Pre-season has well and truly started. For footballers in the holiday break it’s a mixture of operations, holidays, increasingly a time for tattoos, and for some, it’s a time for weddings (Nick Malceski and Marty Mattner… no, not to each other!).
They’ve all come and gone (with the exception of tattoos of course) and it’s back to business to prepare for next season.
As with every year there are always new faces. Tommy Walsh (ex St Kilda) has settled in after running amok in the International Rules series. Now being the sole Irishman on our list, he takes the mantle of being host of Irish Corner on Swans TV by default.
Congratulations to Tadhg, Tommy and another ex-Swans’ teammate, Brendan Murphy, on winning the series, and to Tadhg on winning player of the series. (Last time I heard Tadhg was still celebrating the win by rotating around the Irish pubs in Sydney.)
Synonymous with pre-season is running, and I’m catching up with old friend ‘Lactic Acid’ a bit more than I’d like. Then there’s the sweat.
Last year I came up with the idea of doing the occasional ‘The Richards Report’ video, and I can reveal they’re going to continue. This year, always wanting to improve, I’ve been thinking of ways to make this blog even better.
Here are some new additions for 2012:
• After watching a few episodes of ‘Today Tonight’ I’ve come to realise that I need to use the word ‘exclusive’ more. By using the word ‘exclusive’ it can make what I’m saying sound more important (case in point, the headline of this article).
• I’m going to increase my effort to get in touch with Nemaja Vidic. I’ve recognized that he may not be as impressed with a personally signed football card of mine as I thought he may have. May have to get him a badge too.
• New Segment: Song of the Week, which at times will be chosen by other players (but in all honesty it will only get a mention if I like the song too). I’ll get the ball rolling with the first ‘Song of the Week’: How Deep Is Your Love, The Rapture.
(Jude Bolton to present song of the week next)
• I was thinking about junior football and how much I used to love the Canteen Award at the end of games (i.e. Pie and Coke from the club canteen). I’ve decided to bring it back, but rather than being based on outstanding performance in a game, it will most likely end up as another opportunity to tee off on teammates.
Canteen Award for this week (inaugural): The pie and Coke goes to new player Tony Armstrong (ex Adelaide) who today asked me to “go easy on him” in this blog. No chance! In putting forward your request Tony, you may have just overtaken Kieren Jack and Dan Hannebery as a new favourite target!
Well, we’re all up and running for season 2012 (I didn’t intend that to be a pun but I’ll claim it). Thanks for all your support in 2011 and we hope to have you back on board as a Swans’ member for 2012. Even though games are still a way off, we’ve got plenty of running, training drills and lactic acid ahead of us.
Ted Richards
@richards_report
