Ash: It was good. It was pretty hot up in Townsville, but it was good to get out and about up there. People keep on saying it’s a rugby league town, but most of the kids we met up there pretty well knew who we all were. The TV coverage of AFL is obviously pretty good and it was interesting that whenever we walked past a hotel up there, a footy game was on the box. There was a fair turnout at training too, probably more than we expected.
Howdy Ash. I’m an old Royboy in the RAAF based at Townsville and it was brilliant to have you guys in town last week. I’m looking forward to the Queensland-WA interstate game up here in June, so I was wondering: how did you find the new stadium at Thuringowa? – Pete from Townsville
Ash: Yeah mate, the ground looked pretty good from where I sat. I couldn’t do the session because I’m still in rehab with the knee, but the boys said it was pretty good other than being a bit hard. The facilities sure look good and I reckon you’ll be pretty comfortable in the brand new grandstand they’ve got there. It’s a good set-up all round, with a big lagoon-type pool to swim in over the road. The boys who were doing the swimming rehab had a bit of a blue with our fitness man Lachy Penfold because he reckoned the pool was only 50m long and the rest of us swear it was 70 or 80m. You wouldn’t want to buy real estate off Lachy that’s for sure.
Hello Ashley. I wanted to know if the Lions stayed in dormitories, or units, or posh hotels when they go on the Community Camp? – Kristy from Raceview
Ash: We stayed at Rydges Hotel up in Townsville, and the AFL usually puts us up at a good place wherever we go. All the boys seemed to like it, although I’m not sure what Braddy thought of being stuck in a small lift for an hour and a half. It happened to him right before our training run too. She would have been pretty hot in that small space. I think he just lay down and used those big arms of his as a pillow until he got rescued. We were all joking about it, but I reckon underneath it all a few of us were a bit worried about him being stuck in there in all the heat.
Hey Ash. I’ve been reading about three or four of the AFL clubs doing camps in South Africa. What do you think about that? – Paula from Bendigo
Ash: I don’t mind the idea. I reckon the AFL could find a few diamonds in the rough in terms of players for our competition. We might as well tap into there since Ireland has gone cold on the International Rules stuff. We’ve got a few Irish guys on AFL lists and it would good if we could get a few African boys as well. It’s all part of trying to make our sport global. I know there has been some talk about the Indigenous camp that we have every year being held over there at some time, if enough of the boys thought it was a good idea. I’d put my hand up for that. It would be a good thing both personally and professionally.
Ash, how important do you rate the NAB Cup comp? – Wazza from Sorrento (WA)
Ash: G’day Wazza. The NAB Cup is a good chance to let the younger kids on the list show Leigh what they can do and see how they can handle the pressure and speed of the game at the top level. It gives them a chance to understand our game plan under match conditions. Our intraclub game was washed out, so we haven’t had the chance to work on our zones or set plays that much. We had two, 10-minute match simulated practice at training on Monday night but there’s nothing like the real thing. You always try your hardest when you get out there in the NAB Cup, and we went all the way to the grand final last year after playing a lot of our young guys early, but there’s always a game next week even if you drop out of the main comp.
