Seattle Grizzlies Australian Rules Football Club: Blog Posts

Zach Johns Update - July 29th

Zach Johns

Yo fellow Grizzlies.

Just a quick update on footy here in Perth.... It's been an interesting ride here as far as footy goes. I trained with five teams since Nov. The majority of that time was with Claremont (Nov to Feb). I trained with another WAFL club for about a week, but it didn't work out there. My stint with Boddington was short lived. I played one game there and decided it wasn't worth it to drive down into the country several days a week for a team i didn't feel committed to.

So i ended up joining an amateur club through a friend of mine in Perth called CBC Fremantle. The amateur system is run different here in AU compared to things in the states. Basically an area within the city will have a club. This club depending on depth of players, previous years performance, and numbers will have a certain amount of teams divided into grades with A (1's) being the highest level. Our club has 7 sides including two colt teams (18 and under). I've played with the 3's and the 4's since joining the club maybe 10 weeks ago. I've settled on the 4's side. I play in the middle the entire game and do well so I am happy at this level.

The guys are all in there 20's and are pretty fit and tough for the most part. So it's a good level for me and the guys work hard and are passionate about their footy.

So we have won seven straight games in the 4's and have two weeks left before finals begin. The top 6 teams advance to the finals out of 15 teams. We are currently 4th with a bye this week. With a win in two weeks we will advance to the finals. We are playing well so it looks like we will have a good run in the finals and maybe even a crack at winning a flag.

If you are "keen", here's a link to WAAFL (amateur footy in WA). You can check out the amateur system and results.

http://www.wafootball.com.au/waafl/fixtures-and-results

Best,
Zach

Seattle Invitational Tournament

Matt Muller

Our annual invitational tournament is this weekend in Issaquah. There will be some great quality footy. Vancouver were the Division 1 National Champs in 2008 and Seattle were the 2009 Division 1 runners up after winning the Division 2 National Championships in 2008. Hope to see a lot of supporters there.

Schedule:
1:30pm - Portland v Eagles/Bayhawks
2:30pm - Seattle v Saints/Cougars
3:30pm - Seattle v Eagles/Bayhawks
4:30pm - Portland v Saints/Cougars

Address: Klahanie Park
25099 SE Klahanie Blvd Issaquah WA (Map Link)

More details are here:
http://www.seattlefooty.com/Events/View.aspx?EventId=145

Seattle Grizzlies sign Nintex as a major sponsor

Matt Muller

Seattle Grizzlies sign local Aussie company, Nintex as a major sponsor

The Seattle Grizzlies are pleased to announce that they have signed on Nintex as a major sponsor. Nintex is a global innovator of software products that extend Microsoft SharePoint technology and was founded by a couple of Australians with offices in Seattle. One of the founders, Brett Campbell recently moved to Seattle and discovered the Grizzlies. Originally from Melbourne, Brett and Nintex wanted to support something Australian in the Seattle area, so it was a natural fit.

As part of the deal, the Grizzlies have designed new MetroFooty jumpers with the Nintex logo on them. The jumpers shown below will look familiar, with our regular Grizzlies jumper and a new Away/White version of the jumper that will be used starting in August of this year.

Seattle Invitational Tournament

Matt Muller

We have confirmed our field booking for the Seattle Invitational tournament on June 26th at Klahanie Park in Issaquah.

More details to come on teams attending, but mark it on your calendars now! Field address and details are at:
http://www.seattlefooty.com/Events/view.aspx?Eventid=145

New Day Northwest

Matt Muller

Did you see us on New Day Northwest?

http://www.king5.com/new-day-northwest/Aussie-Footy-Taking-Hold-in-Seattle-94831639.html

As mentioned in the segment, our next game is on Tuesday June 1st in Burien

If you're interested in playing, be sure to contact us or sign up for our supporter email list.

Grizzlies on New Day Northwest - come watch!

