Adelaide’s SA/WA Recruiting Manager Phil Bunn joined the AIS-AFL Academy on its two-week tour of Europe.
Bunn, who joined the Crows from Port Adelaide late last year, will keep a diary of the trip, bringing you up to date with the team’s performances and adventures, and providing an insight to this year’s hottest draft prospects.
Here’s the latest instalment …
Day 8, London
After a physical contest against the European Legion and the official dinner held following the game, the morning after saw the players continue their recovery and rehab program and attend to any injuries from the match. The coaching staff then went through the normal match review process with the players, looking at vision from the game and discussing the areas that need to be improved.
After enjoying some free time the majority of the touring party then caught the bus to Loftus Road, the home of EPL club Queens Park Rangers for their home match against Wigan. With both clubs in the relegation zone this match loomed as possibly QPR's most important of the season. Win, and their hopes of staying in the Premier League are still alive, lose or draw and their chances of staying up are almost certainly gone. The difference between playing in the Premier League or Division 1 is enormous for these clubs. The television rights are astronomical and the dividends paid to each club allow them to recruit and pay players huge salaries to play in one of the world’s top 2 competitions.
Without the money from the television rights a club like QPR will more than likely lose a number of its key players, although in return they will receive huge transfer fees if the players go to one of the wealthy English or European clubs. An interesting fact to note is that of the 27 players in the QPR squad, only 10 are from England, with the remaining 17 players coming from all over the world. For the away team Wigan, only four players are English from their squad of 29. It was a full house at Loftus Rd, the stadium capacity is about 18,000 and there wasn't an empty seat in the house. The atmosphere was amazing, the QPR supporters were in full voice and with the sidelines so close to the stands, you feel as though you could almost join in and get a kick. It's amazing to comprehend that some of these players earn more than 100,000 pounds every week. With the home team QPR having a player sent off in the first 10 minutes for a "dangerous play" incident, which can I say was laughable, they had their work cut out to win the game with only 10 players. A QPR goal at the 80 minute mark of the game sent the crowd into hysterics with all of the Aussies in the touring party joining in the excitement and cheering the home team goal. To the home crowd, and the adopted Aussie QPR fans’ disappointment, Wigan scored an equaliser in the 3rd minute of extra time with only 30 seconds of game time left. We all left the ground a little deflated, but not as disappointed as the QPR fans who will now have to prepare themselves for life in Division 1 next season.
The bus ride home was interesting with one of our two buses having a window smashed by a rock thrown by an angry QPR supporter. Our bus driver informed us that any buses leaving the games are usually full of opposition supporters so thinking that our bus was full of Wigan supporters, we copped it from the locals. Luckily the windows were double glazed and only the outside glass was shattered. The supporters certainly take their footy to heart in London. A quiet dinner was had by all on our return to the hotel in Guildford.
Day 9, London
The following morning the boys fronted up for another light training session at 8am, with the temperature at about the 3 degrees mark. The recruiters and a few parents braved the elements to watch the boys go through their paces. The rehab group on the sidelines had increased in numbers following the game a couple of days ago, but my guess is the better option was probably being out on the training track, running around trying to stay warm, if that was possible in these conditions. Even the coaches decided to join in training before they froze on the spot. The 50 minute session was sharp, and to the players’ credit, the skills were once again elite, not an easy feat given the icy conditions. A pool recovery session followed training, before all players, officials, recruiters and family headed off for a free day of sightseeing and shopping in London.
After returning to Guildford for dinner, many of the players and support group settled in to watch the big "Manchester United v Manchester City" game on the big screen at the hotel, before retiring for an early night. Tomorrow we leave for Copenhagen in Denmark for the second game of the tour.
Matt Crouch talks about his brother Brad Crouch's AFL debut.
With young Crows player Brad Crouch making his AFL debut while we are in England, I took the opportunity to chat to his brother Matt Crouch, a member of the AIS/AFL Academy squad here in London.
With the telecasting of AFL games over here in England still limited to a few games in each round, disappointingly Matt wasn't able to watch Brad's debut game against Brisbane. With the game starting at 6.30am London time the best Matt could do was keep up to date with the stats during the game on the AFL website and through Twitter.
Matt himself is a very talented young player, as an inside midfielder he is similar in some ways to Brad in the way he competes strongly for the ball, but he is a different player to his older brother. He is a prolific ball winner at TAC Cup level for the North Ballarat Rebels and excels at stoppages with his ability to win the contested ball and clear it to his team’s advantage. He has good game sense, and his excellent vision allows him to bring team mates into the game. He has clean hands and uses the ball well on his preferred left foot.
