Australia Day Celebrations - Sunday, Jan 25th
LOCAL AUSSIES V THE REST OF THE WORLD Cricket Match
at Whitman Middle School ,9201 15th ave nw seattle 98117
K&K has the field booked from 12 noon till 3 ,all players welcome ,we will pick teams on arrival, it is a field turf field.
We will also bring some footies along for a kick.
BBQ back at the pub afterwards with LIVE one day cricket between Australia & South Africa on telly as well as LIVE Australian Open Tennis - this will be a warm up for the Australia Day party on Monday.

Australia Day Celebrations - Monday, Jan 26th
PUB OPENS AT NOON, JOIN US FOR LUNCH - SAUSAGE SIZZLE BBQ STARTING AT 5PM.
Featured events for the evening will be, THE ANNUAL PIE & PINT CHALLENGE.
AS WELL AS OUR VERY FIRST TIM TAM EATING CONTEST, HOW MANY CAN YOU DOWN IN 12 MINUTES?
PLUS OF COURSE TOP AUSSIE TUNES ALL DA, MEAT PIES, SAUSAGE ROLLS & SEATTLES BEST LAMB SANDWICH.

Big Climb Seattle - Raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
The Seattle Grizzlies will be participating in the Big Climb Seattle this year – 69 flights of stairs, 1311 steps and 788 feet of vertical elevation – all to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The event will take place on March 22nd and takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete – wives, girlfriends, etc are encouraged to participate as well.  We will be given a team starting time at a later date, but it will be between 8:30am and 2pm.

This event is very popular and usually sells out so be sure to register soon – the cost is $37.50 per participant with a $50 minimum fundraising amount required. To register you can click on the “Join Team” link on the Seattle Grizzlies team page:
http://www.llswa.org/site/TR/Events/BigClimb/1342140438?pg=team&fr_id=1040&team_id=9030
Sign up as a “Racer” (I have) if you wish to be timed and as a “Climber” if you wish not to be timed – both groups finish in the same area, so no matter which one you sign up with, we’ll all recover together.
To promote the Grizzlies we will be wearing Grizzlies jumpers on the day of the event – if you do not have one, we will provide one on the day.  For more information about the climb you can visit http://www.bigclimb.org/ 

Music News
Ross McKillop's band, Elect Becker, is playing tonight at the Mars Bar at 9pm. More details (and some sample songs) are on the Elect Becker MySpace site.

More Footy News
Stay tuned for a player survey in the next week or so.  Fields are in the process of being booked for the MetroFooty Season - we hope to be playing most games during the week and under lights!

Most of you have probably heard about the tragic bushfires in and around Melbourne over the past week or so—an estimated 180+ dead, lives ruined and numerous towns wiped off the map.  As a show of support, much as we did for Hurricane Katrina victims a few years back, we have decided to hold a fundraiser on February 20th at the Kangaroo & Kiwi. Monies raised will be channeled through the Red Cross to immediately  help those in need. We’ll be auctioning items, holding a backwards raffle (where the last ticket in the draw wins the prize) and doing various other crazy stuff in the name of a good cause.

Here’s how you can help:

Sell Raffle tickets - there will be 150 tickets only on offer at a cost of $20 each; they will be available on the weekend at the K&K. Pick them up, take them to work, buy a few yourself, let’s get rid of the 150. There will be a list at the K&K –just note down how many you’ll be taking and bring both the money and the tickets back on the Friday night.  Last year for the same type of raffle we sold 100 in no time—it’s easy.

Note: the raffle winner will receive $1000 cash, there will be numerous prizes as we count down towards the last ticket in the raffle.  The last ticket drawn out (the winner) does not have to be present to win the $1000, so you can sell them to anyone.

Donate an item for an auction:
We already have received generous items from the Mariners, Junior Achievement, Brad Howe and Bruce Aitken to auction –these include everything from baseball stuff to Mexico vacations and bottles of rum. If you something of value,  small or large, that you would like to contribute, please let us know. It could be a dinner gift voucher, sports stuff, an hour or two of your expertise, whatever, we’ll auction it.