Matt Muller

As mentioned a few weeks ago, the Grizzlies will be on New Day Northwest this coming Tuesday, May 25th - the audience needs to be at the studio by 9:15am - taping starts at 10:15am and is done around 11:30am.

Josh, Ryan, Ed, Richo and Rich will be showing off their skills as we tell the Northwest a little bit about the Grizzlies.

If you would like to sit in the audience with a few other Grizzlies, please email newdaytickets@king5.com or call 206-448-3690. The studios are located at 333 Dexter in Seattle. Be sure to wear a Grizzlies t-shirt or footy jumper if you have one!

If you miss the show, the footage will be up on their website within 24 hours:
http://www.king5.com/new-day-northwest

Tigers v Saints Photos from Friday Night

Matt Muller

A big thanks to Jacob Lucas for taking some great shots of Friday nights MetroFooty game.

You can view his handywork here:
http://photos.jflphotography.com/Sports/AussieRules/MetroFooty-4-Tigers-v-Saints/

Grizzlies help out local Tent City

Matt Muller

On Sunday, April 4, a bunch of Grizzlies and Associated Missuses put on a BBQ feed for the homeless men and women of Tent City in Issaquah. A big thanks to all those who put their hand up and got involved, and hopefully learned a little bit about the issues facing the working poor around Seattle.

Patrick, one of the Tent City residents, gave us a tour around their temporary home, which looks a bit like the set of MASH, without the helicopters and camo netting, and Alan Alda.

The Grizzly crew fed close to 100 people, most of them fellas, with a few snags left over for Pedro.

Those people who made the commitment to help out not only gave up their Sunday evening but also paid for the food they provided, so it really was a great effort. Shows what we can do on a bigger scale when we all pitch in a little. Peely's fruit salad even had strawberries in it, which was pretty sensational. Iron Chef award goes to Deborah, however, for her remarkable ANZAC biscuits.

I have spoken with a lot of the people from Tent City since the barbie, and they were really appreciative that we did something different for them, rather than just dropping off 10 trays of meatloaf. Only 11 people were hospitalized for food-borne illnesses, which I think out of 100 people is a good result. Thanks to Andrew and the K&K for the pork sausages.
Great work people. It is great that, as a club, we are always looking at the bigger picture and willing to help out where we can.

A few pics courtesy of Jono's missus Megan are available at:
http://www.seattlefooty.com/Photos.aspx?Year=&PhotosetId=20

Jake.

Zach Johns - April 12, 2010 update

Zachary Johns

Hey all.

Here is an update I procrastinated on for quite sometime. After a month or so of procrastination i decided to wait for something interesting to happen.

Footy was my primary reason for coming to Australia. My goal was to make the Claremont Tigers squad which is a pretty good squad in a pretty good league...

From Nov and into Febuary i was training with the squad 3 to 4 days a week depending on what the schedule called for. I was prudent for everything and worked hard on the field. There were several stages of cuts made. I made it through the first few and thought I was good to go. I received a call a few hours before our second "scratch match" (scrimmage) asking me to come in and see the coach. The news I received in the coaches office is what i expected after receiving the call. I was cut from the team. I was upset at the timing and also surprised at being cut at that stage. The reason given was due to my kicking. I pleaded a bit with the coach and thought i was being screwed over a bit because of my age, the timing, and being a visitor. I also felt that on the field I would have been an asset to the team. Most of the guys on the team are in there early 20's. I was one of a handful over 25. Two of the guys over 25 played AFL, two were cut, and one was a veteran on the team. The wrong side of 25 and an amateur kick were legitimate reasons looking back on it now.

So I was cut from Claremont but thinking it may be a blessing in disguise as are things like this are quite often. It was nice not to have to go to training anymore. It was stressful wondering if i was going to make the team, working my ass off on the field, and not really enjoying the months of training without competing on the field. Claremont is 3 and 0 as of last weekend smashing the defending champions and the other two teams they have played. It looks like they may win the flag this year. They also have 16 AFL guys on their list which is high number compared to other teams and recent years. This does not mean that 16 play each week, but it is where guys play if they don't get a go with the pro teams similar to minor league baseball, but different???? I may have had a better shot with other teams in the WAFL.

