Once a footballer, always a footballer

Playing representative football for Sydney and NSW are 2 of the things I am most fiercly proud of in my life, so when I was asked by the Sydney AFL to take an active part in this years rep program as they try to instill a sense that being included in the 2014 squad "will be looked back on as a proud career highlight for those involved," it took me a New York second to happily accept. 

So as they take on the ACT over the June long weekend, I'll be honored to watch the Sydney AFL represent their competition with pride.

(This article is from the Sydney AFL website, my  involvement is mentioned near the end of the article)

AFL Sydney Rep Coaches Announced

AFL Sydney is pleased to announce the appointment of Roger Moten as the Senior Coach of the 2014 Sydney Representative side, and Chris Hughes as the returning coach for the Sydney Development squad.

With a long list of coaching credentials, Roger Moten begins his time with the Sydney Representative side following a year as the UWS Giants NEAFL Assistant Coach.

With a background beginning at Sydney University in 2009, Moten coached the inaugural year of the Sydney University NEAFL side in 2012, and also took Sydney AFL Coach of the Year honours in 2010. Prior to Sydney University, Moten performed as player/coach of the UTS First Grade side, leading them to premierships in 2006 and 2008.

"I am certainly thrilled to accept the role and I am looking forward to delivering a thorough program for representative football," says Moten.

Constructing a platform of pride in selection will be Moten’s main motivation as he takes over the senior side.

"The most important thing I can come in and do is deliver a program that is built around the honour it is to represent your peers…and the competition you play in."

Moten brings with him a strong teaching philosophy, with an emphasis on understanding team structures. With that, he will be selecting players purely on form and willingness to represent.

"It’s all about picking players who are playing well, as opposed to players that have made the team in previous years, and then are re-selected on reputation."

Fighting it out for the Carter–Jesaulenko Shield, the senior AFL Sydney team will take on rivals AFL Canberra on their turf at StarTrack Oval over the June long weekend. Meeting for the first time since 2009, Moten is looking forward to the contest.

"The Canberra league has traditionally been a stronger competition prior to the NEAFL taking over…I think they will still have a strong emphasis on a well drilled, well prepared side."

Chris Hughes finds himself at the reins of the Development side (Under 23’s) for the third year running. Currently working with the GWS Academy as their Western Sydney Giants Academy Coach and assistant to Mark McVeigh, Hughes’ coaching ability is evident through his time with the Sydney Swans Academy, the NSW/ACT Rams Under 18s side, as well as North Shore and Balmain.

For Hughes, his return to the Development side means another chance to get a win on the board. With the challenge of bringing together different players from different clubs and building one organised unit as his motivation, Hughes looks forward to creating a successful 2014 side.

"That’s always something that is the hardest thing to do. They’re all brilliant footballers by themselves and with their club teams, because that’s where they play all the time. But to bring them all together and actually get a cohesive team - that’s what brings me back to it."

"This year, we need a win. Last year we went very close but no cigar. This year is about getting a win under the belt but again bringing these guys together and producing a side with modern football styles."

Last year the Development squad went down to what was described as the best ever assembled Riverina side, however Hughes was pleased with this result given their underdog status at the time.

"To go down by just a few points and seeing the absolute panic on the oppositions’ faces, when a young side came up and played better football than what they did - it was quite satisfying."

Like the Senior squad, the Development side will also travel over the long weekend, making their way to Newcastle Sportsground to face the Black Diamond League. Despite a resounding victory to the Sydney side last time the two teams met in 2011, Black Diamond will this year be expected to field a much stronger and experienced team.

"I am expecting an extremely hard contest, they play very hard football up there. I am expecting us to be a very skillful side who run extremely well and that is what I am hoping will be the difference between them and us."

AFL Sydney Football Operations Manager, Matthew Graham is excited by the prospects provided by the 2014 Representative coaches.

"I am absolutely rapt to have Roger on board with his experience and passion," says Graham.

"I am also very pleased with the re-appointment of Chris Hughes who has laid a great platform in recent years, most notably through the large number of his former squad members progressing through to the senior team."

With aims of revamping the program from years past, Graham is of the hope that the new format will ensure great buy-in from clubs and their players - making for an experience that will be looked back on as a proud career highlight for those involved.

"There will be a number of changes to programs from previous years with a few new initiatives and ideas incorporated."

