Buddah's Blog
First instalment of Buddah's Blog
by Shea McAleese
Hey Everyone,
This is the first instalment of Buddha’s Blog.
Our World Cup build-up started out in Perth for the first six days where we had a large training load and also played 4 games, 2 vs. Australia and 2 vs. Australia A (VIS). 3 of the games we won’t talk about as we didn’t perform well at all. I think in part some of our minds were on other things with all the threats going on. But in all seriousness we were still playing for NZ and we didn’t perform well enough.
In the one test against Aussie where we lost 4-2 we started poorly and were down 2 goals in 5 minutes. We finally snapped out of our reverie and we started to dominate Australia for large portions of the match.
Phil Burrows scored a trademark reverse from a run away and Richie Petherick a drag-flick into the low left corner. But we were always chasing the game and this was made even worse by some pretty poor umpiring decisions against us which cost us dearly.
After our Hockey in Perth we all had to make a personal decision about travelling to the World Cup. All of us decided to go except for Simon Child. From the teams perspective we respect Simon’s decision, and we hope everyone at home does as well.
As a team we have to move on quickly, by welcoming in Pryesh Bhana a.k.a. Pee Wee who has been called into the side and more importantly prepare ourselves in the best way possible for the World Cup and push for a place in the top 4.
Our first day here has been something pretty special. Our hotel is simply incredible it is 20+ stories high, has amazing twin rooms, 4 restaurants, 42” LCD T.V, shopping mall, gym and plenty of other sights.
The hotel in reality has to be amazing as for the next 3 weeks we will only be seeing the inside of it and the Hockey pitch. We have come prepared though, with a dart board, monopoly, cranium, indoor cricket sets, poker night, quiz night and anything else we could think of to stop the onset of cabin fever.
There is a strong presence of security with armed guards on all the floors and throughout the motel. It is quite weird seeing so many commandos casually walking around with semi-automatics on their hips. All visitors and cars get thoroughly checked into the motel complex which is great. It is making us all feel a little more comfortable even if it is surreal.
We had an armed presence on the bus and cars in front and behind us on the way to the ground for training this afternoon. This is going to be the norm for all of our trainings and games whilst here for the World Cup.
The most exciting event of the day was seeing the World Cup stadium. It was incredible. It is a fully seated and huge stadium for Hockey that hugs the pitch. Similar to that of Westpac Trust stadium in Wellington, so you can imagine that the atmosphere is going to be spectacular especially with India playing Pakistan on the first day.
Overall we have been treated extremely well, and all of the guys are impressed with what is on offer and are looking forward to the World Cup. It is all over the news and there is a huge hype from everyone involved at what is going to be a special event.
We have a practice match tomorrow against Spain and I will have some interesting insight into how our team works from the inside out in the coming Blogs, as well as some funny insights into some of our more eccentric players.
Kind Regards,
Bhuds