
 
Papa G said:
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Welcome aboard mate. If you know anything about what has been going on with those Essendon campaigners, the game should be a massacre.
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Thanks, looking forward to it. If there's a post or site that explains this just point me in that direction, but is the only difference between seats in the Platinum, Gold or Black Diamond sections only their location in the stadium? I prefer to get closer to the action at sporting events but know Aussie Rules (does that make sound like a tourist?) is played on a big pitch so is anyone section preferred over the other? I saw the liquor commission is giving them grief but is there anything worth checking out prematch other than the Gameday Village?
 
BowiesBuddy said:
Thanks, looking forward to it. If there's a post or site that explains this just point me in that direction, but is the only difference between seats in the Platinum, Gold or Black Diamond sections only their location in the stadium? I prefer to get closer to the action at sporting events but know Aussie Rules (does that make sound like a tourist?) is played on a big pitch so is anyone section preferred over the other? I saw the liquor commission is giving them grief but is there anything worth checking out prematch other than the Gameday Village?
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Aussie Rules is actually the proper name for the game at all levels, so no it doesn't make you sound like a tourist at all in fact if you called it AFL you'd sound more like a noob.

Footy, like most sports is best watched from side on. As you said the field is massive (much much larger than a NFL, soccer or Rugby pitch) so whilst being on the fence you'll get the upclose action and hear the players bodies smack into each other, you'll struggle to see what is going on if the play is on the other side of the field or down each end.

This is the seating plan of the oval. Like anything, the better the seat, the more expensive (but nothing compared to American sport), but I may be wrong in saying this, but I think Black Diamond may only be available to members? Happy to be corrected on this by anyone.

AdelOvalMapFull.jpg
 
BowiesBuddy said:
Thanks, looking forward to it. If there's a post or site that explains this just point me in that direction, but is the only difference between seats in the Platinum, Gold or Black Diamond sections only their location in the stadium? I prefer to get closer to the action at sporting events but know Aussie Rules (does that make sound like a tourist?) is played on a big pitch so is anyone section preferred over the other? I saw the liquor commission is giving them grief but is there anything worth checking out prematch other than the Gameday Village?
Click to expand...

As an international member, get in touch with the club and let them know you are coming for your first game, and they might point you in the right direction. As for pre-match stuff, I personally would suggest the "March to the Match" from Rundle Mall which sounds fun (all this stuff is new I left Oz long ago)

More then most you get a better tactical appreciation of things at the game- Aussie Rules is hard to televise well. If you are in the stands you don't get the close feeling but you do get a real tactical look at what's going on. It's a bit of a tradeoff. The Black Diamond seats look like they give you the best of both worlds.
 
BowiesBuddy said:
Hello All,

Looks like no ones posted in here for a while so I figured I'd join and introduce myself. Actually, I would like to ask a question about attending a game as a first timer but I need more posts so this is my first one towards the minimum required to create a thread. I'll be in Adelaide in a few weeks time and I hope to be in attendance at the match vs Essendon. I've pledged my allegiance to Port Adelaide by becoming an official International member.

Name: Rich
Age: 30
Location: Wilmington, Delaware - USA
AFL Team: Port Adelaide, as of a few months ago.
Other Teams: Southampton Football Club
First Port game: Hopefully
8 April 2016 vs Essendon.
Footy/Club History in the family: None but an Australian colleague warned that real men watch Rugby but I disagree and Aussie Rules seems more interesting.
Click to expand...
Welcome mate - from an International member to another! :D Rugby is great (and I mean rugby league, union is OK :p) but Aussie Rules is awesome.
 
I'm officially a Tasmanian...Updated driver's licence received. Dog, mrs and car all registered here now...haha

Even a map on our floor has Tassie but its joined to the mainland.

Local Moscato wine and Cascade beer at lunch yesterday.