Get the  word out. We need to make sure we pack the K&K with people willing to part with a few dollars for a great cause.  Ross Tucker will be emailing all the Aussies at Microsoft, we'll get the word out to the Australian community in Seattle but please alert anyone who you think may be interested in supporting this cause, regardless of wherever you’re from.

Attend the K&K Friday the 20th; bring your friends and your wallet. There will be a Happy Hour from 6pm, drink specials and  chance to win cash.  The backwards raffle will kick off around 7:30pm.

Thanks for your support - this matters - if you have any questions please contact Matt Muller, Brad Howe or Andrew Donlen.

Update on the items we have for the big event:
At this point we have the following items that will be either auctioned (larger valued items) or given away as prizes during the backwards raffle:

• Junior Achievement & Vacation Internationale will donate a 5 night stay in a resort in either Palm Springs or Puerto Vallarta. Both packages have a fair market value of $1,000 each.
• 2 tickets to the Husky Basketball game against ASU on the 26th of Feb. This may decide the PAC-10 Champion - donated by epicseats.com
• 2 tickets to the Husky Basketball game against ASU on the 26th of Feb donated by Bett & Emily Pearce and Bruce!
• 1 signed Baseball Ryan Rowland Smith (Aussie pitcher for the Mariners) plus 4 Game Tickets
• At&t Phones (locked to network) : Samsung EPIX i907, Palm Centro (White), Palm Centro (Black), HTC Fuze with Bluetooth Photo Printer & 8GB SD Card, LG Incite, Pink Blackjack 2, Blue Blackjack 2
• Brooke and Monti from the Ladies Room Movin 92.5 offered to donate a “Radio Station Package” Join Brooke and Monti in the studio for the last hour of the show and then pick their brains about the radio industry, or just have a blast when these two hot girls take you and a guest out to breakfast.
• Gift certificates to McCormick's & BluWater Grill
• Set of Skis and skiwear from EVO - Rossignol Bandit B78 Skis (174cm) + Rossignol Axium 120 Bindings. $400 value.
• 4 personal training sessions from Angie at powerupseattle.com ($240 value).
• Party @ the K& K includes keg and food: beer donated by Roslyn Brewing value $500
• 1 days’ laboring from 3 local Aussie lads, Simon Squire, Mick Tribe ,& Greg Headley; great  item ,spring cleanup ,yardwork, general laboring, dump runs,(all done in their speedos) weekends only, Value $300
• Golf for 4 including carts @ West Seattle Golf Course, a top local golf course with great city views, voted one of the country’s top in-city courses. Value $150
• Aussie Hamper donated by Trevor Stephenson. Includes all your favorite Aussie Treats plus a leg of lamb, Tim Tams & a case of Tooheys New. Value $150
• Golf With your Local Publican (an experience for sure).  Golf for 3 players plus after round drinks and food at the Kangaroo & Kiwi ,Golf @ Jackson Park  Seattle. Value $200
• 1 days painting, licensed and bonded painting co, Aussie Painting  8 hours 1 man , labor only Value $360
• Gift certificate for a Marriot Hotel stay, more info to come on this one.
• Autographed Seahawks mini helmets – Hasselbeck, Burleson, Trufant –Donated by Mo Yousef of PrimeLending
• $100 gift certificate to The Cliff House restaurant in Tacoma.  Donated by The Cliff House
• $300 gift certificate to Troiani Italian Restaurant in Seattle.  Donated by Troiani
• Spacecraft clothing items and artwork – awaiting specs and value.  Donated by Spacecraft Clothing
• Aussie Chocolates Gift Basket donated by Kelly Racovolis
• $75 Gift Certificate for Urbane Restaurant - Donated by Brent Martin and the staff at Urbane
• KIRO experience package: A behind the scenes tour for 4 people, including watching the live noon news (usually priced at $300) and an Australian lunch (Meat pies, Vegemite sandwiches ) with Aussie traffic anchor Jenni Hogan
• Fruhling Inc. Digs Seattle! You’ll dig them too with a delivery of 10 cubic yards of premium topsoil to your location. Free delivery in the Seattle area.
• Enjoy a Silver Tips game and impress a date with the best seats in the house. Jeff “The Fish” Aaron from ESPN radio is donating his personal tickets to an upcoming Silvertips game.