Shortly after being cut another coach from a country club came to see me to talk about playing for his club. I wasn't to keen on it because it is a town called Boddington about two hours outside of Perth. I would have been set up with a job and a place to live, but instead opted to travel down for games along with one day a week of training while being subsidized for traveling. It is a risky drive down to Boddington considering the high chance of hitting a Kangaroo. The road to Boddington runs about 100km through untouched habitat which means many kangaroos.

Week 1 finally happened last Sunday (April 11). I started at Half back flank. The guys are fast, big, and strong with good skills. I got the ball a fair amount of times but struggled to dispose of it efficiently. The game is rough as well. I was involved in several scuffles. Punches were thrown in a few other scuffles. Should be an interesting season. It was the first game I've played in quite a while so I think i can do quite a bit better, but i fell short of my expectations by a mile as well as my coaches i believe. So we will see what happens with all of that. I will send off another update after a few more games. We won the game by a goal and a few points. The other team cut our lead to 4 points with a few minutes left but we closed the deal. Good comp though.

I will continue the footy journey. I will keep you guys in the loop. Hope all is well for everybody. I look forward to hearing how the Griz go this season. Work hard boys. I can't wait for Nationals!

Grizzlies Bootcamp 2010

Ed Fayette

Minister of “Extracurricular Training”, Ian Cleary reports:

Time to get out of the city and get down to some serious training… If you often find yourself reaching for the tissues-don’t even bother; This one is for the boys.

We are heading deep into grizzly country and we might not even be coming back. So grab your tent, your sleeping bag and your sense of adventure and set the weekend of May 15^th aside, as this is the one you don’t want to miss.

A full schedule of intense training has been set aside to launch us into what is surely gonna be a big year for the Grizz, starting at 9.00 am Saturday with a guided trail run through the newly built Olympic adventure trail, a skills session/scratch match will follow in the afternoon. We’ll round out Saturday night with a bit of celebration for those grizzlies headed into wedded bliss this summer (congrats Jeff, Josh, Tim, and Ed)

All hangovers will be brushed aside come 9am Sunday morning as the training program resumes with a light jog/polar bear swim around majestic Lake Crescent.

To get more detail and register for the camp check out the evite at http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?event=ZGXVPVGHBHAIQUSRHLVP

Shop for a Cause April 17th

Ed Fayette

Support a great local cause next weekend:

Rebuilding Together Seattle (www.rtseattle.org) provides donated repair services for homeowners in need so they can continue to live independently in warmth and safety.

RTS was established in 1989 and is part of the national Rebuilding Together organization. They are a volunteer, charitable group who repair or rebuild homes, particularly for those who are elderly, disabled or families with children.

On Saturday April 17th, Grizzly widow Danielle’s gift boutique, Curtsy Bella (www.curtsybella.com), will donate 10% of their total sales to this local organization to help support the vitally important work they do. Please help us help them help RTS by shopping at Curtsy Bella that day, or donating through the RTS website.

Other notable sponsors of RTS include: Grizzly Ian Cleary’s Austech Electric, and club sponsor Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub.

Metro Draft Results / Twitter

Ed Fayette

After vigorous plotting, scheming, and back-handed wheeling and dealing (not to mention some last-second trades) we are pleased to announce the 2010 Seattle Metro Footy Draft is complete!

Teams will be announced this Friday in Burien before the first Tigers v. Saints brawl of the season. However, for those wanting to get a jump on the details over the next week we will being offering major sneek-peeks at the list via twitter! Just head over to the @seattlefooty twitter page (www.twitter.com/seattlefooty) and choose to follow us. We'll be actively milking the social networking tool for all its worth this year, offering among other things, up to the minute match info and results for all our fans unable to make it out in person.

