The “Wipeout at ANZ” Tour.
Monday, August 10th, 2009Like many Raiders Army trips this year the day started at Château Loz. KW’s late withdrawal to go camping in Belanglo State Forest meant there was no need for a Queanbeyan detour.
After a traditional Raiders Army communication break down, we got in touch with “The Ferrari” who informed us he was right around the corner.
So for a record 2nd time in one season, a Raiders Army away trip departed within 10 minutes of it’s scheduled time, this record is not expected to be broken in 2010.
Just as we got out of Lyneham, there were already indications that an unnamed traveller was feeling quite hungry. At this point it became very clear that we would be stopping before the Raiders Army official away trip restaurant at Sutton Forest, this boycott may or may have not done damage to our already fragile relationship with this stakeholder..
An uneventful first hour had passed when we decided to stop over at the only McDonalds in Australia that Todd Carney cannot legally enter. Any hope of a quick lunch were dashed when it became quite clear that half the local population had also decided a Macca’s lunch was an ace idea.
After grabbing a no so quick bite, or in Kaitlyn’s case a McSmorgasbord, we were off. The next few minutes flew by as we listened to Loz lecturing Kaitlyn that if she kept up the Maccas addiction she would have to “wash herself with a rag on a stick”, (we had no idea at the time, but this would become the catch phrase of the night)
The trip needed some music, fortunately I had brought along a C.D which contained musical greats like Rick Astley and Shannon Noll just to name a few. Unfortunately I didn’t seem to format the CD correctly. I think that shows the extent of my I.T skills, I don’t know whether it’s hilarious or a massive concern that I am one of the people that run this website.
After a brief tour of the beautiful Lakemba, we arrive at the Brewery at about 3:30pm to meet the four other Raiders fans who were in agreeance that having some pre match drinks four hours before kick off was a logical idea. Why we left at 12pm for a 7:30pm match I will never know, even the Toyota cup didn’t start until 5:30.
Just after 4pm the drink prices seemed to shift to event day mode. I guess the dogs vs Raiders at the Olympic stadium is something that people circle on their calendars. At 5pm I rush to the ticket office and couldn’t believe my luck when I ended up being the 3rd person in line. No way was I missing out on my ticket to this epic blockbuster. As I farewell some fans through gate B; which has more security than attending fans, I head back to the brewery to see if the Raiders fans count had cracked the double digits yet.
After a couple more XXXX beers at the reasonable price of $5, all 9 of us decide it is time to go into the stadium. Just before we walk into our away fans section we notice that they have a surfboard ride set up. While this was probably more aimed at the kids in the ground, we would eventually end up visiting this attraction later in the night.
After grabbing some Tooheys and some hot chips which tasted like they had been sitting on the counter since Stadium Australia first opened, we headed down to our supporters bay which had a reasonable turn out considering our ladder position. Celebrity Raiders fan and season 2 winner of the biggest loser Sam even joined in to become part of the massive sea of green.
Just before kick off we are greeted with a posse of teenagers who think they are hard core because they are sitting in the away supporters area instead of the other 68,000 empty seats. . Anyway that’s not to worry, if this is how they get their thrills in Western Sydney then who am I to judge.
The whistle for time on is blown and 3 Tackles in an executive decision is made that we should start up the old “My garden shed Chant”. Thankfully the Raiders faithful all decided to get involved which saved me looking like a complete clown for starting a chant that nobody else was involved in.. I think some locals around us were stunned due to the extreme irony of the song.
The RA were in fine voice throughout the first half and at 15-10 we were more than in the match. Another positive sign was that security seemed to have backed down on earlier attempts to get us to sit down due to the complaints from our Bulldogs supporting friends. Although it did seem that the small group was fortunate to be able to move up in one of the 35 empty rows behind us, I guess they secretly loved the Raiders too much to move away from our bay.
Sadly one of our new friends, his night was cut short when he was ejected from the stadium for under age drinking. After giving him a cheerio song it was off to attempt the surfing challenge. I think the operators of the ride could work out that we came from a land locked town by the fact our Canberra contingent couldn’t manage to crack 5 seconds on the board, between us.
The 2nd half was an interesting one, at 21-10 down and Monaghan off the field we knew it was going to be a tough ask. How ever we continued to believe and did out best to try create some atmosphere in that soulless stadium. We weren’t big on numbers, but we had plenty of heart and gave it out all, and to the boys credit they kept fighting and pulled the margin back to 21-16. This only lifted the spirits in bay 104-1 and a try in the corner gave Terry Campese a chance to put us in front, unfortunately the kick waved away and a penalty goal to the dogs on full time sealed our fate.
However we were still very proud of our boys. We have a very young side that is getting valuable first grade experience and gelling as a team. Keep the faith people, we have a very special group of players at our club right now. Dave Furner is also a man that is fully committed to the Raiders, combine these two and I think we have a winning formula.
So we say good our goodbyes and make the trek to the car, some requiring assistance. At this point of time we just want to get out of there but unfortunately we are stuck in grid lock with some Fat Pizza rejected cast members right behind us constantly blasting their horn and yelling abuse. Thankfully we were eventually on the highway and they were off to look cool in the car park of a local McDonalds.
Going out of Sydney we noticed a few fire trucks that were in a hurry to get to a massive factory fire in the distance. It did cross our minds that the same fine citizens we encountered only minutes earlier were possibly involved in this. The 10pm bulletins confirmed our suspicions when it was revealed that the factory was in fact a car yard, no wonder they were in a hurry, they had a massive insurance job to pull off. With with the tunes from Triple M now blazing we were approaching Sutton forest in good time..
Just after an emergency rest stop, we faced an ethical dilemma of whether or not to pick up a hitch hiker. Much to Kaitlyn’s disappointment we drove past him. I’m sure it would have been fine though, after all there is nothing suspicious about a bloke hitch hiking about 20 minutes outside Sutton forest at 1145pm on a Saturday night, it is possible that our hitch hiker could have been the Raiders Army‘s version of Russel Coigt KW looking for a ride back to Q-Town. (btw KW’s All Aussie Adventures will be available on DVD for $24.95 just before Christmas)
We arrived at Macca’s to find the freakish tradition of arriving just after the Toyota cup team had continued. I really don’t know how we end up running into them at every away trip. Maybe they sit in the car park and wait until we arrive just to take the piss. After the entire squad is fed, we eventually make it to the counter and put our orders in. Kaitlyn decided to take Loz’s earlier advice on the Macca’s and only order 20 nuggets and 2 cheeseburgers.
While waiting for our food a random Raiders fan decided it was a good idea to attempt to play some music using buttons of the eftpos system, you really do see a lot of strange things when out in the middle of nowhere..
Once we were on the road again it was somehow decided it was good idea to phone up random people just to say a certain Simpson’s quote, again we apologise if anyone received random voicemails at approximately 1230am. After a short debate about whether a tree is a vegetable and whether or not it looks like Broccoli we were past Goulburn.
We decided against stopping off for some $2 horse manure and arrived back in Canberra just after 1am, it had been quite a long day and I think everyone was glad to be back home.
Sadly this it is for our Sydney trips this season, there will be a great turn out of Raiders fans in Brisbane but I can’t see many making the trek to New Zealand.
I have heard rumours that Kaitlyn and Loz are attempting to paddle there using only a raft and a rag on a stick, if that eventuates a very interesting review will be sure to come up .
On Saturday night we take on the Dragons at home base, I encourage all fans to get out there and support our boys against the current competition favourites. There will be a big turnout of the (un)faithful Dragons Army so it is important we also turn out in numbers.
Take care and enjoy the rest of the season.
Believe
-Marko.