A big thank you to all who helped raise nearly USD$12000! (We're still rounding up a few checks) to support the rebuilding of devastated lives and communities in Victoria, Australia. These monies will be donated through the Red Cross to immediately assist families in need and represents an outstanding show of support from the Seattle community.
 
To the organizations that supported this effort through generous donations, a big thank you! Your support means a great deal; support in trying financial times is tremendous. We will remember that support.
 
Many people from the Grizzlies and beyond assisted throughout the last 10 days as this event moved from inception to reality; there are a number of people who deserve special praise for their outstanding efforts over the past week in procuring items, selling tickets and driving attendance to the event. I hope I don't offend anyone but I believe that Jenni Hogan of KIRO 7, Josh Anfinson, Damien Chapman, Mark & Leslie Bartlett, Matt Muller, Chad Spady, Adam Cannane, Tim Robinson of King 5, Jane McCarthy of King 5 and of course Brad Howe of the Kangaroo & Kiwi deserve additional praise.
 
Thanks again to all involved
Andrew Donlen

[Matt Muller] : And of course Andrew did not mention himself above - he was also instrumental in helping us to reach such a large number.

So you've been spending the off season running 5k every day, lifting weights and sleeping with a footy under your pillow and you're ready to kick off the footy season?  Or you're still carrying around the aftermath of too many Nationals celebratory beers and the holiday season?  Whatever the case, we have our first training session of the year this Saturday, March 7th at 10am at Manhattan Park in Burien.  I hope to see you all there even though the current forecast is for rain/snow showers - at least you can break out the same gear you played in at Nationals - hopefully you remembered to wash it!  Feel free to bring out any new players too.

Below are list of the upcoming events, training sessions and games - I'll be updating the website later this week with a full schedule of games for the season.

Sat March 7th @ 10am - Training - Manhattan Park in Burien
Sat March 14th @ 2pm - Training - Manhattan Park in Burien
Fri March 20th @ 8pm - Draft Selection Game - Moshier Park in Burien
Sat Mar 21st - Bridesmaids Revisited Event at K&K
Sun Mar 22nd - Big Climb
Sun Mar 22nd - MetroFooty Draft
Mon March 30th @ 8pm - MetroFooty 1 - Moshier Park in Burien
Fri April 10th @ 8pm - MetroFooty 2 - Moshier Park in Burien

MetroFooty games for the reaminder of the season will be on Monday's or Friday's both at 8pm.  Once we have enough light, training sessions will take place on Tuesdays (when we dont play on Monday) and Thursdays (when we dont play on Friday).  The full training session schedule will be posted soon - in the meantime, just use the above schedule.

Due to rain, the Friday March 20th game has been cancelled, however we will still be having the draft day on Sunday starting at 4pm.

Draft Day kicked off on Sunday to great fanfare.  Everyone in attendance was looking forward to the first game next Monday, March 30th after the first game was rained out.

The MetroFooty team captains of Ryan Kastl (Eastside Saints) and Chad Spady (Seattle Tigers) had some help from Stinger and Richo in picking the teams for what we hope to be a great season under lights at the new and improved Royal Burien Field.

Coach Donlen also made the announcement of Josh Anfinson continuing on as Grizzlies Captain while his good mate, Ed Fayette was selected as Vice Captain for the 2009 Grizzlies Season.

