Rabbitohs supporter Kat Poulsen made the trip to Jacksonville, Florida to watch the Rabbitohs play the Leeds Rhinos in the inaugural Australia Day Challenge on Saturday 26 January.
She submitted the following blog entry for everyone to enjoy:
The Week the Rabbitohs Came to Town
By Kat Poulsen
After a few tough years, and a lot of personal soul searching, I decided that this year was going to be all about things that make me really smile - including the holiday of my dreams. So I created a list. Seeing snow falling at Strawberry Fields in Central Park, buying shoes in New York, going to Disneyworld, doing a hot lap in a NASCAR or three, but top of the list was watching my footy team play in the off season - a pretty major must do item on the agenda and something that win, lose or draw always makes me smile. So I jumped online and bought my tickets to the match before I’d even purchased my airfare.
I am after all a self confessed Rabbitoh tragic who has only missed three games in the last two years.
Most of my friends and work colleagues had thought I’d lost it when they asked what I was doing for my holiday this year, a single girl alone on a footy holiday. “You're going to see the Rabbitohs play the UK in the US? Are you mad?”
I told them simply this. “You bet I am!”
My girlfriends who know me best were eventually appeased - provided I brought shoes in New York if I was spending so much on going to the football. The blokes – just called me crazy or told me about how envious they were.
I got a little bit more than I planned from my holiday.
I arrived in Jacksonville pumped for an early end to the dreaded off season, keen to see what the team was going to look like in the coming year, how busy they had been and what I had to look forward to.
The first observation I had about the Country Comfort Inn at Jacksonville Beach was at 12.30 am in the morning. Bleary eyed from a day of New York shopping madness for souvenirs (and shoes) and a flight from New York via Atlanta, Georgia – I looked up to see a “GOOD LUCK SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS” sign where the hotel rates normally are.
I assumed many people must be using this as there base for the game as, while it was well out of downtown Jacksonville, it was close to the University of North Florida Stadium where the game was being hosted and a recommended hotel by locals.
I had no idea it was the base of the whole team, coaching staff, owners, celebrity guests and press!
I learnt this startling fact thanks to a shared 1am elevator ride with one of my favourite 80’s players Mark ‘Spudd’ Carroll! I had no makeup on and my hair in pigtails under a beanie, for a girl this is really rare and very tragic occurrence.
I spent the next 48 hours taking tonnes of photos, drinking beer, chatting and asking many questions to anyone that was around, and, generally feeling like the luckiest girl on the planet! I didn’t care I looked like a camera toting tourist groupie from happy clapper central.
The next morning I woke bright and early and Mr Darryl ‘Spinner’ Howland (the organiser of the game in the States) had sent me another of his informative emails and it was listed on the itinerary as a reminder it was “Fan Day”.
So on fan day, I went on a tour of the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars Stadium – from owner’s box to locker rooms, and even met a player or two thanks to Marlon from the staff. I also got a unique lesson in Rugby League from two American Rugby League players spoken in NFL terms (e.g. Try is now supposedly the new touchdown) and a tour of the Budweiser factory.
That night I saw in my first Australia Day ever off home soil at an organised fan day event at the Outback Cafe having a beer, chatting to JT with two Americans and an Aussie expat in a Western Reds Jersey about what we could expect the following day. Standing eating meat pies, singing Waltzing Matilda and eventually listening to some bloke who didn’t know all the words to the Powderfinger song he was playing. On my way back into the Hotel I ran into Mikey Teutel from Orange County Choppers – who told me all about the bikes they had built for Peter and Russell and were presenting the following day.
The next morning when I woke up... I was SO ready to see some footy. I got to see all the players leaving for the game, noted Dennis Rodman pulled up in his 4WD and gave a wave, Layne Beachey was walking around and I got a quick and private word or three with Russell Crowe too.
I had made a tonne of friends on my trip, Americans from Chicago Illinois, New Jersey, Chattanooga Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma and a dozen people from all over Florida including some of the players from the Axemen Rugby League Team. Then there were some Aussies with American partners from places like Liberty, Oklahoma, Los Angeles and Detroit, Michigan and even a Canadian from Toronto. Then there were the wonderful Rabbitoh loving father and son Baker Boys – Graham who had flown to Jacksonville from Gosford, Australia and Liam who flew from London for his birthday to see his dad. Happy Birthday Liam!
It is important to list some of these fans and places as 12,000 people mostly who had never seen a game of Rugby League before, some who braved more than eight hour flights or drives and the rain to give University of North Florida or UNF’s Hodges stadium the capacity crowd. The atmosphere from the cheap seats was amazing.
80% were cheering the Rabbitohs, however, I also met one guy who was cheering the Bears and a confused “fanny pack” wearing Parramatta supporter who was looking for Tim Smith. The local UNF footy players I was standing with watching the game thought a girl knowing anything about Rugby League football was great and rather unheard of.
Anyway, as for the game the first two quarters were summed up with me yelling a lot about the referee needing a lesson on what is forward, onside and a knock on, but then sometimes I think most refs need to be taught about this.
When Ben Rogers broke for that first Rabbitohs try in the 47th minute while we were 26 - 0 the noise from the crowd was amazing and it got better with every try in our second half or the last two quarters of football.
About 10 minutes later Issac Luke scored off an amazing 20-odd metre run from dummy half. When Eddie Paea scored he seemed to have wrapped the game up with his try on 10 minutes to go, and the boys looked the goods. It was unfortunate there wasn’t another minute in the game as the momentum had definitely swung our way. It was an exciting game with loads of atmosphere and the last 10 minutes was very thrilling as the Rabbitohs gave chase. George Ndaira’s try with one minute to go had the crowd celebrating as if we had won anyway.
One of the main things everyone I spoke to said about last season was we need to put more points on the board and chase when we are down to compliment our stellar defence - not get stuck in a rut. The team did this and with many of the more well known stars benched I think the younger Rabbitohs stood up to the line well and showed a lot about the talent the club is developing.
I was very happy to see what kind of excitement a team that can fight back with 24 unanswered points in a second half of football can bring. The new season and the team look promising. And our bench looked lethal.
But I also wanted to mention that the highlights of my trip weren’t all about the game but the proudness I felt about some of the good things the team did. Like when I witnessed every player go out of his way in the hotel lobby for the 7-year-old boy in order to make sure his sign was autographed; the father and son bonding trip over footy; the homesick Aussie and his wife from Liberty who had their day made when Manase Manuokafoa sat down next to them and said G’Day and had a chat about how they ended up at the game; my private word with Russell Crowe; cracking jokes with some lovely blokes such as Dean Widders, Craig Wing and Ben Rogers before a long trip home and the elevator trip with David Kidwell and some Aussie bird trying to talk him out of his 100 years commemorative Jacket (I know she had NO chance!).
The trip was magical in many ways and the memories I’ll cherish. I was a proud Rabbitoh.
We may not have won the game, and I know it sounds cliché but we did win the hearts of many Americans and fans that will never forget the week the Rabbitohs came to the town of Jacksonville. This was proved in the front page of the Florida newspaper the following day littered in the Myrtle and Cardinal instead of the other major political stories that were happening.
A week later after scamming a ride with some people that I met in Jacksonville down to Cape Canaveral and then making my own way across to Orlando, and Disneyworld, and all the way down to where I got my Tattoo at Miami Ink (where they now have a Rabbitoh sticker somewhere on the wall).
I had people stopping me asking about my T-shirt from the game from places such as Rhode Island, Orlando, LA and Massachusetts asking about the NRL and hoping we come back and play there again soon. I really hope we do.