I'm still a Port supporter...haha

Cricket...could be swayed to Tassie teams ... Hobart Hurricanes, at least 20171023_183453.jpg
 

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Hey, everyone.

I've been lurking here since 2013 and thought it'd be time to finally make an account for myself...regardless of how often I'll use it. :p

I live in WA, I'm 27, and have been following the Power since they joined the AFL in 1997.

...as for my name, I took it from a grindcore band I've been listening to for a long time, now.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
The Browse Basin is a huge gas field. The problem is that the NW coast of Western Australia has 8m tides and bugger all people.

The gas field is about 500km long. Ipex had rights to the northern end of the field so they decided to run a pipeline 900 km to Darwin, where the tides are normal and you have a city of 130,000 or so.

Woodside picked a site 60km north of Broome, at James Price Point and were going to run a pipeline about 250km from the south end of the Browse Basin gas field they have rights to, to their proposed site on land.

Broome only has 15,000 people so the operational staff were likely to be all fly in fly out employees, and the proposal was that both during construction and operational phases, staff had to live at a facility on site, so that the fly in fly out staff wouldn't drive down to Broome an run amok like fly in fly outers in Karratha and Port Headland.

The 8m tides cause a massive issue for shipping. If you are walking along the beach at Roebuck Bay in Broome and walk a kilometre out towards the ocean you will have the water licking at your toes and ankles. But 6 hours later in the same spot, the water will be 6m above your head, and then a further 6 hours after that, the water is back at your toes, and the cycle repeats over and over, every 6 hours.

That means you have restricted short windows to get ships in to load up. That much water movement is great if you ever invent a tidal power electricity generation system, but shithouse if you are trying to load gas tankers 24 hours a day.

In very simple terms, Woodside had to build a slab of concrete, about 2km long, by 1km wide and maybe 50m high at the end out at the ocean, to be able to have that 24hrs a day ships docked and loading up the LNG.

The costs just kept blowing out as a result of the complexities. When my friend told me about the potential job at the start of 2011 the estimated cost was $30bil. Woodside were building an LNG plant at Karratha for the North West Self gas field at the time. It had a budget of $14bil and had blown out to $15.2bil by mid 2011 and was still about 12 months from completion.

30 June 2011 all the agreements between Woodside, WA government, Kimberley Land Council and the Jabir Jabir and Goolarabooloo peoples whose land the plant was being built on, had to be signed, I had been going up there for a few weeks by then and the estimates had blown out to $35bil.

Some benefits were released to the Aboriginal groups on signing, but major benefits came later when FEED, Front End Engineering and Design was completed and then at subsequent milestones. I was up there for a couple of weeks and then back for a week at a time but in October it all stopped as Woodside decided not to complete the FEED stage as costs had blown out to about $38bil.

In early 2012 the estimates were $40bil, the company I was working for didn't do any more consulting work on the project, and Woodside were only doing a small amount of planning on it.

At the AGM in December 2013, Woodside CEO Peter Coleman finally pulled the pin on it and said that estimates for the plant were as low as $40bil and high as $48bil and that they would wait until floating gas platform were developed before they would try again to extract the gas.

Someone was doing trials with a floating gas platform, can't remember who, but 6 years after that AGM announcement, nobody has cracked the technology for a deep water gas field floating platform and Woodside haven't extracted any of their gas rights.
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Shell is still having massive problems with FLNG with Prelude. It was intended to be a design one, build many production line of mobile offshore LNG plants, but it hasn't quite panned out that way. They are still struggling to get Prelude commissioned I believe.

Woodside pulled the pin on James Price Point because of the risk of a downturn. At $48billion, it relied on the record high oil prices of the time to be profitable. If that project had gone ahead, Woodside would be bankrupt. They don't have government backing them up like INPEX does.

