Hindy's blog

[Bigfella]

Yep I thought it was Benny too. Would probably fit the criteria too.

 

[strider]

joey g doesn't look real happy about it :lol:

 

[Gronk]

An engaging summer


Big news in the Hindmarsh household at the moment, as not only is Bonnie due to deliver our third child in a few weeks time, but we are also engaged.
Yep, I finally popped the question over summer and we are looking to tie the knot sometime this year. Although I can’t believe the cost of weddings!
I’m pretty sure Bonnie just wants to have our third child as soon as possible as the hot conditions are not that easy to deal with when you’re pregnant.
We still don’t know if it will be a boy or a girl, so we’re in for a welcome surprise. As I have said before I would like another boy, because I have figured out to handle them, plus if we have a girl then when she reaches 16 or 17 I’ll have to put locks on the doors.
At least that’s what we keep telling Luke Burt that he will be doing in ten years time with his daughter, although I doubt he will.
The holiday season was a great time to be around as we had the whole family at ours for Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone together and all the kids running round with their presents.
Everyone was there except for my brother Ian who had to spend his time on the farm milking cows.
Bonnie and I spent New Years at Port Douglas where my brother-in-law had his wedding. I take my hat off to him for incorporating a sunny holiday with a wedding. I got some golf in while I was there, but still don’t think I’ll be turning pro when my league days are over.
Archie has developed into a bit of a soccer fan. While I can’t stand watching it on the TV I don’t mind a bit of a kick around with him in the backyard goals and I don’t mind what my kids play as long as they give their sport a bit of a crack.
Archie also celebrated his 3rd birthday on January 11 in a low key affair for him, but a good time was had by all.
I had my first full day of training with the boys today as I have been rehabbing my foot. It’s good to be back, although it was pretty hot out there and the heat, combined with the length and intensity of the sessions, is really hurting.
I would say this has been the hardest pre-season I have had in five years, but if it gets us into premiership contention I won’t mind at all.
A lot of the boys have lost a bit of weight over the off-season and are looking lean and mean this year. Even Fuifui Moimoi is looking lean since returning 10 days late from “flood stricken” Tonga.
Fui was sheepish to say the least when he rocked up to training this morning and he is usually pretty chatty. Maybe he has gone back to the ‘I don’t speak English’ mantra of a few years ago.
While all the boys have looked impressive at training I am tipping young front-rower Jeremy Latimore to be the one to look out for in 2009. He has some serious talent and I reckon he could be the best up and comer in the squad.
Kevin Kingston has also impressed since coming across from the Sharks.
Luke Burt has regained some form in training and is looking good with the ball in his hands and Ben Smith looks fitter than he has ever been. I’d describe him as a ‘big beach house on stilts.’
The board has also undergone a change at the club, but to be honest I haven’t thought about that much, if at all. They all came down to training the other day to say hello, which was a nice gesture even though I have known all the guys for a while.
Perhaps the funniest part of the entire saga was the Guru, Eric Grothe, coming to training reminding us to vote for his old man every day for a few weeks. Guess the badgering, I mean ‘how to vote’ lesson paid off.
As for Guru he is training well and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make a return to the top grade in 2009.
Hindy

 

[JessEel]

Good Blog there! Mentioned a few names we have all been tossing around, and that Fui's back

 

[forward pass]

Even Fuifui Moimoi is looking lean since returning 10 days late from “flood stricken” Tonga.

:lol: I wonder if Hindy was responsible for the quote marks or the editor !

 

[parra pete]

I enjoy reading Hindy's blog...

 

[hineyrulz]

Ben Smith a beach house on stilts LOL.......

 

[Hellsy]

Oh thats all fantastic!!!! I am glad of some happy news

 

[parra pete]

Oh thats all fantastic!!!! I am glad of some happy news

Join in Hellsy...
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=FrsM9WggCdo&feature=related

 

[FUIFUI_MOIMOI]

I LOVE HINDYS BLOG! i hope he knows how much we know reading

 

[bartman]

Good Blog there! Mentioned a few names we have all been tossing around, and that Fui's back

If these guys are all in good form and not injured, with a bit of hunger back under new coach, imagine the look of the first choice backline we could have:

Burt
Hayne
Smith
Inu
Grothe
?
Finch

With guys like K Keating, Reddy, Tautai having had long stints in first grade last season and being great go-to options to fill in one of these spots when needed.

It's enough to make you start dreaming again of the good footy we know the talent in our club is capable of!

