Saints in your city - Sydney

[sydney saint]

I took my boy along to the kids clinic in Sydney today. Unfortunately due to the wet weather only 35 kids turned up. Saints players were well represented. Lenny Hayes, Sean Dempster, Will Johnston , Blake McGrath, Kade Murphy, Jackson Ferguson & Tommy Walsh were there. Lenny has quite a sense of humour . He seemed to be travelling ok . Not that he had to extend himself. Tommy Walsh was handling the drills well & for a 19yo is quite well developed. It was noticeable how much the younger players have so much work ahead of them to get there bodies in shape to cope with AFL footy. Blake McGrath 208cm is huge but has some muscle to be added to his physique. Thanks very much to St Kilda for putting this clinic on throughout Australia .It is a great thing. Appreciate the boys turning up in Sydney when it was such a rainy day.

[SydneySainter]

Was at the function on Friday night. Hayes, Dempster, Walsh, Johnson and McGrath were doing the rounds, talking to fans, posing for photos and signing autographs. Hayes was walking around freely in sneakers with no crutches and no moon-boot.

Walsh is not only a great bloke to talk to, he is also built like a tank. Looking forward to seeing him in action.

Barry Breen was MC (signed my heritage jumper ). He did a Q & A with the players. Johnson is a lovely bloke. He's played as both a forward and a back-man and it's most likely he'll make his debut as a defender. Walsh is super-keen to get on the park and he doesn't care what position he plays, though Ross hasn't said when his debut will be. Dempster says he is still working on re-building his confidence since his knee reco. McGrath has only played football for eighteen months and while being a giant, still needs to bulk up; most likely will be used in the ruck if he gets a debut. Hayes was obviously interviewed more in-depth than the others. I asked him if he was carrying an injury and he said the foot was fine and while it is unlikely he will play in all of the pre-season matches, he still expects to get run before the home and away. He was also asked about Ball and he's says the playing group moved on very quickly. He still regards Ball as a mate and wishes him well, except for when he lines up against the Saints. Also asked about GWS, to which he said that he is a Saint for as long as he's playing football.

Nettlefold was also present. Said that memberships have sold like hot-cakes and there are still 14,000 members who are yet to re-new.

Saturday's Auskick clinic was water-logged, so only about 30 odd kids were present, but the players still ran around, kicked a couple of footies and the kids seemed to be having a blast.

Over-all, a great bit of fun and a fantastic thing for the club to do.

[Wrote for Luck]

Thanks for the updates. Also good idea for the players to zip around the country as a drill for interstate games. Especially as we're up in Sydney first up.

[minneapolis]

Thanks so much - Local Saints people.

Much appreciated.