This clip just warms my hearte verytime I watch it.

Just over 24 hours ago Leigh Matthews resigned as the coach of the Brisbane Lions and it was today announced that Michael Voss would take over. While I would have been happy for Leigh to have another year and try and get us back in the finals, I think it was an excellent decision on his behalf to step aside before he overstayed his welcome. The game plan over the last two years has been lacking and the second half of this season was even more disappointing than 1998 when we won the wooden spoon. The players played without convinction and we blew numerous leads and winning opportunities.

The hasty decision to install Michael Voss was very concerning to me at first, but then some of my fears were dismissed when it was revealed plans had been in place for a while for Vossy to take over from Leigh. Still, I don’t see what the rush was. Why couldn’t others have the opportunity to apply for the job, you never know who might bring what to the table? A radical change might be just what we need and we might not get that from Michael Voss. I understand the urgency to manage the team list for next year, but surely a one week interview process at the end of the season of a range of potential candidates would have veen the best thing. My suspicion is that Voss would have been chosen at the end of the day anyway, but it would have put to rest any fears he isn’t the man for the job.

Now that the decision has been made though I am right behind the coach and already looking forward to the 2009 season. Michael Voss is the heart and soul of our football club and I really do feel he can inject the passion and pride in the jumper that has been lacking in recent times. I also feel that the re-signing of J. Brown will give the team a much needed morale boost as well. It just seems liked the second half of the season the team was playing under the weight of dragged out contract negotiations with Browny.

The marketability of Voss cannot be underestimated either. The Lions are about to face a massive challenge from the Gold Coast starting up in their backyard and we are going to need someone to be the face of the club for the forseeable future. This is probably something that a John Longmire or Damien hardwick couldn’t have brought to the table.

The Olympics have been a very fun time! It is great that they are being held in a similar time zone to Australia and I am able to follow everything at a reasonable hour. I’ve had some success betting on some of the events, with a number of long shots getting home. A few times I’ve had to bet against my own country, but the wins have softened the blow when Australia misses out on gold.

Bryce invited me to go Cross Country skiing and I was excited to accept as I hadn’t been in a good ten years. So yesterday we headed up to Lake Mountain for a day of gruelling skiing. There was a good 30-40cm of snow in most parts and we basically had all the trails to ourselves it being a week day. The weather was really kind to us, not a breathe of win and the temperature wasn’t too bad.

We started out doing some of the easier trails, but did end up doing too of the black trails (the hardest on the mountain). One of which was un-groomed, which was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. You could randomly fall through the snow at any point and numerous times my skis got caught on tree roots and shrubs and I fell face first into the snow. I actually stacked numerous times during the day, mostly self inflicted going down hills because I’d lost control and didn’t want to smash into a tree.

It was good to get out and doing something extremely physically demanding and I wouldn’t mind doing it again some time soon.

Sorry for the delay in posting since I’ve been back, but I have had a lot to catch up on! The flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was nothing short of brutal and I am still feeling the effects of it all. I will certainly never be flying Untied Airlines again. The seats were so uncomfortable that my circulation in my legs still hasn’t returned to normal. On top of that they were so slow with my bags that I nearly missed my flight from Sydney to Melbourne

The PokerStars Double VPP Promo ended on Monday and I ended up knocking off about 25,000 VPPs for the week, which I was pretty happy with considering the travel I had to do and the lousy internet connections I was on.

Indoor cricket on Monday was a marathon event, but just what I needed to blow off the rust from my game. We played a double header because we were asked to fill in when another team in another league forfeited. In the first game (the one that counted) we batted pretty lousily, but managed and amazing effort in the field to defend a very low score against a seemingly capable team. In the second one it was an eight a side match, my first ever experience in that format. We played it with only six players and ended up losing by less than 10 runs which was amazing. The quality of the bowling we faced was the best I have ever come across, so it was good not to lose a wicket (I got lucky on a few occasions).