 

[Gronk]

A tough week for our game

Saying it’s been a tough week for our game is probably the understatement of the week, but I would like to offer my thoughts.
I was as shocked as everyone when I first heard about Brett Stewart’s alleged incident. Too often rugby league players have been caught up in scandal but anyone who knows Brett knows what a good guy he is.
He is certainly not the first person and is not going to be the last person who doesn’t remember a huge night out. It’s not a good thing and I think society as a whole need to look at excessive drinking and the culture of it. There is no doubt it causes problems.
While I have said all this I don’t believe in a total alcohol ban for NRL players. For one how will you enforce it?
But more importantly it’s not as if every player goes out and gets hammered every weekend. It’s a minority who drink too much and get in trouble. It doesn’t happen every weekend and it’s not every player!
I’ll be the first to admit I enjoy having a beer, as most guys do. However I don’t drink every weekend, I don’t drink at home and I very rarely would have a drink in front of my kids, even at a BBQ.
I do go out maybe once a month and let my hair down. Does it get too long sometimes? Probably, but a big part of responsible drinking is knowing when you have had enough and that it’s time to go home.
In the last week I have read some good commentary about the responsible service of alcohol and tend to agree it needs to be looked at. Sure, no one likes being refused service at the bar, but if it helps to avoid ugly incidents then maybe this law needs to be enforced in a stricter way.
Back to Brett’s case and I have to say I’m not too sure about the suspension he has been given. Last year Anthony Laffranchi was facing court over serious charges and still playing. However if the ban, as the NRL indicates, was for drunken behaviour, then they have to be consistent and ban every player who gets drunk.
Which makes me wonder if Anthony Watmough was indeed intoxicated at the club function as reports have suggested then why is Choc not also suspended?
Now that we’ve got all that out of the way, hopefully for the season, let’s get on to the weekend ahead.
I’m stoked the season is about to begin, even if ours is beginning in the land of the long white cloud against the Warriors.
It should be a cracker of a match and I hope we can get off to a good start this year.
Everyone reckons the Warriors are slow starters; well they pumped us last year in round 2. That’s how slow they are.
They also have a lot to play for. Not only do they have Steve Price’s 300th game, but they have the memory of Sonny Fai, so make no mistake they will be very motivated.
They also have Wade McKinnon back on deck and he is a huge attacking weapon who gives most teams fits.
While they have Wade back, we have a motivated Eric Grothe. Guru has trained hard all season and has even bothered to lift weights instead of walking across the gym flexing and striking a pose.
Guru will play his 100th game in Eels colours this weekend. Congrats mate, it’s only taken 10 years. In all seriousness though, his battle with Manu Vatuvei should be an epic battle, and for the record if they went at it in an arm wrestle I would back Guru.
Still on the backline and we have Jarryd Hayne at five eighth. Bet Haynesy didn’t think he would be there two years ago. But to his credit he has adapted well to the position and though he is more of a running five eighth he can pass the ball when necessary.
On to the forward pack and we have Tim Mannah on debut off the bench. Tim’s a quiet young kid who has worked hard for this opportunity, playing well in all the trials and I reckon he will go alright. I also reckon the same about Broderick Wright when he gets his chance in first grade.
Still talking sport and I managed to get out of jail on the punt last week. Thought I had a sure thing with Secret Flyer at $26 on fixed odds in the Newmarket. It was then backed heavily and ran like a donkey. Lucky Go kart got up in Brisbane to remove me from the trouble.
Back at home all is well. Bonnie, the boys and I welcomed Rowdy Hindmarsh into the family. Buster and Archie love their little bro.
Rowdy was pretty sick for a week with meningitis, but is all better now.
Buster is now at that age where he has learnt the word ‘no’. Any parent will know how that feels. On the up side he also likes to tackle, so he must be taking after me.
Archie though has impressed by learning to ride his bike with no training wheels. That almost brought a tear to his old man’s eye.
Hope to get the season off to a winning start on Saturday.
Hindy

 

[Gronk]

The Warriors and a littler master


Sometimes life provides opportunities you don’t expect, so when I got to New Zealand last week and found out the Indian cricket team were staying at the same hotel, my first instinct was to sprint to the Rebel store downstairs and buy a bat for Sachin Tendulkar to sign.
The willow was bought and the next day I waited near the entrance with my new bat. The little master, shuffling out with his head down signed it for me. He had no idea who I was other than some star struck fan and kept walking.
Top moment and that bat, in the words of Darryl Kerrigan is “going straight to the pool room!”
In a way I felt sorry for the Indian cricketers. It’s often written that they can’t drive their cars during the day back home and after seeing the insanity of the throngs of their fans at our hotel I can see why. Indian cricket fans have loads of passion and, without sounding disrespectful to them, are obsessed.
As for our game, well we played some patchy rugby league. We looked good at times but not so good at others.
I think mistakes in the first half cost us. We gave away penalties on the fourth and fifth tackles. Brett Finch and Luke Burt gave another away early in the second half and we dropped too much ball.
There were some positive signs though. The most important is that we fought hard the whole way through the game. If that had of been last year I think we would have turned up our toes and could have faced a blowout. The high level of commitment was good to see.
A few quick notes from the game and it was good to see another Eel lose his pants. Eric Grothe lost his when he scored and Guru you can have the trademark on that!
I thought Jarryd Hayne was good for us again and Tim Mannah was very impressive on debut, despite tweaking his hamstring getting on the plane.
It was also a big day for Steve Price, playing his 300th game. I have nothing but respect for Pricey and hope I can join the 300 club one day.
I think the referee got it wrong when he penalised Fuufui Moimoi late in the game for what he described as a high shot on Micheal Luck. When we protested the ref told us he hit him high with his arm, but there was no arm in it.
Fui even has a bruise on his pectorals from Micheal Luck’s head. I guess the match review panel vindicated our thoughts because Fui was not charged.
I however was. When they were reading out the charges at training I thought it was a gee up. Usually you know when you may have done something wrong in a game, but when I was told I was charged with a chicken wing tackle I think I laughed.
As far as I’m concerned it was not a chicken wing at all, but I took the early plea so as not to risk a suspension.
Tonight Weller Hauraki is seeking a downgrade on his charge and we hope is successful.
Over the entire weekend I felt like the effort of the Bulldogs was the most impressive win. They controlled the game well and didn’t give Manly a chance.
A lot has been written this week about their centre Jamal Idris, but I’m reserving judgement to see what he does when their backs are against the wall. That’s usually the measure of a good player.
He’s certainly a big boy. I remember when I started I was 92 kilos or so. These days rookie centres or wingers are 105kg. The game has come a long way in terms of developing youngsters to begin their first grade career.
This week we have Friday Night Footy against the Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium.
Souths were impressive in knocking the stuffing out of the Roosters. I thought they would win but not by that much. To me the Roosters lacked spark when we trialled against them and that trend continued.
You can bet our big men will be running at Chris Sandow this week. We would be silly not to. Having said that I reckon he will run at our forwards just as much and try and step us. Sandow’s a livewire who we have to watch carefully.
Hope to see plenty of Eels fans at Homebush.
Hindy

