SUMMER EYES

Surf and sand still ahead of them, the boys of winter toil in the sun. An occasional glimpse at pre-Santa slog.

This week marked a return to the training track for many VAFA clubs, though some have been at it for some time already. I'm not sure when clubs decided that pre-Christmas training should begin as early as it does now, or whether one day we might see a team abandon a season early in search of an August start for the next one.

The reigning A Section premiers had their reunion at Xavier College on Tuesday and veterans and aspirants alike shared the field. Coach Lethlean introduced some of the new chums and read out the list of apologies, which took a while.

Their tradiitional collection of sideline suits nodded approvingly at the numbers - "not bad for the first night" "pretty good considering" "I count fifty-one but the website will say seventy-four" - but seemed more immediately concerned about Matt Ball being in civvies while his brother Luke looked pretty fit and pretty good in his OX09 singlet as he tracked steadily at the head of the peloton.

"There's only so many picks in this thing Thursday and if Collingwood is bluffing, Lukey might yet slip through to join us at Toorak Park in 2010," said one wiseacre, as if the AFL draft were something to avoid like the National Service draft back in the 60s.  He was joking. of course. well, maybe.

On Wednesday, a different ball game began at the little green hamlet aside the Princes Highway. Monash Gryphons, lately but formerly of D3, reassembled under new coach Richard Osborne.    

He of towering torpedo legend took a back seat while the preliminary and obligatory laps occurred. Just 2kg over his fighting weight, the rookie coach was happy to observe and ask questions about this player and that. The Gryphons' seasoned observers advising him had mentioned average first night turnout to be in the order of fifteen. This night there were that many new faces and many old.

As they ran down the far side and fanned out along the rail, somebody called a total head count. "Forty-four," yelled one. "Hey, that was Ozzie's number." Nice symmetry. By the time they went around again, the numbers had swelled further.  

Osborne then addressed the assembly for the first time and did so in impressive fashion, citing a list of personal philosophies. While stressing some of the traditional values, he avoided all of the cliches. He spoke with polish and very much from the heart. Not every AFL veteran makes an easy transition to the VAFA, but I suspect Oborne will. I suspect also that the Gryphs will be a fun place to be in 2010 and a successful place too.