The Pennant Hills Football Club - an unlikely success story

The Pennant Hills Football Club is a sporting success story, but it really shouldn't be. If you wanted to find the least likely place In Australia to find an AFL nursery, you'd go to a local Sydney club with modest facilities whose modest income is thinly spread to field 4 teams in the local competition. You'd go looking for a club that prides itself on producing great people, not great footballers.

Essentially, you'd be searching for the Pennant Hills Football Club.

Realisticly, the Demons SHOULDN'T have produced a single AFL listed player, but they've managed to produce 26. To celebrate the club's success, former club captain (and Sydney AFL Hall of famer) Barnaby Howarth has organised to have a Demons jumper (number 44) signed by all 26 PHAFL players who have been on an AFL list and is auctioning it off to raise money for the club.

The auction will be finalised on October 18 at "Give it a Crack" - a club fundraiser, but an online auction will run until 12pm that 18/10. To place a bid on the jumper, go to: www.32auctions.com/signedpennoafljumper. The current leading bid is $850

The 26 Pennant Hills AFL listed players are:

Kieren Jack
Brandon Jack
Peter Berbakov
Jarrad McVeigh
Stefan Carey
Terry Thripp
Barnaby Howarth
Jackson Potter
Nick Potter
David Brown
Ken Couchman
Tony Redshaw
Lenny Hayes
Jackson Ferguson
Blake McGrath
Ranga Ediwickrama
Mark McVeigh
David Dighton
Adam Chatfield
Scott Reed
Josh Duncan
Aaron Duncan
John Ironmonger (not signed - living in Colorado)
Wes Smith
Pat Wellington (not signed - deceased)
Denis Lenaghan (not signed - uncontactable)

Sometimes things just work out for you

Sitting at my table as a guest at the National Stroke Foundation's $250 a ticket fundraiser on Wednesday night where my motivational speech was featured in the silent auction, I got an overwhelming sense that sometimes things just work out for you.

This feeling was an accumulation of events over the past couple of weeks - when I started planning my event, "Give it a crack" to be held in October, I was a little daunted as I have no experience organising events, but people have come on board to help, which makes me feel like things are working out for me. The first help came from an ex-teammates family. That teammates mother has organised kitchen staff, food, tea and coffee, decorating, a pack up crew, and 2 cases of wine, while her husband has arranged to have 17 cases of beer donated.

More help came when Cafe Haus in Thornleigh agreed to donate 150 noodle boxes, so the guests will be treated to sensational food to go with their sensational entertainment. The part of the night I was most daunted by was the audio set up, but an ex-Pennant Hills under 18 player got his hands on the required audio/visual equipment, and will man it on the night.

I could ramble on about how things have worked out for me over the last 8 and a half years (like my 100th game for Penno being played on the Ern, standing on top of Kilimanjaro with my sister and my mate, starting a motivational speaking business that has just got to the point where my message has crystalised and I feel confident about launching it to audiences, being invited to do the Bridge Climb at the end of September by the National Stroke Foundation), but I'm well aware that sometimes things don't work out. If they did, I wouldn't have been diagnosed with diabetes or had a stroke, so I'm not trying to tell you that if you ALWAYS make the right moves, things will ALWAYS work out for you. Sometimes life just sucks and is incredibly unfair, but rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, but sometimes you just have to get over it and go and play in the puddles.

I don't have a 10 point plan to overcome adversity, I don't have a saying, a book, an idol or a magic recipe that I refer back to when I'm down, I just try and give everything I have to the task in front of me, then keep moving forward to the next task and let the big picture sort itself out. At this very second though, I feel like things are working out for me, and I wish I had a failsafe formula to help you feel like I feel right now because it feels really good, but I don't. All I can tell you is that what works for me is making what I think is the right decision every time, and sometimes things will work out, sometimes they won't, but when they do, it feels bloody good!

"Give it a crack" is going to be a...cracker

"Give it a crack" is big and getting bigger with the announcement that Auto Cafe in Thornleigh has committed to catering the event, and Sassy Models and promotions will be helping out with serving and on stage promotions.

The line up is settled, tickets are selling quickly, and thanks to Matt Hergreaves from Auto Cafe, and Keira Howarth from Sassy Models and Promotions, the night is all coming together.