"As part of the refresh, former AFL Sydney Representative and Hall of Fame Member, Barnaby Howarth will play a key role with the teams. With the AFL Sydney Representative Player of the Year named in honour of the Howarth’s, it is very exciting to welcome Barnaby back to the fold."

"Clubs will have more involvement than ever in the program, with club coaches having real input to suitable players, keen and in form. In my opinion this year could be a real changing of the guard."

With the heads of each team now in place, assistant coaches will be announced in the coming weeks, and specific program details will be passed on to senior coaches.

Interviews for the Women’s coach are still underway and an announcement here will soon be made.

Fairytale stroke recovery

As I sit at work on a Saturday morning about to sign a renegotiated contract, and then go to an AFL game tomorrow, where my Dad and I have had tickets put aside by a former Australian test cricket opening batsman, it's slapping me in the face how lucky I have been in my recovery from my stroke in 2005. So in my 101st blog, I wanted to reflect on why.

If I had sat down after coming out of a four day coma and written a script for how I wanted my life to turn out, I never would have been brave enough to write it as perfectly as it's ended up. This is the script I never would have dreamed possible:

Former Sydney Swan and type 1 diabetic Barnaby Howarth, was out having a quiet drink with 3 mates on a Thursday night when one of his mates started a fight that Barnaby stepped into to break up, but he was knocked out by a king hit then kicked in the head while he was lying on the ground. During the fight, an artery in his brain stem was torn, and at football training the next week for the Pennant Hills Demons, where he was club captain, a blood clot was knocked loose, floated up the torn artery where it lodged itself, interrupting the blood flow going to and from his brain, causing a stroke.

His life spiralled into uncertainty, he was put on life support which his parents were told they might have to consider switching off, his family and friends were told to come and say goodbye, and they were all told that if he did survive, he'd probably be a vegetable. Before the stroke he was captain of his local footy club where he was now stranded on 96 games, he was 1 subject away from finishing a journalism diploma at university, and he had almost finished writing his autobiography about his life with diabetes, but now he couldn't shower himself, stand still without falling over, or pick up a tic tac off a table.

And then he started feeling lucky...

He moved back home with his parents, where his mother was a former nurse, his 2 best mates held a huge fundraiser, his parents' mates held another fundraiser, his rehabilitation hospital was one of the best in Sydney, and when he was discharged, his good friend and physiotherapist took over the role as primary carer.

But they were all things other people controlled for him, there were still parts of his life he'd have to control himself, but he wasn't sure how he'd do it. He decided that looking at the "why me's," the "what ifs" or worrying about what his life MIGHT be like were a waste of time - none of it would change what had happened, so all he could do was give 100% of his effort to the task in front of him and let the chips fall where they may, or as his former Pennant Hills coach used to tell the team, "focus on the game plan and the result will take care of itself."

And this is where the script gets almost too perfect to believe...

After a few months of rehanilitation, Barnaby went about getting his life back - He went back to University and got his diploma, he finished his autobiography and had it published, got involved with the footy club again, being the message runner, then water runner, put his journalism diploma to use and went and filmed a documentary in Botswana, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with his sister and a great mate, got a job in the media, made a football comeback and played his 100th game, and started doing some motivational speaking.

So as I sit in the stands with Roscoe tomorrow watching the Giants take on the Dees, I will have signed my contract with work, and with a pie in one hand, and a beer in the other. I'll be glowing in the knowledge that fate scripted my life better than I would have scripted it myself. 

100th

When my under 15's coach at Pennant Hills taught me how to wind an opponent by jabbing him in the solar plexes with the palm of my hand, I thought the football club was going to take me to the AFL and a Brownlow Medal. I didn't get anywhere near winning the medal, but what the Demons have taught me about how to deal with disappointment has been more important than winning a Brownlow.

The Demons did help me make it to the AFL - when Rodney Eade called me over after a Sydney Swans pre-season training session and told me I'd been selected on the Swans list for the 1998 season, I joined fellow Demon Stefan Carey in the growing list of Pennant Hills footballers to play in the AFL. I was living the dream that year - I played a night final on the MCG, and kicked goals on the SCG, but my footballing career highlight was kicking a goal in my 100th game for the Demons at Ern Holmes Oval last year.