The Teams for the 2009 MetroFooty Season are as follows:

If you do not see your name listed above, please contact matt@seattlefooty.com and we will get you on a team.  If you are a registered player, be sure to visit the March 30th Event Page after logging into your profile and RSVP'ing if you are planning on attending.

I hope to see you all at training tonight and at our first game on March 30th.

Training cancelled tonight - field is rained out.
Instead we will train on Sunday (April 5th) at 9:30am - same location.

Just a quick reminder that we have a metro game on at 8pm tonight.

Further details here.

Please let your captains or Donlen know if you can't make it.

More details on the game in Vancouver this Saturday to follow.

Games will be in Langley which is about 34 miles east/south east of Vancouver - for those coming up on the Saturday, the Lynden/Aldergrove Border crossing or the truck crossing would work with Lyden/Aldergrove being a little closer to the grounds - directions on how to get to the ground are located here.

Moose downunder will be hosting both Friday and Saturday night festivities. The address is 830 West pender St, Vancouver. Right in the heart of downtown. Friday is Collingwood Vs Essendon live from Melboourne starting at 8pm. And on Saturday there will be presentation and relaxing over over a few beers.

Our first game is at 11:40am, so it's probably a good idea to leave Seattle at 7:30am or earlier - I'd expect it to take 3 hours to get there with the border crossing time - you'll then have a full hour to get ready for our first game.

The full schedule is as follows:

#1  Cougars Vs Eagles @ 10am-10.45am
#2  Saints Vs Calgary @ 10.50am-11.35am
#3  Eagles Vs Seatlle @ 11.40am-12.25pm
#4  Cougars Vs Calgary @ 12.30pm-1.15pm
#5  Saints Vs Seatlle @ 1.20pm-2.05pm
#6  Eagles Vs Calgary @ 2.10pm-2.55pm
#7  Cougars Vs Seattle @ 3pm-3.45pm
#8  Saints Vs ? @ 3.50pm-4.35pm

For those wanting a hotel I found some on hotwire.com for <$90/night for the Saturday night in Downtown Vancouver - one of them was a 5 star.  You can also use betterbidding.com to see what hotel it "may" be before you use hotwire.

For those wanting to carpool, please RSVP by visiting the event page, logging in and RSVP'ing - on Thursday, I'll send out an email to all those attending and you can "Reply All" to arrange carpools.  Turning up to training on Thursday night is also a great way to organise a carpool.

The last time the Tigers met the Saints in MetroFooty Game 3, the Tigers ran out easy winners to earn their first win of the season.  On Friday night they'll be looking to square the ledger with the Saints who currently hold a 2-1 lead in the series.

The weather at the moment is looking great and in past weeks we've had up to 20 spectators enjoying the action.  The game kicks off at 8pm under lights at Moshier Park in Burien - you can get a map link and more details at the following link:
http://www.seattlefooty.com/Events/view.aspx?EventId=8

There is no bleecher seating at the ground so I would recommend you bring a folding/camping chair with you if you are a spectator.

What is MetroFooty?
MetroFooty is an abbreviated version of the 18-a-side game with between 9 and 14 players per team on a smaller field.  All rules remain the same.

Training Cancelled Tonight - Field is rained out - we'll be training on Thursday at the normal time.

Metro Footy reminder
This Friday 5/15 at Moshier Park in Burien. Our goal is to start the game prior to 8pm, please be dressed by 7:40 pm so we can warm up and get things going. Please sign up on our website if you are planning to attend. Afterwards we will be going to our sponsor pub, the Kangaroo and Kiwi.  You can RSVP here.

San Diego Visit July 11th
San Diego Lions a perennial Division 1 US Footy Club, have expressed interest in playing the Grizzlies in Seattle July 11th. Typically we take July off but this opportunity may be too good to pass up and we have a great field available. Please RSVP if you’re interested--this is a big commitment from the San Diego team-- we need answers quickly so they can book flights if necessary.  You cannot RSVP online for this so please send an email to Andrew at coach@seattlefooty.com

Upcoming Game v Portland at Chehalis Washington Saturday May 30th
Please RSVP for this game as soon as you can—numbers will determine whether we play two teams in a round-robin format or just have one 4 quarter match - You can RSVP here.