Grizzly wins USFootyNews.com 2009 Goal of the Year

Matt Muller

Seattle Grizzly and Portland Power player Martin Coventry has taken out the 2009 USFootyNews.com Goal of the Year award. He kicked the goal in our loss to Denver at the 2009 National Championships. You can read the full article at:
http://www.usfootynews.com/content/view/839/60/

Training this week and full MetroFooty Schedule

Matt Muller

TRAINING
We will be training this weekend, Saturday March 6th in Burien at 4pm.

METRFOOTY SCHEDULE
Thanks to a lot of hard work from Stearnsy we have booked our 14 MetroFooty dates for the 2010 Season. The full schedule is available on our calendar. The dates are as follows:

MetroFooty 1 - Friday March 19th, 7:30pm - 9:30pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 2 - Saturday March 27th, 4pm - 6pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 3 - Friday April 9th, 7:30pm - 9:30pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 4 - Friday April 30th, 7:30pm - 9:30pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 5 - Friday May 21st, 7:30pm - 9:30pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 6 - Tuesday June 1st, 8pm - 10pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 7 - Friday June 11th, 7pm - 9pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 8 - Friday June 18th, 7pm - 9pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 9 - Monday July 26th, 7pm - 9pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 10 - Friday August 6th, 7pm - 9pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 11 - Monday August 16th, 7pm - 9pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 12 - Friday August 23rd, 7pm - 9pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 13 - Monday August 30th, 7pm - 9pm @ Moshier
MetroFooty 14 - Friday September 10th, 7pm - 9pm @ Moshier

2010 Training Kicks Off

Matt Muller

A lot of you have been asking about starting training; as it turns out, 3 of our team (Justin Peel, Ryan Kastl and Jeff Purcell) are headed to Austin, Texas in late February for a US Revolution tryout and it would be great for them (and everyone else) to have a couple of light runs beforehand.

We just got notice that we are authorized to use the Magnusson Park Rugby field - it's the all-weather field we trained at last year, field #5. (enter off NE 74th Street) We have use of the field on the following dates:

Sunday Jan 31 (this Sunday) from 2-4pm
Saturday Feb 6th 2-4pm
Saturday Feb 20th 9:45am - 11:45 am

All newcomers are welcome, this will be a light run only and a good chance to get the basics.

A reminder that Magnusson has fairly strict rules about what you can bring; water only and you can't bring pets to the field.

Full season schedule is in progress - stay tuned for more info.

See you Sunday,
Andrew

2009 Grizzly Awards Results

Matt Muller

On November 7th, 2009 the Grizzlies faithful gathered at the Kangaroo & Kiwi's lavish lower ballroom to see who would take out the 2009 Jim "Trenerry" Best and Fairest award which is arguably the Pacific Northwests highest amatuer sports honor.

With new blood (Thanks Ed) taking charge on the always well received powerpoint presentation it was certainly a night to remember with some amusing awards along the way.

The evening kicked off with a year in review. A total of 49 players wore the Grizzlies jumper for 2009 for at least one game with 9 rookies being added to our list. After taking out the National Championship Division 2 title in 2008, we made the jump to Division 1 for 2009 and in the process had 7 new players on the squad for 2009 anf inished runners up to Denver in the Divison 1 National Championship game. 2009 was our biggest year of footy ever with 22 games being played (12 Interclub and 10 MetroFooty).

The first award of the night saw a brand new award given out - the "Johnny Fun-Pants Award" which although up against some stiff competition went to Johnny "Fun-Pants" McGinnity (pictured below). John was also a joint winner of the Coaches/Captains Award for 2009.

John "Fun-Pants" McGinnity with his newly embroided fun pants and his Coaches/Captains award.

The next award was for the Rookie of the Year, which was taken out by Greg Such who had a great first season and also brought post match beer from his Polish homeland.