It's been built, and people are starting to come, and one of the most pleasing parts about preparations for the night was when one of the performers told me they were "really nervous." That's pleasing because that's what the night is all about: people doing things they've always wanted to do, and despite being unsure, scared, and "really nervous," they're going to get up and give it a crack.

For tickets, visit www.barnabyhowarth.com.au/contact

3 new comedy acts settle "Give it a crack" line up

3 young stand up comedians from the Sydney Comedy Store have been added to the set list for "Give it a crack," a talent night by performers who've always wanted to try something, which means the line up is settled and the curtains are ready to open in October.

The 3 comics, Jasmine Reid, Michael Middlemiss and "Stormin" Norman Douglas will be performing at the Fringe Comedy Festival's "Short and Sharp" - where 7 of Sydney’s funniest emerging comedians come together to present a one hour showcase of fresh new comedy.

Now to extend their tours, they will also perform at "Give it a crack," where they will join a motivational speaker, 2 musical acts, 2 readings (one poetry, one from a self written childrens book), a motivational facilitator, and displays of clothes and paintings in the "Oh Well" forum gallery.

Hosted by everybody's best mate, Edwina Dighton, "Give it a crack" will be held at the Thornleigh Community Centre at 6.30pm on Friday October 18. Tickets are $40 each and 75% of proceeds from the night will go to the Pennant Hills Demons Football Club, for bookings, go to http://www.barnabyhowarth.com.au/events or email barnaby@barnabyhowarth.com.au

Real life stories need telling - 4 (Alex Fisher-A ballsy journalist)

If it wasn't highly inappropriate or even offensive to say that a girl has balls, that's what you'd say about Alexandra Fisher.

It is however both offensive and inappropriate, so instead this young Walkley award winner should be described as a "gutsy, intrepid adventurer with a burning desire to tell stories that are too often under reported."

On Thursday Alex will pack her own camera equipment and fly to Africa to report on either Rhino poaching in South Africa or the plight of pygmes in the Congo. This trip comes after filming a story on child soldiers in Uganda 1999, and her Walkley award winning piece (for Young TV Journalist) on child sex trafficking in Mexico late last year.

Her decision to film stories in confronting locations on confronting topics springs from her belief that "journalism is about mind, spirit and determination," and despite her parents being a little apprehensive, Alex says "they've gotta deal with it. You've got to do these things while you're young, agile and spirited."

Alex's passion to tell under reported stories is at odds with her modesty - she doesn't see her brave adventures as anything to brag about, she just thinks "everybody is looking for their sense of purpose, and this is my way of finding mine."

Life without mates list

A mate told me this week that "it's depressing being [my] friend," which might be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.

It got me thinking about the value of good mates and how they help you keep your life in perspective, so I wanted to make a list of the things I wouldn't have been able to do without my mates around me.

So here is my life without mates list:

- Be alive
- Kick 2 goals in my 100th AFL game for Pennant Hills
- Get to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro
- Wear lederhosen to a pub in Anglesea
- Be a paid singer
- See the Crowded House "Farewell to the World" concert
- Go to New Zealand on a choir trip
- Have a camping & canoeing trip on the Northern Rivers
- Write my 74th blog

I love the life I'm living, and I wouldn't have been able to be living it without the mates I have around me, so coming up with this list of what I wouldn't have been able to do if they weren't there has been invaluable.

I love youse all.

Real life stories need telling - 3 (Opening of"Varnish on King")

"Varnish on King" is a new whisky bar set to open in Perth in the next week, but the story runs deeper than the opening of a new venue, it's also the story of my little brother taking the bull by the horns and dictating the direction of his life as he brings up his young family.

Lachlan (my brother) once told me he was "sick of working for the man," but rather than keep making the same complaint for the rest of his life, when a friend approached him about opening a new bar, he came up with the money and got to work on designing and building "Varnish"

Nelson Mandela once said that courage isn't the absence of fear, but the triumph over it, and if this is true, when "Varnish" opens to the public, it will be be more than a launch, it will be a triumph. Lachlan lives a very comfortable life with his parter Gill and their 2 boys, Oscar and Hugo, but that life was dependent on how hard and smart his boss worked, but now he has given himself the chance to turn his family's good life into a great life.

In today's West Australian newspaper, one of WA's best food critics said that when "Varnish" launches, it will be "the coolest opening this year." He also says that "Varnish" is the "perfect" bar.

So there'll be no more working for the man for my little brother, now he IS the man.