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FIL Aussie Update #2

Editor’s Note: Glenn Morley, Bayswater LC (Perth, WA) player and defenseman for the Australia Sharks, checks back in with LAS on how things are going for the Gold and Green.  It’s a long trip to England from Australia so let’s see what the experience has been like so far!  Also, a big ol’ props to Glenn for scoring a goal with the longstick against Canada and to Adam Sear for keeping the scoring going for the Aussies so far!  Anson Carter also managed to score 4 of the Aussies 5 goals against the USA so he gets a big shoutout too.

It’s Game Time!

Life at the Games has been pretty cruise-y… it is great to see so many laxers walking the streets of Manchester, and even better when there are so many countries that you don’t immediately recognize.  It’s a great sign for the growth of the game.

Not having the Iroquois here has put a real dampener on the proceedings so far, and when their coaches marched in the opening ceremony it was a great moment when all the players belted out a loud round of applause.  The opportunity for Germany to play in the Blue Division is huge and we are all looking forward to seeing how they do.

The Aussie D huddles up during a break in the action

On the Aussie front it has been a hectic week of travel and practice.  We had some of our own issues getting here with the WA players and a few of the SA being booked on a flight that ended up getting canceled BECAUSE OF A WINDSHIELD WIPER!  Seriously, the lamest excuse for canceling an entire flight – however we were happy that safety was a priority.

All the guys were pretty bummed we couldn’t get on our original flight and had to grab our bags before coming back the next day.

Glenn Morley playing a little D against Ryan Boyle of Team USA.

That wasn’t the end of our drama because once we got re-booked we had to spend the night in Dubai… where we arrived late, then stood in some long lines, got to our hotel, then stood in some even longer lines and then finally ate.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get much time to walk around or learn the lingo; one of the players (who shall remain nameless) was looking forward to learning to speak some “Dubanese”.  Clearly, he left disappointed.

From the overnight stay we headed back to the airport at 6:00am to find out 5 in our group of 12 had been bumped to a later flight, 4 of us got bumped back up off the waiting list, but Gareth Allen had to sit in the Dubai airport from 6:30 am till his 2:30pm flight.  Luckily the airport is completely ridiculous so he hit the gym (yeah, there’s a gym in the airport) and got a workout in.

After we all finally got here the airline did the usual and forgot our bags!!! Overall around 35 hours of travel time, and a great way to start a trip!!

The Aussies and the US battle for a loose ball.

Since arriving in Manchester though it has been all go with practice and scrimmages against Scotland, Ireland and Germany.   Before the real games started we were treated to a day off and headed to Manchester United Home Pitch – Old Trafford for the tour.

The first few games have been tough playing the USA and Canada, and scraping out an OT win against the Poms (England) we still have Japan and Germany on the schedule then the cross over games before a hopeful semi final match out if we win out from here.

Adam Sear unloads a cannon against England.

The weather over here has been a little depressing with very little sunshine, however it does give the campus a bit of a Harry Potter Hogwarts charm.

That’s all for now, time to get some rest before we play Japan, gonna be a tough one we need to pull out.  I have the camera with me much more now so more photos to come!

GM

And here are some highlights from Day 3 including the US-Canada game:
[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=BSCVqyBg76k” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BSCVqyBg76k/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”World Lacrosse Champs Day 3″]

But we’re not done yet… we also have the Scottish and New Zealand squads doing their thang-thang before their game… the Scots have bagpipes and the Kiwis have the Haka.  I dyed up a wand for #6, who is leading the Haka.  These guys clearly want it…

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=GpyL-9_wEKs” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GpyL-9_wEKs/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”New Zealand Haka for lacrosse”]
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Editor’s Note: If you want to write for LAS, provide updates or drop us a note you can send an email via info@lacrosseallstars.com!