US Revolution team
Tryouts are scheduled for August for the US National Australian Rules team. If you are a US national, this is a great opportunity to represent your country and ultimately play in the International Cup in Australia in 2011.  If you are interested in trying out for this team, please get in touch with Andrew Donlen by Tuesday May 19th (206-218-2501) or woosha@mindspring.com

Training
If we are to achieve great results in 2009, then we need to place a greater priority on training. Please attend; on non-Metro footy weeks there are two options, Tuesday and Thursday. Players who have been attending regularly have seen significant improvements in both fitness and skills.

K&K Fundraiser
Turn up to the pub and drink for a great local non-profit organization! Rebuilding Together Seattle (RTS) provides donated repair services for homeowners in need so they can continue to live independently in warmth and safety.

Kangaroo & Kiwi Special Event: “RTS Down Under”

Who: Friends of Rebuilding Together Seattle (RTS) (www.rtseattle.org) and the Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub
What: Social/Fundraiser
When: Saturday, June 27, 2009; 7:00pm – close
Where: Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub (7305 Aurora Ave N, 98103)
Why: Proceeds from this event will help support RTS’s mission to provide donated repair services to homeowners and non-profit facilities in need.

Other details:

• This event is hosted by K&K, along with members of RTS’s Young Professionals Society (http://www.rtseattle.org/yps.php)
• This will be a great business & social networking opportunity!
• There will be food, drink specials, door prizes, and the usual K&K darts and pool.
• There will be a suggested donation of 10.00.  Your 10.00 donation will give you a free drink ticket, chance to win prizes, a free RTS Bracelet, and drink specials!  Proceeds will go to RTS. 

Questions?
Please call RTS at 206.682.1231 or email info@rtseattle.org.  Visit www.rtseattle.org

We hope to see you and your friends on June 27th!

The Portland Football Tournament is on June 20th starting at 12 noon - more details on accomodation below.  Details on the ground location can be found on the event page.

Hotel

Hotel Monaco is offering King Suites and Double Suites for Friday 19th and or Saturday 20th at $149 per night. The Double suite rooms sleep at least 3 people (2 doubles and a pull out futon).

Please keep in mind there are only 17 double suites left to sell for the night of June 20th. If you would like to move forward with this booking, please contact Megan Pech (details below) and advise her as to how many rooms your group will need, and she can hold these for you. She will need to know as soon as possible, so she can set up the group booking. The rooms are only available for booking at this rate until tomorrow, Friday June 12th - please contact Megan before then.

Megan Pech
Sales Manager
Hotel Monaco Portland
(503)417-3357
506 SW Washington Street
Portland, OR 97204
megan.pech@kimptonhotels.com
www.monaco-portland.com

Functions

We are also working with our Pub sponsor - The Buffalo Gap - to have the following:

Friday night – Pasta Night (7pm to 10pm)
Saturday night – Beers, Pool, Music. (7pm onwards)
Sunday – Breakfast & Hair of the Dog.

We will look to have the Setanta AFL game of the week on TV at the Buffalo Gap.

Please let me know your interest in any of these events at the Buffalo Gap.
www.thebuffalogap.com

Schedule

(all 2 x 20 min halves, with a 10 min half time break)
 
12 - 1pm - Portland vs Seattle
 
1:10 - 2:10pm - Seattle vs Vancouver
 
2:20 - 3:20pm - Vancouver vs Portland
 
Possible skills comp.
 
