BigBlog

Life is good at the moment. Chloe and our baby daughter Phoenix have come home and both are doing very well.

Chloe’s mum and grandmother are up to help out and are creating a fuss and a busy house.

It’s strange though, Chloe’s Nan keeps ironing my undies. My bloody undies have creases in them.

Anyway, away from home I have been having a great time. I’ll pick up where I left off, which was the golf pro-am. I started off in the form of my life, striking the ball clean as a whistle and straight for the first six holes, but slowly the lightning fast greens brought my putting, my confidence and my game undone. Oh well, at least I started well.

Before this trip air travel never bothered me, until Jack and I had the helicopter ride from hell on our way back from Tamworth. It was a small chopper and we were coming back for our fishing trip as the weather closed in on two fronts.

There was a massive storm coming and the pilot and I are thinking “land", while all Jack cares about is the fishing, and I’m trying to explain it’s not worth dying to get there.

So we land in the back of some pig farm or cattle station, and I’m envisaging John Jarrett coming out as Mick from “Wolf Creek”, not good, especially when you think you have to spend the night. But thankfully there was a break in the weather and we got back for the fishing trip.

Which was a corker. We caught 26 whiting including a huge 40cm one I landed; it’s the first haul I’ve caught in my boat and I’m pretty happy about it. I’ll send in a pic. I sent the pic to Petersen.

 “Can I come fishing?” he asks.

He still hasn’t learned to bait a line so I say “no”.

As I mentioned last time I’m going through a bit of a nightmare trying to get the health fund to cough up for neck surgery; they don’t seem to understand I need to have the alternate one, because I need mobility in my neck. They even have a special funds unit set up for people who need the surgery. It’s frustrating!

To get it done it will cost me $20 000, so there’s a lesson kids … become doctors!

Anyway I guess I should talk some footy. Last week showed the Storm can be vulnerable, they were awful just after halftime, but they suddenly switched on and it takes a real class team to do that.

I heard a few rumours about the Storm leaving straight after their press conference this morning and that is just not on. For all the crap the media put us through at times they still promote the game heavily, and if the issue was with Nine -- as I heard it may have been -- then they should be filthy. Nine put plenty into the game and should get a return out of it.

I also hear Israel Folau doesn’t like talking to the media. That’s ok though. He is young and when I was young I went to our CEO at the Sharks Shane Richardson and asked not to do media for a while, because I felt like people only knew about me in the paper and not on the field.

If the story about this morning is true then I hope Manly win at the weekend. I do know it should be a very close and entertaining game. Both sides have had terrific seasons and deserve to be there.

I do wonder what will happen to the Storm if they lose this one. They have been the dominant team for two seasons and if they come out with nothing to show then I think it will shatter their confidence. Manly in the mid- 90s were a dominant side but only won 1 premiership at three attempts. Essendon were the same in the AFL; it is the kind of thing that can shatter you. If Melbourne lose this they may not recover.

I know what it is like to lose a grand final be it in Super 14, Super League or in the Rugby World Cup. And I’m still getting over that last one, I’m actually not sure if I will ever get over it, to lose in extra time was a heartbreaker. It feels like the carpet has been ripped out from under you, it’s absolutely shattering and you think about little things all the time. Just ask Benny Elias about hitting the posts in 1989, he still thinks about it.

Speaking of rugby I see that ‘Gits’ and Drew Mitchell are going great guns and Berrick Barnes is looking ok. Although I keep thinking that could be me. And I can’t believe Bernie Larkham has suffered an infection after surgery, but if it would happen to anyone it’s Bernie, he is the unluckiest bloke I know.

At the same time he is one of the top five players I’ve had the pleasure to play alongside in any code and I wish him the best for a speedy recovery, because if he comes back he could be the difference.

Mat