Greg Such with his Rookie of the Year award.

In a tough new category of "Comeback of the Year", Chris Richmond managed to take out the award dubbed the "Rich Man" award after battling gout during the year and managing to play on.

Richo with his "Rich Man's" Award - obviously very happy about it.

The next award was for "Most Consistent" on the field which went to a player not unfamiliar with awards of the years, Jeff Purcell. Jeff was absent from the gala event so we do not have a photo of him accepting his prized trophy.

Even though he went out early in the season with an achilles injury, Eric Butler managed to take out the Clubman of the Year award.

After our biggest season ever of MetroFooty with 10 total games being played, there was certainly a lot of competition for the MetroFooty MVP which in the end went to Adam "Stinger" Cannane.

The Most Improved Award for 2009 went to Aran Parker who played great all season across the back line in our Interclub and MetroFooty matches.

Aran Parker with his Most Improved trophy.

In the next award of the evening Ed Fayette took out the Best Defender award after also having a great season in the back line.

Ed Fayette with his Best Defender award.

The Goal Kicking award was up next and for the 3rd season in a row it was taken out by the Grizzlies co-captain, Josh Anfinson.

Josh Anfinson with his 3rd Grizzlies Goal Kicking Award.

One of the most important awards from the standpoint of how we did at the National Championships in 2009 was awarded to Damon Wills after playing an amazing game at Nationals in a tagging role, holding his very experienced Australian opposition to only a few touches.

Damon Wills with his Best Game at Nationals Award.

Keeping to the Nationals theme, the next award was for the best player overall at Nationals. Accepting his second award of the evening was Adam Cannane who despite dislocating his shoulder in one of the games at Nationals, played on and helped to inspire the team.

The Coaches/Captains award for 2009 was split for the first time in Grizzlies history with Dan Choate and John McGinnity jointly taking out the award.

Dan Choate with his Captains/Coaches Award.

The final award for the evening was the 2009 Jim Trennery Best & Fairest award. After taking out both the MetroFooty MVP award and the Nationals MVP award, the deserving Adam Cannane made it three awards for the night. "Stinger" had a great season on the field while also helping to take the club to the next level with it's young new American recruits.

2009 Jim Trenerry Best & Fairest winner Adam "Stinger" Cannane, also with his MetroFooty MVP trophy and Nationals MVP trophy.

With the official awards over with, the speeches turned to thanking our great sponsors the Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub and Vitamin Water. Zach Johns also spoke about his upcoming trip (on November 9th) to Australia where he'll be pre-season training with the Claremont Tigers.

Finishing off the awards night, the Grizzlies awarded Walter Buck with a Life Memberhship award. Walter has played for the Grizzlies for over 10 years and has decided to retire and hang up the boots. Coach Donlen thanked him for his commitment over the years. The Grizzlies certainly hope that we will continue to see Walter around the club.

Walter Buck with his Life Membership Award.

All award winners from the night.

You can see all the above photos and more in our Photos page.

Casino Night at the Kangaroo and Kiwi

Ed Fayette

The Kangaroo and Kiwi will be hosting a Bond themed Casino Night on Saturday Janauary 16th and you are all invited... http://www.seattlefooty.com/Events/View.aspx?EventId=98

Best of all, proceeds from the evening go to the Seattle Grizzlies Aussie Rules Football Club!

We need you to:

1) Dust off that tuxedo, suit and tie, platinum bikini, etc and get it ready for the 16th.

2) Or get an outfit together and come as your favorite James Bond villain, male or female

3) Invite your friends down to the K&K on the 16th at 8pm for a night of fun. Prizes for the best costume and the K&K Martini, shaken, not stirred will be served.

Games available: Roulette, Blackjack, 2 up, Money Wheel and Texas Holdem. It will be a set buy in and initial chips to each person.

Hope to see you all there! It's been a long off season and now it's time to get off our asses and back to the pub! (and the grounds, i suppose!)