4 - 5 pm - Final (two top teams)
 

A quick heads up that those of you in the Seattle metro area are only days away from some serious national level US Footy. The perennial division 1 favorite San Diego Lions are braving the long trek up from sunny southern California to face off against last years divy 2 national champs (and recently named one of the "Best of Seattle 2009" by Seattle Metropolitan Magazine), your own Seattle Grizzlies. Ranked nationally #4 and #8 respectively in the latest www.usfootynews.com poll, it's clear that the winner of this mashup will certainly be the footy fans in attendance! It's rare to have such a talented side make the trip to Seattle and we're honored to host them.

And as if that weren't enough... you'll certainly want to make your way down to the Kangaroo & Kiwi (www.kangarooandkiwipub.com) after the match to join everyone for a drink and a feed. The Grizzlies are hosting a raffle on the evening, with all proceeds to go towards sending our very best American footballers to the US National team tryouts in August. Top prize in the draw is $1000 cash, second place is $500, with a ton of runner up prizes along the way (slabs of beer, aussie treats, honorary memberships in the Josh Anfinson Fan Club of Greater Northern America, etc). Tickets are just $20 a piece and are available through any footy player, or through the pub if we're not on speaking terms... (btw attendance is not mandatory to win the top prizes, though i guarantee u will not have as much fun sitting at home checking up on Ashton Kutcher's twitter status, as you would at the pub with us).  Last year we only sold 150 tickets so the odds of winning are pretty good.

In the US, Setanta has been dumped in favor of ESPN360 who will stream over the internet 3 live games a week.  You you should be able to get for free if your ISP is participating (works in Seattle for Verizon and Comcast).  The games they cover each week are also available as replays.  From the 2 games I've watched, the quality appears to be great.

There is a game on tonight at 9:10pm PST - Richmond v Sydney.  
http://espn.go.com/broadband/espn360/schedule

More info on the change from Setanta here:
Afana Story

Enjoy your Live AFL Footy!
Matt

On Saturday, September 19th at 5pm the Seattle Grizzlies will take on a combined side from Portland and Vancouver at Klahanie Park in Issaquah.  This is an important match for both sides with Seattle and Vancouver both competing in Division 1 at the National Championships in Ohio on October 10 and 11.  Vancouver won the Division 1 National Championship last year, while Seattle took out the Division 2 title.

All the action kicks off at 5pm sharp at Klahanie Park which is located at 25099 SE Klahanie Blvd Issaquah WA.

The Seattle Grizzlies triumphed over the Vancouver/Portland side over the weekend with the quality of footy from both sides showing that footy in the Pacific Northwest has come a long way.

Scores and Votes still to come, but in he meantime you can take a look at some action shots taken by Jacob Lucas in our Photo Gallery.

Just a quick update - the Grizzlies played great all weekend at the National Championships in Mason, Ohio to make it to the Grand Final of Division 1.  Building on last years success of being Divsion 2 champions did not go according to plan as we went down to Denver 2.5-17 to 2.2-14 in a low scoring affair and battle of the back lines.

Congrats also to Jeff Purcell who won the Division 1 Coopers Medal for Most Consistent.

Despite the final result, it was a great result for the Grizzlies, proving that we deserve to be in Division 1 and can mix it with the best of them in USFooty.  Congrats to all the Grizzlies here in Ohio and back in Seattle who supported us all season.

Join us in celebrating yet another amazing season at the annual Grizzly Awards! Party starts Saturday, 7 November, 4pm at our sponsor pub the Kangaroo and Kiwi.

The red carpet will be out leading all to the Grand Lower Ballroom, so be sure to come dressed accordingly. The paparazzi will surely be out in droves in hopes of catching a glimpse of Kastl's bare chest... odds are good they won't be dissappointed.

Awards presentation will begin at 4:30. All your favorites will be handed out to include: Polish Rookie of the Year, the Josh Anfinson Fan Club Award, and of course Best Drunk at Nationals (although it's up in the air this year as none of the Dunn's were in attendance).

Dinner will be served afterwards at 6pm. Price expected to be around $20 p/p.

Unfortunately no children allowed at  the K&K... for a number of reasons...