That goal came after 8 years of rehabilitation after having a stroke in 2005, and during my rehab phase, the Demons have been with me every step of the way. When I got out of hospital, I started going to therapy, and my primary carer was my old Pennant Hills physiotherapist, "The Phantom," Greg Castle. "Phanto" encouraged me to try and stay as active as possible, so I put the call out to the Demons and they answered every time. I did hill sprints with Richo and J-Lo, Chicken  gave me a home gym, Cuz got me running messages, and later water while he was senior coach, I did tackling bag work with Booker T, climbed Kilimanjaro with Clarkey, did a pre-season session under Yardy, and I coached a Pennant Hills under 18 team with JB.

And then I got to play my 100th...

I still have to pinch myself when I think back to that day - the guard of honour that went to the middle of the ground, everbody running around in "Fat 44" shirts, Boxhead passing captaincy of the side to me for the day, Jarrod Myers (our coach) starting me in the guts for the first bounce, my first touch being an airballed kick that made spin around so quickly I almost fell over...and then kicking that goal.

When the ball fell into my hands and I took the mark 60 metres out after Tris chipped the ball to me, the first time I got nervous was when I thought "I mightn't make the distance here" - I was kicking on my right (I'm a natural left footer), I hadn't kicked a single goal in the last 5 weeks of training, and adding to the pressure was the prospect of kicking the first goal of the day in my 100th game for the Dees 8 years after nearly being killed in an alcohol fuelled bashing.

I walked back to take my kick and it was some advice a former Pennant Hills coach gave me that helped me work out how I was going to make sure I kicked this goal - Danny Ryan used to say "focus on the game plan and the result will take care of itself." So as I stepped towards the goals, I made sure I wasn't distracted by the big picture, I knew I had to keep my head over the footy, swing my leg straight, point my toe, and trust the footy would go where I wanted it to. Then as the goal umpire signaled the goal I was mobbed by my team mates, and the importance of being a Pennant Hills Footballer hit me like a Phil Hare shirtfront. When I was young and wanted to be an AFL superstar, I loved Pennant Hills because I thought it was making me a better footballer, but as events have transpired in my life, I realise I love being a Demon because it makes me a better person.

So that's what being a Pennant Hills footballer has meant to a former Demon, but what might it mean to a current Demon?

I was still in High School when I started playing senior football at Pennant Hills, I was just a boy with only a vague idea on what life was all about, and when I started, our team ethos was: "Team ahead of the individual / help your mates and share the penno spirit - the club doesn't have bucketloads of money but people play for love of the club / All Demons are equal - they are genuine, loyal people." And when I asked 2014 senior coach Chris Yard for this years ethos, they were word for word exactly the same as they were nearly 20 years ago.

What sets Penno apart from other sports teams is that what makes it successful isn't what it sets out to achieve - it's reason for existence is to win games of football and ultimately premierships, but along the way, it makes everybody who's a part of it a better person.

So whatever your goals in football or life are, whether you want to be the best at what you do or if you just want to be good at it, despite the fact that it's not deliberately trying to, the Pennant Hills Football Club is making you a better person, and the harder you work on the task in front of you, the more results will fall your way.

100th blog public reading - Thur night 7.30pm, Mike Kenny Oval, Cherrybrook

Writing 100 blogs isn't ordinarily anything worth celebrating, but when I read my 100th after Demons training this Thursday night (20/3) at Mike Kenny Oval in Cherrybrook, it comes almost 9 years after being bashed in an alcohol fuelled gang attack and having a stroke, so I'll be celebrating at a place I love...footy training. I'll be reading my 100th blog after Demons training (reading will commence apx 8pm), so come on down to Mike Kenny Oval and  hear what it has meant to me to be a Demon.

9 years on, my 99th blog

If you said to the people around my hospital bed almost 9 years ago while I was on life support after having a stroke, that in 2014 I'd write my 99th blog, they would have said you were dreaming. But here it is...blog 99.

I haven't dwelled on the past a lot since the stroke - there've been too many things in front of me that needed 100% focus, so I didn't want to get distracted by looking backwards, but I've come a long way since dodging that bullet in 2005, so I think I've earned a little glance behind me.

