The Diner's Rookie Diary
by Sam Monson
12/6/2008
 
With the Rebels game still lingering in people's minds, the first training session afterwards was a resounding success, with the best turnout we had had for weeks.
 
Everybody had answered the call to get the season back on track, and we were able to have a solid day working on the passing game, and able to scrimmage against a full D at the end. To make things better, the sun was beating down, and everybody was in high spirits. Though those were dampened slightly by the fact we were made to run pretty much until we died, but you can't have everything, right!
 
Things were looking up, with our receivers making some big catches in the scrimmage, including a nice stop and go TD from your humble Diner reporter. The season appears to be taking on a distinctly Irish flavour for the Saints this year, with us having left ourselves needing two wins from our next two games to make the IAFL playoffs as a Wild Card team.
 
The drama was set up, and remarkably I didn't even need to bribe anybody to create this situation for the benefit of the rookie diary readers! You guys just got lucky.
 
With a week to go until the next game against the Dublin Rhinos we were looking forward to bouncing back, and to really getting the passing game back on track. As a receiver, I was also looking forward to getting more than a pair of balls thrown my way in a game. With a day to go, excitement was reaching fever pitch, before the dreaded lurgie struck with a vengeance!
 
Let me tell you ladies and gents, whatever the hell I ate on Saturday should be buried in a ditch somewhere in the South Pacific, before being used to test the effectiveness of the latest nuclear warheads on offer. I awoke in the middle of the night with, how shall we say…'problems'. After a few long chats with God through the big porcelain telephone, I was clearly not in match shape.
 
To hell with it though, I wanted my touchdowns, and the team was already likely to be down to the bare bones at receiver, so I planned to sleep for a bit more then brave the worst anyway.
 
Bad, bad idea. I got out of bed, and then, after a brief scuffle with the floor, I headed back into bed. This wasn't going to happen.
 
As it turns out, the Saints barely skipped a beat in my absence (this is possibly a sign of something), with the dangerous combination of QB Cormac and WR Dave Mullins hooking up for three touchdowns in the victory. 1 down, 1 to go.
 
The Saints now have 3 weeks to prepare for our final game against the Belfast Bulls, which is a must-win for us. Our playoff destiny rests in our own hands, win the game, and we'll be in the post-season by virtue of a Wild Card spot.
 

IAFL NORTH
Team	W	L	T	Pts
Belfast Trojans	4	2	0	8
Belfast Bulls	2	4	0	4
Carrickfergus Knights	2	4	0	4
IAFL CENTRAL
Team	W	L	T	Pts
Dublin Rebels	5	1	0	10
Dublin City Univ Saints	3	3	0	6
Dublin Rhinos	1	4	0	2
IAFL SOUTH
Team	W	L	T	Pts
Univ. Limerick Vikings	6	0	0	12
Cork Admirals	4	2	0	8
Tallaght Outlaws	0	6	0	0

For those keeping count, this illness took my rookie season firmly into Darren Anderton, 'Sicknote' territory, though this was by far and away the most unpleasant means of being 'not match fit' I have yet encountered. If you're looking for a way out of a match, don't use this way…take a hammer to your legs, or pay somebody to kidnap you and FedEx you to Burma or something…much better options than this.
 
Our next match involves a coach trip up to Belfast, crossing the border into Northern Ireland, and it is important to remember that whilst everybody up there might sound like they want to stab you and leave you in a field; it's just the accent, which might be the single most aggressive sounding accent on the planet.
 
Plus, everybody loves a coach-load of lads, right..?
 
Archive Rookie Diary:
Rookie Diary May 28th
Rookie Diary May 10th
Rookie Diary April 29th
Rookie Diary April 17th
Rookie Diary April 5th
Rookie Diary April 2nd