Pluto on the other hand, was built about 6 years prior. It was the first of a glut of new LNG production globally, and was able to take advantage of the record prices to pay itself off within the first 5 or so years of operations before the downturn

The current plan with Browse is to pipe it back to Karratha Gas Plant. That was one of the original concepts 20 years ago. It was rejected for two reasons. Firstly, no-one had ever piped gas 800kms subsea before. Now it has been done by Icthys so the concept is proven. Secondly, in the late 90s there was 20 years worth of gas to be processed at KGP. No one would fund the project because they wouldn't get any return on their gas for 20 years. Now the production from North Rankin and Goodwyn is starting to decline. Once the offshore production facilities are up and running in 2025ish, KGP will be half empty, and ready for another 25 years of gas.

I left Woodside a couple of years ago, so I'm a bit out of the loop now. However I have some friends who've been seconded overseas for the FEED studies. Full steam ahead as far as I know.
 
Sleezy said:
Shell is still having massive problems with FLNG with Prelude. It was intended to be a design one, build many production line of mobile offshore LNG plants, but it hasn't quite panned out that way. They are still struggling to get Prelude commissioned I believe.

Woodside pulled the pin on James Price Point because of the risk of a downturn. At $48billion, it relied on the record high oil prices of the time to be profitable. If that project had gone ahead, Woodside would be bankrupt. They don't have government backing them up like INPEX does.

Pluto on the other hand, was built about 6 years prior. It was the first of a glut of new LNG production globally, and was able to take advantage of the record prices to pay itself off within the first 5 or so years of operations before the downturn

The current plan with Browse is to pipe it back to Karratha Gas Plant. That was one of the original concepts 20 years ago. It was rejected for two reasons. Firstly, no-one had ever piped gas 800kms subsea before. Now it has been done by Icthys so the concept is proven. Secondly, in the late 90s there was 20 years worth of gas to be processed at KGP. No one would fund the project because they wouldn't get any return on their gas for 20 years. Now the production from North Rankin and Goodwyn is starting to decline. Once the offshore production facilities are up and running in 2025ish, KGP will be half empty, and ready for another 25 years of gas.

I left Woodside a couple of years ago, so I'm a bit out of the loop now. However I have some friends who've been seconded overseas for the FEED studies. Full steam ahead as far as I know.
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Sleezy thanks for the update. I thought Shell was the company who was trying to crack the FLNG but just wasn't that sure enough, because its been so long since I have read anything about it.

Back in 2011, Woodside had pretty high debt levels and IIRC they were looking at partnering up with others or having the major shareholders make significant contributions, but as there was a mining boom on, everyone was looking to finance their CAPEX projects to the max and there wasn't much spare cash around for Woodside.

I wasn't sure what the Japanese government involvement was with INPEX but from memory they got very long term contracts with Japanese government utilities at relatively cheap prices at the time to sure up the financial viability that Woodside couldn't get.

In February or March I met my mate and asked him if he was still doing any work up in Broome and if Woodside would ever develop the Browse Basin. He told me about the proposal to pipe it down to Karratha.

Did you work on the Browse project? In 2011 up in Broome at all? If so, we might have meet.
 
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RussellEbertHandball said:
Sleezy thanks for the update. I thought Shell was the company who was trying to crack the FLNG but just wasn't that sure enough, because its been so long since I have read anything about it.

Back in 2011, Woodside had petty high debt levels and IIRC they were looking at partnering up with others or having the major shareholders make significant contributions, but as there was a mining boom on, everyone was looking to finance their CAPEX projects to the max and there wasn't much spare cash around for Woodside.

I wasn't sure what the Japanese government involvement was with INPEX but from memory they got very long term contracts with Japanese government utilities at relatively cheap prices at the time to sure up the financial viability that Woodside couldn't get.

In February or March I met my mate and asked him if he was still doing any work up in Broome and if Woodside would ever develop the Browse Basin. He told me about the proposal to pipe it down to Karratha.

Did you work on the Browse project? In 2011 up in Broome at all? If so, we might have meet.
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Sorry REH, I was still at uni in 2011 :)

I started with Woodside in 2014, and have always been on the brownfields/maintenance side of things, not major projects.

