2/6/09 - I’m in Australia for a couple of weeks to visit friends and see both the Return to Redfern game this Sunday as well as the trial game the following weekend in Coffs Harbour.

Since I had to pick up my ticket for the R2R game at the Rabbitoh offices, I decided to combine that with going Redfern Oval to see the morning training session.  First off,  the new Redfern Oval and the park is really beautiful! The grounds were lush and green and the adjoining community park was already being used at that hour by some kids playing a bit of touch footy themselves.

See her pictures

It was good to see many familiar faces again as well some young new players. They went through a couple of hours of drills, with light contact and some set plays being run. There seemed to be much more on field talking between the players than I remember from last year and everyone seemed focused on the task at hand in spite of the heat even at that early hour.  

After practice, Coach Taylor kindly offered to take me on a tour of the indoor facilities. When you walked in the first level there was a small computer room where the players could look at game film as well  as even video of their individual performance, if I understood that correctly. As you walk down the hall past the locker rooms and physical therapy room there were black and white pictures enlarged almost floor to ceiling size of former players each looking like they running at full speed down the field.  Up the wall of one staircase was a collage of pictures of the current players.

The photo theme continued as you entered the large weight room again with wall sized action pictures with past greats pictured more in the heat of battle. Upstairs was a video room where meetings and such could be held. In the hall on the back of the steps facing the landing were the inspirational lines “Blame no one, Expect nothing, Do something.”

I saw Redfern Oval in 2002 way before the renovation. The former grounds were in total disrepair from the patched together grandstand to the field that was full of potholes and crabgrass. It is really an amazing transformation to see. Coach Taylor said that with such first class facilities coming to training every day is now something the players look forward to.  

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