Cheers!
Ed

Zach John's on usfootynews.com

Zach Johns

Zach Johns was recently interviewed by Chris Adams from usfootynews.com. You can read the article here.

Zach Johns Update 2

Zach Johns

Hello friends and family,

So I'm on about week 3 here in Australia. I've been in Perth for about 2.5 weeks. Things are well. Training started last Saturday with fitness tests. I lost my stomach on the 2 k during and after trying to stay in the pack which i accomplished. The 2 k was the last thing we did on the day followed by pull ups, bench press, and squats which i did ok on. I should be able to shed 30 seconds on my next timed 2 k considering I've ran or sprinted about 5 of them this week.

So I will be training 3 days a week until a few days before Christmas (we have 2 weeks off over the holiday). Following the break we will pick up with 3 trainings a week through January. I believe at this time, if need be, there may be a few cuts from the team. I believe there are somewhere between 70 guys at this point and a few will fade out over the course of preseason. The 2 team squad (reserves and league) will carry about 50 to 55.

As for my chances I look ok physically and strength wise, but fitness is weak at the moment. My long kick is good, but my short kicks and kicks under fatigue need some work. I am confident these things will come around quickly. I have a more fundamentally sound kick now with a one handed release and guide and a more proper hold on the ball. Without politics or defects of character getting in the way, not that there has been any, I should make the team.

The guys and coaches on the team have been sincerely welcoming and helpful. Good blokes...

Perth is hot. I'm heading to the beach for a run and swim in a few. I'm all about this sort of climate.

The Western Australian newspaper did a story on me and a couple of other guys - you can read it here:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/a/-/wafl/6527075/change-of-scenery-for-aspiring-wafl-trio/

Attached are a few pics and also a story from the Western Australian newspaper about me and 2 other guys trying out for the Claremont squad. The article is a bit inaccurate when it says I played football for U of O. I actually was an unrecruited walk-on as a freshmen. Its a bit of a story, but I wasn't ready to play at that level as an 18 yr old. But I was recruited from little La Conner which is pretty cool and was on the team for about a month. I later played football in Santa Barbara and a season of baseball at Skagit valley CC prior to that (baseball is weak).

Also when the article talks about me not knowing footy existed it should be noted that i didn't know it was being played in the US until Jack Thompson let me know about it a few years ago. But whatever, the interview was over the phone and he asked a bunch of questions. He also asked if i was going to make the team. He was hoping for a cocky American answer as he asked twice, but i didn't give him one.

So enjoy your holidays and I will send you another update sometime.

One more thing... I was set up with a job down at the Fremantle docks which is the main Port for Perth and all of Western Australia. My job is manually unloading containers. I've only worked 3 days, but have unloaded a container of olive oil, diapers, wine, and several containers of imported beer. Mindless but i get paid by the container and it has worked out to about 25 bucks and hour. Not bad and I can work a few hours or a full day (by doing 2 or 3 containers). They take about 2 hours with 2 guys....

Cheers,
Zach

Zach Johns Update 1

Zach Johns

Hey Matt and fellow Grizz mates...

I made it into Sydney as scheduled and had a couple of days there. It is a great city, beautiful and clean from what I saw. I flew into Perth last night. Dale (person who set me up here) picked me up and I will be staying with him until I am set up with a room to rent.

So get this, Dales office is at the Subiaco oval. I was just given a tour of the players facilities. There were actually a few players working out. I also met a few members of the coaching staff. Pretty cool. One of the coaches was obsessed with gridiron so we had a good chat. The facility and view from Dales office is really nice. I snapped a few photos, but can't transfer to my computer at the moment...

So I just met Rob Wiley. He's going to give me a kicking lesson on Monday. I'm going to be kicking on the Subiaco oval. I guess he is in the hall of fame.

I'll keep you guys posted and send some pics once I'm set up.

Zach