Not that interesting from the outside, bit it pays for all big projects.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
Sleezy thanks for the update. I thought Shell was the company who was trying to crack the FLNG but just wasn't that sure enough, because its been so long since I have read anything about it.

Back in 2011, Woodside had petty high debt levels and IIRC they were looking at partnering up with others or having the major shareholders make significant contributions, but as there was a mining boom on, everyone was looking to finance their CAPEX projects to the max and there wasn't much spare cash around for Woodside.

I wasn't sure what the Japanese government involvement was with INPEX but from memory they got very long term contracts with Japanese government utilities at relatively cheap prices at the time to sure up the financial viability that Woodside couldn't get.

In February or March I met my mate and asked him if he was still doing any work up in Broome and if Woodside would ever develop the Browse Basin. He told me about the proposal to pipe it down to Karratha.

Did you work on the Browse project? In 2011 up in Broome at all? If so, we might have meet.
Click to expand...
What did you do for Browse/JPP?
 
Sleezy said:
What did you do for Browse/JPP?
Click to expand...
Basically I was doing financial and management consulting work for the Kimberley Land Council (KLC), the Jabir Jabir and Goolarabloo peoples who got the direct benefits as the plant and land swap deal with the government covered their lands, and the KLC had negotiated regional benefits all across the Kimberleys and a Kimberley Regional Economic Development zone was set up and company KRED Ltd was set up to use the benefits Woodside and the government paid for these regional benefits and to develop further business opportunities across all of the Kimberley.

So there were cash and non cash benefits involved and my mates business was consulting on the setting up of this in all the agreements for the 30/6/11 sign off and then would help with the delivery of the benefits once the LNG plant was built.

For example, the Jabir Jabir group as part of the agreement, got a 200 hectare freehold site to develop an industrial park. They would have gone out and had to borrow $200m but they would have constructed the park for the 100 sub contractors who would build the plant. The Jabir Jabirs would charge commercial rent, have to pay off the loan, but as everyone expected more gas discoveries and the tide issue meant only one site would be used across all the Kimberleys, this was potentially an income producing asset for 100 years because it was all designed so that as many as 8 huge LNG plants/trains would be built over the next century - as there is that much known reserves and expected reserves up there. I got one of my civil engineering colleagues involved in this and if Woodside went forward he would have been the bloke to oversee the industrial park roll out. He was chief engineer at Delfin for about 7 years when West Lakes was developed.

There were many other non cash benefits I could go on about, but basically if done right it was nation building stuff for the Jabir Jabir people directly, as well as nation building stuff for indigenous groups all across the Kimberley, as well as non indigenous people would have benefited from these programs, employment opportunities and infrastructure that would be built.

Overlaid over this was there were native title claims all over the Kimberley, but the agreement was that what ever the final court decision was the Jabir Jabir and Goolarabloo peoples gave up 7,000 hectares of land they claimed under native title, the WA government gave them 3,000 back as freehold, another 3,000 was to be used as buffer zones and open for negotiations and the cash and non cash benefits.

So this was a very complex engineering, financing, political ( a lot of people protested against it being built) and social impact project that didn't really surprise me it never proceeded, but its a bloody shame as the potential was massive for all concerned.

My mate and his business partner have a financial services company and does a lot of work with indigenous groups advising them on resources project and indigenous businesses as well as the land council bodies. He also ends up doing the accounting work for many indigenous organisations after doing feasibility studies, business plans, loan applications or government grant applications for them, they then ask for long term assistance with the financial reporting side of things.

Its a small set up in Norwood, was about 25 employees in 2011, now about 17, but up until 2011 when I worked for him, 90% of their work was from outside SA. They won the tender to do all the work for the KLC on Browse development, which shocked a few consulting firms in Perth especially Worley Parsons who had a consulting arm that had worked with indigenous groups on resources projects.