My first memory when I opened my eyes after regaining consciousness following the stroke was of asking a mate to ring my Dad to pick me up from the pub where the Pennant Hills Demons had gone after AFL training for team selections, as I was seeing double and couldn't drive. That was a Thursday night, and I had the stroke hours later, but when I opened my eyes again it was a Monday, and all my family and friends had come to say goodbye over the 4 days I was unconscious. When I saw my little brother Lachlan's face, I knew this must be bad - Lach had been on a working holiday in Scotland and had been having a lovely time and he'd met a girl, but when someone told me doctors thought I was going to die, seeing Lach's face made sense.

Over the next few days, while my family took me for "walks" in my wheelchair, the reality of my situation started hitting home, I'd come within minutes of being killed after getting bashed in an alcohol fuelled gang attack and having a stroke, I couldn't walk - I couldn't even stand still - I didn't have a job, I had my drivers liscence revoked, I couldn't wash myself in the shower, and on top of all of that, I was a type 1 diabetic. This was big. I've always loved stories of people overcoming adversity, but it sounded hard - most of the stories talked about epiphanies, life changing decisions and mystical revelations, but I didn't have any of those, and it had me worried. I loved the life I was living before the stroke, and that's all I wanted back, just a good, decent, honest life, and the only way I knew how to do that was to give 100% effort into what was in front of me and not get distracted by the "big picture", but was that enough to get my life back? At times I thought "normality isn't strength. I should be aiming for something higher, something great." But I didn't want anything higher, I just wanted to be a decent man on the street, so I just worked as hard as I could on the task in front of me and kept moving forward.

This tactic worked well, as with the support of my family and friends, I went back to university to finish my journalism diplioma, I had my autobiography self-published, got my drivers liscence back, got a job at the ABC, went and filmed a documentary in Africa, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, then last year I made an AFL comeback for Pennant Hills and played my 100th game. I also went overseas to 2 seperate friend's weddings and I am writing my 99th blog - I'm just a normal bloke again, and it is enough, I love it.

I never had a life changing revelation, or found strength I never knew existed - I just kept on doing what I thought was right, and I am happier than I've ever been. I've got things coming up that I am excited about - I'm doing the Kokoda Track with some friends and possibly my girlfriend? And "Give it a Crack", an event I ran last year at the Thornleigh Community Centre has stepped up in the world and will be at the Sydney Comedy Store later this year. And speaking of my girlfriend, I am completely in love with her and I'm not ashamed to say it!

I relate anything with the term "100th" in it to the Pennant Hills Football club, so when I write my 100th blog, I'll be reading it to anybody who wants to get along to Mike Kenny Oval in Cherrybrook after Demons training on Thursday night, March 20th at around 7.30pm.  The blog will be about what it has meant to me to be a Pennant Hills Demon, and won't be released publicly online until the day after the reading at Mike Kenny Oval.

So my little glance backwards is done, now I've got to get back to what's ahead...

Getting crews for Kokoda makes news

Planning hasn't been my strong suit over the last 8 years - I turned up to work last Tuesday to find I was meant to be on annual leave - but when it comes to Kokoda next year, things are going so well that people are signing up and the media are running stories on the trip.

Yesterday the first person to join me on the Kokoda Track was locked in - John Rakic will be coming along to take on the challenge with me. Then as if the Hills News somehow sensed how happy I was that the "Hound Dog" was in, in today's paper they put in a write up (at the bottom of "Hills Sport in Brief" here: http://www.hillsnews.com.au/story/2123882/hills-sport-in-brief/?cs=1580)

So even though I have no idea who the "West Pennant Hills Eagles" are, it seems planning for this trip is going well enough that it's getting people's attention, and if you want to come along email Kokoda Spirit (enquire@kokodaspirit.com) with your full name and preferred postal address and a Booking Confirmation letter will be emailed to you, once the letter comes through, put your depsit down ($500) to reserve your spot.

KOKODA DATE CHANGE - NOW OCT 21, 2015

 There has been a date change for the trip to Kokoda - all details remain the same (cost/trekking company - Kokoda Spirit - Email: kokodaspirit@bigpond.com / Web: www.kokodaspirit.com) . The new trip details are:

Kokoda To Owers Corner

• Destination: Kokoda PNG
• Duration: 8 days
• Departs: 21/10/2015
• Arrives: 29/10/2015
• Price: $3,685
• Led by: Australian Led

To book your spot, email Kokoda Spirit (enquire@kokodaspirit.com) with your full name and preferred postal address and a Booking Confirmation letter will be emailed to you, once the letter comes through, put your depsit down ($500) to reserve your spot.