8am
Awoke to a cold and wintry London morning, our final full day in this magnificent city. I got out of bed feeling sore after the rugged encounter against the Bulldogs from the night before. It was nothing too serious - just the aches and pains you normally associate with a game of football, especially one so early into a pre-season. Mind you, the body never hurts as much when you win and there was still a good feeling down at breakfast amongst the team. Nothing too over the top by any means, just the natural feeling of satisfaction after a good win and after a solid week's training and preparation.
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9.30am
Following my usual breakfast of cereal and eggs on toast, I headed upstairs to my room to pack my bags and sort my belongings into a remotely organised structure ahead of check out tomorrow morning. The reason why I wanted to get a headstart was that for the remainder of the day we were going to head up to Anfield to watch the big late afternoon EPL clash between Liverpool and Newcastle.
10.45am
Before departure the team gathered for a small briefing from Peter Rohde as to how the day was logistically going to unfold. Straight after that, our new coaching director Alan Richardson quickly switched our minds back into footy mode by playing us a couple of clips of some great defensive pressure acts from some of the AFL's premier midfielders. Our new High Performance Manager, Darren Burgess, who just spent a couple of years at Liverpool then spoke to the group about how Liverpool would try and play and to look out for how their players run to position and are never out of the game.
12.05pm
We walked 20 minutes to the overland train station and caught a high speed train basically direct to Liverpool station. I didn't realise how far Liverpool was away from London - it took us two hours and twenty minutes to get there but the boys weren't worried about that, they were just pumped to be off to Anfield to see some worldclass live sport.
3pm
Arrrived near the ground after catching a cab from the train station. We got out a couple of kilometres from the stadium so we could take in some of the pre-game atmosphere on the streets. All the boys were supporting Liverpool - not sure if that was because of Darren Burgess's involvement at Liverpool, or whether they were genuine supporters, or perhaps just too scared not to given the intimidating reputation of Anfield - and as a result most purchased some form of Liverpool merchandise, mostly scarves, from booths outside the ground.
John Butcher, Cam Hitchcock, Campbell Heath and Ken Hinkley soak up the atmosphere
3.15pm
45 minutes before kick off and the boys settled into their seats. We were lucky enough to be sitting directly behind the goals, left of screen on TV, 15 metres from the pitch and more interestly, only 20 metres from about 3000 travelling Newcastle supporters. Boy oh boy...can they sing and chant? They did not stop from the moment we walked in until the end of the game and entertained throughout with witty banter and creative songs.
Buddha and Hammer outside Anfield
3.55pm
Just before kick off and nearly every seat in the 44,000 seat stadium was now filled. The chanting and singing continued by the Newcastle fans but was interrupted by the entire Liverpool army when they sang the famous Gerry and the Pacemakers song "You'll never walk alone", a long-held Liverpool tradition to sing just prior to kick off and the club's official slogan.
Liverpool die-hards Aaron Young and Tom Jonas
4pm
Kick off and Liverpool dominated play early with a number of early shots on goal and corner opportunities. Captain Steven Gerrard, who was playing an extraordinary 600th match for Liverpool, and Luis Suarez were lively early but Liverpool just couldn't get any reward for effort. And then, just before half time, as is so often the case Newcatle took their opportunity and goaled stunning the Liverpool faithful. So despite having the majority of the play, Liverpool went into the main break trailing 1-0 which did not please our boys at all.
The fashionista and Cam O'Shea
5.10pm
Start of the second half and again Liverpool got out the blocks well. The home team could sense something was happening and were generating unbelievable noise to try and inspire their team. Then about 20 minutes into the second half, the mercurial Luis Suarez scored sending 41,000 Liverpool fans and fifty representatives from the Port Adelaide Football Club into complete hysteria.
The crowd was in a frenzy and Liverpool fans were now starting to find some voice, singing their own songs and giving plenty back to the rowdy Newcastle contingent. All the while the Newcastle supporters kept chanting and singing and giving their own advice back to the Liverpool supporters. At 1-1 the final 25 minutes of the game were thrilling with neither side willing to give an edge. Liverpool had all the momentum and the boys were up and out of their seats, especially when a Newcastle player bowled over Suarez and got a red card. Unfortunately, Newcastle hung on bravely for the final ten minutes surviving a close call in the dying minutes when the ball hit the cross bar from a Liverpool header.
6pm
We left the stadium slightly disappointed not to see a Liverpool win but thoroughly content with seeing an unbelievable spectacle in front of an incredibly passionate crowd. It was great to observe the work rate and defensive pressure first hand of some the games elite players and that is something I'll certainly take away from the game.
6.50pm
The team hopped back onto the train for a two hour and tweny minute trip back to London. We all grabbed a light bite to eat before heading to our rooms for some well earnt rest ahead of our final day in London. The team will do an early morning weights session tomorrow, have some breakfast, take in a bit more sightseeing and then complete the day with a tour of Emirates Stadium, the home ground of Arsenal. The boys will then head off to the airport at around 4.00pm ahead of our 8.25pm flight to Abu Dhabi, afterwhich we head back to Adelaide on Wednesday afternoon via Sydney.
As I will be travelling tomorrow night, this is my final diary entry. Thanks for reading it and supporting the club and hopefully I've given you a small insight to our journey over the last week or so. It has been a thoroughly wondeful experience and I know the entire group has got a lot out of it. And of course, it's always great to have a win no matter when or where it's played. Look forward to arriving back in Adelaide and then getting stuck back into pre-season on Monday at Alberton. Thanks again for your support and don't forget to buy a membership and get behind the boys in 2013.
