Daniel's Auskick Debut

Each game at the SCG during half time the Auskickers come out onto the field to play a little game. James and I had wondered in Daniel would be able to do it but we didn't know and hadn't heard anything. Towards the end of the season we got an email asking if he would like to play at the Swans vs Geelong game at the SCG. For sure! Daniel was quite excited and so were we. Because we got tickets for him and me, Mum was able to go and sit with the rest of the family and see Daniel play. I also got to go onto the field and help coach the game that Daniel was playing. 

We arrived early with Dad so that we could meet the rest of the players and get our tickets. While we waited we went along Driver Ave and did some of the activities. Daniel had a blast. He spun the wheel and won a ball, handballed into the carboot, sang the Swans song, pretended to drive a car, got his cheeks spray painted and had a photo with Cyggy.

Handballing into the carboot

Cyggy!

We headed to our seats with the rest of the Auskickers and watched the first part of the 1st quarter before heading down to the rooms for the kids to get changed. Because of helping coach this past year, Brendan asked if I wanted to go onto the field to help coach one of our teams. For sure. What a brilliant opportunity. Although I did have a moment of stress when they gave me a whistle and said I was to umpire the game. Not cool! I was happy to coach, not so keen to umpire. Fortunately one of the other coaches was happy to umpire instead. Phew! Daniel looked cute in his Auskick outfit.

All the kids were pretty excited to head out onto the SCG.

We then walked down to the tunnel to go out onto the field. Again, the kids were very excited.

The kids were great on the SCG. They had a blast running around, kicking the ball, scoring goals, marking the ball. I loved being a part of it. A highlight for me (and Daniel) was Daniel scoring 2 goals on the SCG. After the first goal I couldn't help but give him a kiss on his head and say 'Daniel. You just scored a goal on the SCG. What a special moment for you. Not everyone can mention that they had scored a goal on the SCG.' He was pretty chuffed with himself too. He also scored the last goal before we had to run off the field before the end of halftime. I'm grateful for Dad sneaking his way to be closer to the game so he could get some photos and videos of Daniel. And I loved being able to experience it with him by coaching the kids. So grateful to Brendan for asking me to be on the field. It is so loud on the ground, you see how the players can't hear all that is going on on the field. My voice was going from shouting so much, even though the kids couldn't hear me.

Here is Daniel scoring his 2nd goal.

After getting changed back into his clothes, we headed back up to our normal seats (so much better. Better view of the ground). Fortunately 2 seats behind everyone were free so we sat there for the rest of the game.

After the game we had Kick2Kick on the ground. Fortunately we had 2 balls for the kids to play with because of Daniel's winning before the game and meeting Wynstan with a 'y'. The kids loved kicking and catching the ball (and so did the big kids).

 What a fun time! Thanks for coming to the game too Mum.