If Woodside had of said yes, he would have opened an office up in Broome, and probably employed 75 people up there, as there was so much work, and most likely I would still be up there, as I love the place, but admit those really humid months would have been a test to survive them year in year out.
 
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RussellEbertHandball said:
Basically I was doing financial and management consulting work for the Kimberley Land Council (KLC), the Jabir Jabir and Goolarabloo peoples who got the direct benefits as the plant and land swap deal with the government covered their lands, and the KLC had negotiated regional benefits all across the Kimberleys and a Kimberley Regional Economic Development zone was set up and company KRED Ltd was set up to use the benefits Woodside and the government paid for these regional benefits and to develop further business opportunities across all of the Kimberley.

So there were cash and non cash benefits involved and my mates business was consulting on the setting up of this in all the agreements for the 30/6/11 sign off and then would help with the delivery of the benefits once the LNG plant was built.

For example, the Jabir Jabir group as part of the agreement, got a 200 hectare freehold site to develop an industrial park. They would have gone out and had to borrow $200m but they would have constructed the park for the 100 sub contractors who would build the plant. The Jabir Jabirs would charge commercial rent, have to pay off the loan, but as everyone expected more gas discoveries and the tide issue meant only one site would be used across all the Kimberleys, this was potentially an income producing asset for 100 years because it was all designed so that as many as 8 huge LNG plants/trains would be built over the next century - as there is that much known reserves and expected reserves up there. I got one of my civil engineering colleagues involved in this and if Woodside went forward he would have been the bloke to oversee the industrial park roll out. He was chief engineer at Delfin for about 7 years when West Lakes was developed.

There were many other non cash benefits I could go on about, but basically if done right it was nation building stuff for the Jabir Jabir people directly, as well as nation building stuff for indigenous groups all across the Kimberley, as well as non indigenous people would have benefited from these programs, employment opportunities and infrastructure that would be built.

Overlaid over this was there were native title claims all over the Kimberley, but the agreement was that what ever the final court decision was the Jabir Jabir and Goolarabloo peoples gave up 7,000 hectares of land, the WA government gave them 3,000 back as freehold, another 3,000 was to be used as buffer zones and open for negotiations and the cash and non cash benefits.

So this was a very complex engineering, financing, political ( a lot of people protested against it being built) and social impact project that didn't really surprise me it never proceeded, but its a bloody shame as the potential was massive for all concerned.

My mate and his business partner have a financial services company and does a lot of work with indigenous groups advising them on resources project and indigenous businesses as well as the land council bodies. He also ends up doing the accounting work for many indigenous organisations after doing feasibility studies, business plans, loan applications or government grant applications for them, they then ask for long term assistance with the financial reporting side of things.

Its a small set up in Norwood, was about 25 employees in 2011, now about 17, but up until 2011 when I worked for him, 90% of their work was from outside SA. They won the tender to do all the work for the KLC on Browse development, which shocked a few consulting firms in Perth especially Worley Parsons who had a consulting arm that had worked with indigenous groups on resources projects.

If Woodside had of said yes, he would have opened an office up in Broome, and probably employed 75 people up there, as there was so much work, and most likely I would still be up there, as I love the place, but admit those really humid months would have been a test to survive them year in year out.
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It's amazing how much work happens behind the scenes on these mega projects that you would never hear about unless you were involved.

Yes, we lived in Karratha for a year. Two Pilbara summers was enough for my girlfriend. It was ok for me as I was full-time at the plant. She was going through a career change at the time and went stir crazy in the 45 degree heat.
 
Pappagallo said:
Nah that’s a reach Kane is more likely to be one of those odd randos that pops up outta nowhere to defend ol’ mate.

Funnily enough I had a thought that Econopower could be Kane when I saw that new thread this morning. Why economy? Maybe he can run all day like someone we know idk.
Click to expand...

I can answer that one for you. I’m an economist!
 
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