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21/10/03 Sorry about the lack of articles but I have been very busy as this story will reveal. How about the headline, I know it sounds like a Bob Barrett novel but I have seriously had a few capers in Coff’s lately. Not the Les Norton kind with drinking, fighting and horizontal folk dancing but good fun anyway. How about the World Cup it is absolutely fantastic, I have just spent a week in Brisbane getting amongst the games and the after match fun. October long weekend I battled the holiday traffic, speed cameras, crazed truckies and heaps of Driver Reviver coffees to get to Coff’s Harbour. I was in Coff’s for a wedding staying at my old mate’s house Stormin Norman. Stormin is semi-retired in Coff’s and working for John Howard, he reckons it is the best job he has ever had. I was in Coff’s to attend a wedding and also check out Camp Wallaby at the Novotel Resort Pacific Bay. Following Stormin’s instructions by mobile phone I headed out of Coff’s heading towards Ballina looking for Pacific Bay and the home of the Wallabies. Stormin had a big night on the Kava the previous night and his instructions were not so good. He forgot to tell me that the Pacific Bay turn off is just after the Big Banana, less than 1km out of town. Eventually after passing Wilgoolga and being more than 40km out of Coff’s I asked someone and got the right directions and had to head all the way back. The Novotel Resort is magnificient and so is the Wallabies training facility. You actually drive underneath the Pacific Highway to the Wallabies training field with their attached training rooms. It was an open session so there was a huge crowd on one side of the field with attendant security guards. I ended up watching the training session with the Press Corp on the other end of the field. I kept thinking what a difference to my day when you would be lucky to get two men and a dog to watch the Wallabies train. The Wallaby forwards were doing lineouts and scrums, the backs were doing some alignment drills. They looked switched on and were training well. Like a regular member of the Press Corp I had a chat to Eddie Jones (obviously he has not read previous Broadside articles) and a few of the boys. The facility at Coff’s is really first class and in such a great setting. It is in a small valley bordered by the Pacific Highway, with the hills covered by banana plantations. I know I have bagged Coff’s Harbour previously saying the boys are soft and should be training at Mt Druit, but I would like to have trained at Coff’s myself.
I have had enough Kava to kill 20 in the last 2 weeks so I will give it a miss for a while. The game of the tournament so far has been the Boks versus the Poms. What a tough game, they really belted each other from pillar to post. Watching the game I thought that the Kiwi and Wallaby forwards have not played with that intensity so far and they will have to lift a fair way. Like everyone else I have really enjoyed watching the Japanese play and they will give Fiji a good go in Townsville on Thursday. It was good to see Tonga lift their game against Wales last night. On the home trip we again stopped at Stormin Norman’s for the night and a few bowls of Kava. I have never been to Coff’s before and I recommend it highly. I sometimes think living in Sydney that Stormin has the right idea, relaxing in Coff’s working for John Howard with not a care in the World. Regards, |
I have just got back from Brisbane I spent a week there watching Fiji play France and the USA. It was a great week with plenty of Kava and Rugby. Fiji were disappointing and their fans were shattered by their display against the French. The whole crowd at Suncorp were cheering the Fijians and booing the French. The Fijians really had the crowd onside and there would be no better opportunity to perform. But they simply did not turn up to play and looked to me poorly coached with not even a basic defence pattern. Anyway it was still a good week and I even dropped into the Fiji camp at the Gold Coast for an afternoon to say hello to the boys.