- WA hard-nut stars in London trial game
- AFL career no Stretch for Billy
- Art for art's sake
- Five-goal Lamb roasts Legion
This is the second update of his diary as the boys settle in at London before flying to Italy.
Brayshaw will also shine the spotlight on a teammate in every report and highlight some funny moments on tour and some players who impress him throughout the trip.
Day 7, April 10 – London
It was a pretty easy relaxed day after yesterday's game, with some recovery at the hotel before a game review from coach Brad Johnson.
He was pleased with our improvement in the areas that we concentrated on, and said the intensity that we brought to the contest was a positive.
The meeting went pretty quickly because we were all looking forward to taking off to London for the day, starting with a traditional ride into town on the tube.
First stop was the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. I thought it was a bit weird and strange, to be honest. They're just changing shift, aren't they?
But I must've been the odd one out because there was about 10,000 people there waiting and watching, and our assistant coach Brad Ottens said that 10,000 is the daily norm. I must have missed something.
On we went to Trafalgar Square before splitting up into smaller groups and touring different spots of the CBD. Among the attractions were Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Oxford Street shopping, and a phenomenal six-storey sports store in the middle of Piccadilly Circus.
We get looked after nicely by Nike as part of the Academy, but I still took the opportunity to grab some more casual gear for the rest of the trip.
Our teammate Jarrod Pickett bought about 10 pairs of shoes and right before we left he bolted back to H&M and picked up another pair. He was stocked up by the time we got back to the hotel.
Spotlight on: Matthew Ah Siu. When we were walking through London, a lady came up to Matt and asked if he had any modeling representation and if he would like to do some work with her. He said 'No, I'm not a model', but we're all pretty sure he fancies himself as one, particularly with the hair-cut he's going with at the moment.
Tour diary part one
Day 8, April 11 – London
Our last trip out to the Harrow School before tomorrow's game saw us ramp our preparation for the clash with the European Legion.
The Europeans have joined in the last couple of training sessions, but we kept this to just the AIS-AFL Academy squad and really tried to lift the intensity.
Glen Jakovich has taken over the reigns as coach because Brad has had to go back to Melbourne for work commitments, and on Thursday night 'Jako' outlined the key points for each part of the ground.
For the forwards it was about giving pressure and not letting the ball out, the backline group was encouraged to win their own possessions, and the midfielders were told to 'pull the trigger': basically meaning we needed to have the confidence to hit a target when we saw one and to make the decision fast.
From left, Angus Brayshaw, Billy Stretch, Isaac Heeney, Jackson Nelson, Liam Duggan and Jake Lever by the shores of Lake Como in Italy
Personally I worked really hard over the pre-season to improve my fitness and speed, areas I thought would make me a better player. I had a limited pre-season last year and I thought I needed to focus on those parts of my game if I was to make an impact and give myself a chance to be drafted at the end of this year.
So far I've got a bit of the ball back in the TAC Cup for the Dragons, and I feel like I'm reaping the benefits of that hard work. Then again, there's only been a couple of TAC Cup games and there's a long way to go. I don't want to get carried away by a good fortnight.
After training today we were meant to go catch a movie at the local cinemas but that fell through, so Ryan Lim, Brad Walsh and myself – all university students – sat down and tried to get some study done.
It wasn't all that successful, but we managed to do a couple of online tests, with mixed results. I'm going to be a bit behind on homework when I get back home.
Spotlight on: Sam Durdin. Unfortunately thumb surgery from a couple of months ago has stopped Sam from playing on tour with us, but he's always upbeat, happy and has a smile on his face. Given at times the tour can be a bit draining, he's definitely a valued member of the group.
Day 9, April 12 – London
We had all been waiting for this game for a while because, as our coaches have been telling us, it's rare to represent your country at AFL at home, let alone overseas.
Before we left our Academy manager Mick Ablett had his laptop out and we rolled through a few inspirational sports videos. First came a short documentary on last year's Grand Final by AFL Media, and then Jako pulled out the vision of Hicham El Guerrouj's Olympic gold medal race in 2004.
There were a few tingles because I love watching those videos … even though I had again see Freo cough up all those shots at goal in the Grand Final again, something hard to watch as a Dockers fan.
Having played at the MCG a week earlier it was definitely not as intimidating walking into the Harrow School, but there was a little crowd there and they enjoyed watching on and the European side loved playing against us.
We kicked the first seven goals and got a roll on pretty quickly, but were held to only three goals in the second quarter and the Europeans managed to also hit the scoreboard with two goals.
Again they held their own in the third term before we ran away with the game and won by 95 points, but the score probably didn't reflect how hard they tried.
For us it was satisfying, and singing the national anthem in the middle of the ground after the game topped it off.
Unfortunately I got a massive corkie to my quad in the second term which hurt me a bit through the rest of the game, but I wanted to play on. It would have been a long way to come to not finish the game, and as it's probably the last time I'll play for my country, I was keen to stay out there.