RSVP now so we can ensure food quantities are sufficient. Cheers!

http://www.seattlefooty.com/Events/view.aspx?Eventid=97

Hey Matt and fellow Grizz mates...

I made it into Sydney as scheduled and had a couple of days there.  It is a great city, beautiful and clean from what I saw.  I flew into Perth last night.  Dale (person who set me up here) picked me up and I will be staying with him until I am set up with a room to rent. 

So get this, Dales office is at the Subiaco oval.  I was just given a tour of the players facilities.  There were actually a few players working out.  I also met a few members of the coaching staff.  Pretty cool.  One of the coaches was obsessed with gridiron so we had a good chat.  The facility and view from Dales office is really nice.  I snapped a few photos, but can't transfer to my computer at the moment...

So I just met Rob Wiley.  He's going to give me a kicking lesson on Monday.  I'm going to be kicking on the Subiaco oval.  I guess he is in the hall of fame.

I'll keep you guys posted and send some pics once I'm set up.

Zach

Hello friends and family,

So I'm on about week 3 here in Australia.  I've been in Perth for about 2.5 weeks.  Things are well.  Training started last Saturday with fitness tests.  I lost my stomach on the 2 k during and after trying to stay in the pack which i accomplished.  The 2 k was the last thing we did on the day followed by pull ups, bench press, and squats which i did ok on.  I should be able to shed 30 seconds on my next timed 2 k considering I've ran or sprinted about 5 of them this week.

So I will be training 3 days a week until a few days before Christmas (we have 2 weeks off over the holiday).  Following the break we will pick up with 3 trainings a week through January.  I believe at this time, if need be, there may be a few cuts from the team.  I believe there are somewhere between 70 guys at this point and a few will fade out over the course of preseason.  The 2 team squad (reserves and league) will carry about 50 to 55. 

As for my chances I look ok physically and strength wise, but fitness is weak at the moment.  My long kick is good, but my short kicks and kicks under fatigue need some work.  I am confident these things will come around quickly.  I have a more fundamentally sound kick now with a one handed release and guide and a more proper hold on the ball.  Without politics or defects of character getting in the way, not that there has been any, I should make the team.

The guys and coaches on the team have been sincerely welcoming and helpful.  Good blokes...

Perth is hot.   I'm heading to the beach for a run and swim in a few.  I'm all about this sort of climate.

The Western Australian newspaper did a story on me and a couple of other guys - you can read it here:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/a/-/wafl/6527075/change-of-scenery-for-aspiring-wafl-trio/

Attached are a few pics and also a story from the Western Australian newspaper about me and 2 other guys trying out for the Claremont squad.  The article is a bit inaccurate when it says I played football for U of O.  I actually was an unrecruited walk-on as a freshmen.  Its a bit of a story, but I wasn't ready to play at that level as an 18 yr old.  But I was recruited from little La Conner which is pretty cool and was on the team for about a month.  I later played football in Santa Barbara and a season of baseball at Skagit valley CC prior to that (baseball is weak).

Also when the article talks about me not knowing footy existed it should be noted that i didn't know it was being played in the US until Jack Thompson let me know about it a few years ago.  But whatever, the interview was over the phone and he asked a bunch of questions.  He also asked if i was going to make the team.  He was hoping for a cocky American answer as he asked twice, but i didn't give him one. 

So enjoy your holidays and I will send you another update sometime.

One more thing... I was set up with a job down at the Fremantle docks which is the main Port for Perth and all of Western Australia.  My job is manually unloading containers.  I've only worked 3 days, but have unloaded a container of olive oil, diapers, wine, and several containers of imported beer.  Mindless but i get paid by the container and it has worked out to about 25 bucks and hour.  Not bad and I can work a few hours or a full day (by doing 2 or 3 containers).  They take about 2 hours with 2 guys....

Cheers,
Zach

Zach Johns was recently interviewed by Chris Adams from usfootynews.com.  You can read the article here.