Highbrook Park, Muswellbrook

Well... Its thirteen months tomorrow since I played my last game of Rugby Union [at Highbrook]vs Muswellbrook in the NHRU Newcastle Comp. I return as a Coach only after 20 seasons, 270 games for Wanderers and after rupturing BOTH kneecap tendons last year in a collision/tackle with two other players.

After the surgery to repair that you can't bend your knees for six weeks [dual plaster casts in my case] and so after seven weeks in hospital and a few more getting better I returned to work at the end of August.

I love playing football [obviously] and really miss it... my knees are doing OK... its like there's an overstretched rubber band in the middle. That's good because even if I were stupid enough to consider playing on, I actually couldn't!!

The game is fun, hard, team oriented, challenging and great way to work out frustration, stress and tension of a working week... belting other blokes and running with the ball or trying to control a game and steer a team into the right tactics and performance to maintain the ball and score tries.

My Club is 80 years old this year and we have a dinner in four weeks to celebrate... so that'll be good. My team this year are currently running fourth but could win against all comers on our day!! We look forward to the Semi's and a chance to surprise a few teams and test ourselves against the best we've played so far [Uni and our enemy 'The Slime' Merewether-Carlton]

Well, they are my thoughts and a note to myself about how much I am missing the game... albeit a happy watcher from the half way line, organising a plan and a half time fine tune, ringing the changes and engaging in a full strength post mortem of our performance... tomorrow will be a tough game!!

I will no doubt cop a ribbing from the boys and will be interested to see how it feels to be back at that venue... I was not capable of walking from the field last year [those stretcher bearers faces are still flushed red now] and I look forward to driving my own car home this time!!