Melbourne

It must be something like forty degrees celsius in the shade at Hislop park. Still, steaming teenage boys teeming with enthusiasm, sweat and grime are all waiting, poised, crowding around a man whose voice and words are much bigger than his frame. A man with half blue, half peroxided hair opens his car doors to let the music spill out.

I was cold
in the middle of a railroad track

Thunder!

Piers has told us that we are going to rock the world again.

This last week has been full of inspiring moments like that one, moments that gave me shivers and tingles. It was hard to stay angry at Melbourne's weather throughout the week, there was much too much fun stuff going on, from Jake and Lewi making me laugh every time they said anything during cool downs and warm ups to running 1km in 3:09, when I actually thought I was going to come last.

There were so many many good things about the week: I'm not even going to bother listing how many fantastic people I met or how much I admired the coach's style of tutelage (equal emphasis on athleticism and intelligence, as well as Piers' easy-going public speaking mannerisms and occasional inspirational outburst) but I will say a few things that made it good.

Making the squad. Doesn't matter how much fun we were all having, when it boils right down to it, the camp was for the selection of the squad and when I got ushered in and told that I had made it I wanted to jump up and down swearing because I was that excited. The shirts are good too.

Playing Colombia. I love the good old coaches vs athletes game. Seeing everyone - absolutely everyone - fired up and crashing in on the field when we scored, yelling AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE and patting guys on the back really brought home the team atmosphere that we're trying to create, and made their little Colombian calls sound silly. Marking your coaches is always fun, especially when you actually stop them making a cut.

Laying out. Doesn't matter where or when - into the pool for a disc that Seb has thrown, in the circle drill to keep the disc alive, to catch a disc you have mac'ed on because you're not a receiver and don't know how to catch, or even pointlessly just because you WANT that D - it is a lot of fun and probably one thing about my game that I think has improved recently.

The Pact. A dry squad? Psht, says I. That very night, myself, Pete Eley, BJ, Jeremy and Dave went out to one of Dave's friend's 18ths. We arrived and this girl was just downing Baileys straight from the bottle - it was late so everyone was already drunk. The three of us - BJ, Pete and I - sat down and I think it was sitting there that the promise of a dry year for us was really made: it's easy to be in a circle in front of your head coach and nod and agree not to drink but where that pact actually counts is out in a situation where you could conceivably drink and nobody would be any the wiser. After a long time of sitting down watching drunk people, we stood up and danced the Nutbush. Sober.

Timill's Dad. What a great guy.

Everyone getting nicknames, and my league team having a dinner party without inviting me. While not exactly highlights, both instances were hilarious.

There are some downs - the pressure is now on for me to both find money and be better than 12 of the guys named on the squad (which is going to be very, very hard) as well as all this training I'm going to have to find the time to do in between actually saving for Vancouver, playing like rubbish all week and choosing chumpy options right when I knew Piers was watching - but I made it, baby, and it really is the little things: Tarrant yelling 'Tiger, put your team on' during the Colombia drills to interrupt Colombia's scoring landslide (our team of Max, Nick and myself was never defended against), Tom Rogacki showing up for the final of Summer Days (the mini-tournament on the Sunday) and making us run a clam transition d, subsequently not actually knowing how to run a clam properly and buggering it up.... all good times.

Not to mention that time in the shade where I got shivers all over my body.

We are going to rock the world again.

T.