Footy Trip 2010

Aaron just got back from a huge weekend in Melbourne with the school footy trip. He was very excited at 5.30 am on Friday morning as he headed off to the airport. It was nice to see how excited he was, especially after a long couple of weeks with Noah in hospital and all the hard work he put into organising the trip.

This year was the biggest footy trip yet, with them taking 43 students. The night before he left we were shopping at Kings Meadows and ran into so many students were were also going and they were so excited.

They had to take an extra teacher this year because there were so many students. It's a bit of a worry having teachers like this looking after so many kids in Melbourne!

On the first day they all went on an MCG tour which Aaron had never done before. He rang me sooooo excited telling me that he had 'just kissed the G!'.

They got to check out the players bench. He is wishing he was one of the benched players.

They also got to go in the changerooms, which was Collingwood's that day as they were playing that night.

The first night they went to watch Collingwood V Essendon at the MCG.

They had awesome front row seats, right behind the goals.

He got his photo taken with 'Joffa' who I had no idea who he was. Aaron told me 'if you know footy, you know Joffa' - he's some crazy guy who is the head of the Collingwood cheer squad.

The second day they did a lot of shopping and then went to watch Geelong V Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium. They had really good seats again up near the boundary.


Yesterday morning they went to the Queen Victoria Market and then again off to the MCG to watch Hawthorn V Melbourne. Aaron rang me so excited as they were sitting right where the team runs out.


It was a very intense game and we talked to Aaron a couple of times on the phone and he was starting to lose his voice. Supposedly the kids called him the 'Hawthorn Joffa'. Luckily the Hawks won by 21 points in the end and I knew he would be coming home happy, unlike last years trip when Hawthorn lost by 1 point.

Harri and I just about died when at the end of the telecast they showed Aaron learning over the fence getting his photo taken with Jeff Kennett!! We couldn't believe that out of over 48,000 people there, we actually got to see him on national tv!




He came home very tired last night at about 11 pm and not feeling so well, but had a fantastic time and said that even though they took so many students, it was the best trip he had been on.

He gave them a big talk before they went about how each of the four teachers were giving up time with their families and all had young children and they were expected to be on their best behaviour, and he said they had no trouble at all and the kids were fantastic. We were up talking until after midnight last night, and he was telling me funny stories about some of the girls texting him at 1.30 am saying that 'so and so won't go to sleep, can you come and tell them off' so he would be in there telling them to get to sleep but then started stirring them up even more which didn't help the situation.

Or when all some Asian tourists wanted to get their photo taken with him and some of the students, and they would then swap over so that one would take the photo, and the other one would get in the photo with them.

Or when they came across a busker who was playing the Hawthorn theme song on the bag pipes, so Aaron and a group of them joined in singing it with her!

I'm sure it's going to take him a week to start to feel half normal again and like he has caught up on his sleep. Every year he tells me it will be his last footy trip as planning it is a huge job, but he always comes back on a high and says he would love to go again. We will wait and see what happens next year.