I had such a great week in Melbourne during last week between the two Carlton v Bulldogs & Collingwood footy matches.  I went to see two movies, ate in restaurants along Lygon Street, played on a cool playground, got locked up in the Old Melbourne Gaol, shopped in the Carlton Shop, ate at the Carlton Cafe, but best of all happened on Thursday... I met up with Anthony Koutoufides again so we could have a kick of the footy!
 
You might remember I wrote on this website about having a kick of the footy with Kouta & Ang Christou back in 2009.  I saw Kouta again last year, in Adelaide, and we decided after another year had gone by it was about time we got together again. That way he can see how much I’ve grown each year. Once again we met up with he & Ang on one of the sporting grounds adjacent to Visy Park. Mum & I walked along Lygon Street, caught a tram part of the way, & then walked the last block to Princes Park.  It was sunny on our trip there, but as we arrived, unfortunately the drizzle began. I got my footy out and started bouncing it around while Mum huddled under an umbrella, and before long Ang arrived. He said it was way too cold to stand around in the drizzle, so he & I started kicking the footy straight away to warm up. He was pretty impressed that I’m a left-footer like him, telling me “you’ll go far” & I said that my Dad has always told me the same thing. Meanwhile Mum stood nearby, trying to take a photo of us through her misty camera lens.

Kouta turned up next, and talked to Mum for a bit while Ang & I kept kicking. The rain looked like it was setting in, so we decided to move to the shelter that the Legends Stand in Visy Park stadium provided for the cement area just outside it. Kouta and I kicked the footy to each other along there.  Just as my Mum was about to tell me to watch out that I didn’t kick up too high so it went under the roof and into the stadium, Kouta himself shanked the kick and my football slewed through the gap between the wall & the roof, into the locked up  stadium concourse!  There was no way we could get inside, so Ang told Kouta he’d have to walk all the way around to the Visy Park entrance to get the ball.  I went with Kouta while Mum stayed back with Ang.  Kouta told me as we went around “that was my stupid drop kick that went wrong!”  Then we came across one of the ground staff who Kouta knows, and he asked him if he could get inside so we could go back and get our footy. He said “of course, Kouta - you don’t have to ask me:  this is your home!” So he let us inside & we walked back around inside the stadium to where Mum & Ang were waiting. Kouta told me that this place had indeed been his home for many years and he still loves it. He then phoned up his old team mate, Dean Rice, who now works for the VFL, based at Visy Park.  He was asking Dean if he would come over to say hello and meet me. When we rejoined Mum & Ang, it took us quite a while to find where the footy had gone! Mum eventually found it inside a large metal bin on its side. By this stage, Dean Rice had joined us and was introduced to Mum. She told me Dean was a great player for the Blues, and reminded me that he had been playing in the EJ Whitten Legends Game the week before, along with Captain Kouta & Ang, that I’d loved watching so much because it made me laugh really hard.  Kouta showed Dean a photo of me on his iphone as a baby when Kouta & I first met, and told Dean our story. All three players signed my autograph book (Kouta wrote something really special:  “Jesse, you’re my inspiration”). After that we all decided to go inside the actual stadium to get some photos taken within the Legends Stand, the first being of me with the three Carlton legends (all of whom had the #3 on their guernsey: 43, 23 and 39!).



By this time the sun had come out & the sky had changed from black to blue in typical Melbourne fashion, so Mum could dry out my windcheater and her umbrella at last. Kouta & I stood up in the stands while he showed me the oval where he used to play - these were back in the days when Carlton played a lot of their home games at this ground. My Mum & Dad saw him play quite a few games here before I was born......and even I did, against Fremantle during 2004, not that I remember much of it because I was only a little tacker. Ang then took Mum’s camera to do a self-portrait of the three of us, just like he did of us two years earlier - it worked out pretty well!

Daddy had told me on the phone the night before that he wanted to see a photo of me taking a big hanger over Kouta’s back. So we decided to do this up in the stand as well - looking pretty good there, Jezza! I was way too fast for Kouta.

So yet again I had a wonderful time with my very first hero, who of course also happened to be Mum’s hero, too. He & his mate Ang were so nice to give up some of their time to see us, and we really appreciate it. A lot of things that AFL footballers do for the community goes unnoticed, but we certainly notice it, and for us it all started through the great Carlton Football Club.
 
The last exciting thing I did during my week away was go to Carlton’s training session on the Friday, where I met lots of current day players. But that’s another story!
 
Until then,
Go Bluebaggers.
From Jesse (Jezza) Hanel