The Academy players, the supporter group, recruiters, parents, and the European Legion all came together after the game for a dinner back at our hotel. I was sitting with Daniel Flynn, who played really well for the Europe side, and who will hopefully head back to Port Adelaide soon.
Spotlight on: Isaac Heeney. Isaac set the tone early in our game and was involved in nearly all of our goals in that first quarter. To play alongside him is fantastic: he's hard working, courageous and stands out with his white-bleached hair.
Day 10, April 13 – London to Italy
After a great week in London we were moving today, which meant one thing in the morning: it was time to clean my room.
I roomed with Brad Walsh, who was very neat, but I just threw my stuff everywhere. It was organised chaos and I had my clothes stacked up on my chair and hanging off the table, but with a bit of force required, we shoved it all in the bag and made it to Heathrow for a short flight to Malpensa-Milan airport.
We arrived in Italy in the afternoon before jumping on the bus and heading to the Australian Institute of Sport's European Training Centre in Gavirate, a small and quiet town to the north of Milan.
We had a tour and I was impressed by the facilities. It's a new place – it was officially opened in 2011 – and the Academy has been here every year since it opened so it has obviously proved to be a great place to train as elite athletes.
Spotlight on: Glen Jakovich. A sympathy spotlight for our stand-in head coach, who had to be wheeled off the plane due to his severe back injury. He looked in a lot of pain so we're hoping for him to be back out there on the track with us later this week. Luckily he's in good hands with team doctors Nick Ames and Anik Shawdon.
So far I've got a bit of the ball back in the TAC Cup for the Dragons, and I feel like I'm reaping the benefits of that hard work. Then again, there's only been a couple of TAC Cup games and there's a long way to go. I don't want to get carried away by a good fortnight.
After training today we were meant to go catch a movie at the local cinemas but that fell through, so Ryan Lim, Brad Walsh and myself – all university students – sat down and tried to get some study done.
It wasn't all that successful, but we managed to do a couple of online tests, with mixed results. I'm going to be a bit behind on homework when I get back home.
Spotlight on: Sam Durdin. Unfortunately thumb surgery from a couple of months ago has stopped Sam from playing on tour with us, but he's always upbeat, happy and has a smile on his face. Given at times the tour can be a bit draining, he's definitely a valued member of the group.
Day 9, April 12 – London
We had all been waiting for this game for a while because, as our coaches have been telling us, it's rare to represent your country at AFL at home, let alone overseas.
Before we left our Academy manager Mick Ablett had his laptop out and we rolled through a few inspirational sports videos. First came a short documentary on last year's Grand Final by AFL Media, and then Jako pulled out the vision of Hicham El Guerrouj's Olympic gold medal race in 2004.
There were a few tingles because I love watching those videos … even though I had again see Freo cough up all those shots at goal in the Grand Final again, something hard to watch as a Dockers fan.
Having played at the MCG a week earlier it was definitely not as intimidating walking into the Harrow School, but there was a little crowd there and they enjoyed watching on and the European side loved playing against us.
We kicked the first seven goals and got a roll on pretty quickly, but were held to only three goals in the second quarter and the Europeans managed to also hit the scoreboard with two goals.
Again they held their own in the third term before we ran away with the game and won by 95 points, but the score probably didn't reflect how hard they tried.
For us it was satisfying, and singing the national anthem in the middle of the ground after the game topped it off.
Unfortunately I got a massive corkie to my quad in the second term which hurt me a bit through the rest of the game, but I wanted to play on. It would have been a long way to come to not finish the game, and as it's probably the last time I'll play for my country, I was keen to stay out there.
The Academy players, the supporter group, recruiters, parents, and the European Legion all came together after the game for a dinner back at our hotel. I was sitting with Daniel Flynn, who played really well for the Europe side, and who will hopefully head back to Port Adelaide soon.
Spotlight on: Isaac Heeney. Isaac set the tone early in our game and was involved in nearly all of our goals in that first quarter. To play alongside him is fantastic: he's hard working, courageous and stands out with his white-bleached hair.
Day 10, April 13 – London to Italy
After a great week in London we were moving today, which meant one thing in the morning: it was time to clean my room.
I roomed with Brad Walsh, who was very neat, but I just threw my stuff everywhere. It was organised chaos and I had my clothes stacked up on my chair and hanging off the table, but with a bit of force required, we shoved it all in the bag and made it to Heathrow for a short flight to Malpensa-Milan airport.
We arrived in Italy in the afternoon before jumping on the bus and heading to the Australian Institute of Sport's European Training Centre in Gavirate, a small and quiet town to the north of Milan.
We had a tour and I was impressed by the facilities. It's a new place – it was officially opened in 2011 – and the Academy has been here every year since it opened so it has obviously proved to be a great place to train as elite athletes.
Spotlight on: Glen Jakovich. A sympathy spotlight for our stand-in head coach, who had to be wheeled off the plane due to his severe back injury. He looked in a lot of pain so we're hoping for him to be back out there on the track with us later this week. Luckily he's in good hands with team doctors Nick Ames and Anik Shawdon.
