16th Jan 2015
Friday, January 16
I’d arranged to meet my cameraman Rick Smart down at the imaginatively named Melbourne Rectangular Stadium (usually AAMI Park but no unofficial sponsors allowed) at 9:30am to pick up our accreditation.
For once I got there on time only to find that the centre didn’t open until 11am… Bugger. Fortunately, Collingwood AFL team were conducting a training session so I killed almost two hours watching them train ahead of the “footy” season.
Managed to pick up my accreditation, meet Rick and also meet the wonderfully named Paul Christmas who was helping us sort out what we needed to complete our Toyota sponsorship fulfillments.
With nothing happening at the stadium until closer to kick off, we agreed to reconvene around 4pm to start filming.
Back at the hotel I watched another typical England capitulation to Australia so I was glad to be leaving for work.
That evening’s game was Jordan against Palestine, a huge match in anyone’s eyes! Despite the two teams being a long way from the top of the Fifa rankings there was still plenty to film and we got some great shots to help complete our first piece, the AFC Trophy Tour.
It turned out to be, as expected, a pretty one-sided affair with Jordan having too much for Palestine, a country that reportedly has only 840 registered football players.
Ray Wilkins’ side emerged 5-1 winners but there was a historic and wonderful moment when Palestine scored their first ever AFC Asian Cup goal to the delight of their boisterous fans.
After a day’s work, like most other journalists/TV people, I was feeling pretty parched so a few pints were sunk Mayur of beIN Sport and Steve from SNTV, as well as my buddy Mike; all in all, a successful first day!