 

[Jake the snake]

How do you do a Hammy while boarding a plane???

 

[SDM]

Kneeling down to pray.

 

[Gronk]

Keeping a level head

There’s a sense of relief in the camp at the moment. We’ve got our first win on the board and it feels good. No one wants to be 0-2 after two rounds of the comp and our win over South Sydney had a lot of merit.
We did the hard work and got the result. Did anyone see my cover tackle? I just proved I still have pace and our centres better watch themselves!
Speaking of the outside backs I thought one of ours was far more deserving of the man of the match award. While I’m happy to take it as the $1000 comes in handy I would have thought Joel Reddy was a deserving candidate.
While I’m talking about guys who have impressed at the club this year I think Joe Galuvao has really begun to show us all why he was such a success at Penrith a few years ago. We all know how damaging Joe can be it’s just a matter of getting it out of him.
Fuifui Moimoi and Eric Grothe have also impressed me, although Guru’s constant high shorts at training are getting to be a little disconcerting. Those white legs hurt the eyes.
After knocking off South Sydney we take on a Raiders side with their backs against the wall this week. That’s when they get dangerous and despite the fact they are 0-2 after a tough loss to the Tigers and a belting at the hands of the Roosters we are very wary of them and will not be talking ourselves up heading into the game.
The aim as a team this year is to keep level heads no matter how many wins we string together. Last year we didn’t do that and ended up looking like idiots.
We have to watch Terry Campese in particular. The youngster never actually looks like he is doing anything and then finds a way to stroll through a gap created out of nothing. He is classy and we can’t give him a chance.
Having said all that I’m happy we are playing Canberra at Parramatta Stadium. I don’t usually say this about teams but the Raiders are a side you want to play at your home ground. They always lift when they are in Canberra compared to how they play when they are away.
I notice forwards are dominating the Dally M count at the moment with Adam Blair and Steve Price on top and myself one point off them. Hopefully this is the year of the prop or back rower, for the first time since David Fairleigh won it while at North Sydney in 1994.
While I’m not really concerned about the Dally M what I do want is a rep jumper. I’ve made no secret I’d like to wear the sky blue again and will really be thinking about that in a few weeks time.
There’s been a lot written about the future of footy clubs this week and if someone had of asked me about the future of Parramatta five years ago I probably wouldn’t have worried as much, but the fact is these days in the current economic climate I am concerned.
Poker machine taxes have hurt the clubs and the longer I am here the more I want to see the club stand on it’s own two feet and never have to face a merger possibility. I don’t know the secret to financial success for the club but I do urge fans to get out and support us as often as you can and we’ll try and repay you with wins.
Growing up the Illawarra Steelers were my local team and I hated it when they had to merge with St George. I didn’t want them to merge, especially with the dreaded Dragons. A mate of mine Keith Gardiner, who will detest me for writing this, is that big a Dragons fan he cried when they lost a semi final game and after the odd win as well. There’s your moment of fame buddy!
It’s good to see that we are getting some good press at the moment, I didn’t take Archie and Buster to recovery for a stunt though, they have been a bit sick lately so they wanted to get out of the house.
Apparently Jarryd Hayne was quite well behaved at the races as well, sipping on wine and being a good lad, nice work Haynesy.
For all the horse racing fans out there I’m going with Roman Emperor at Rosehill as my tip of the week. He was climbing all over them two weeks ago but couldn’t ‘get out’.
If anyone can give me some help in Dream Team I need it. I’ve been scoring in the 500 point range but can’t seem to get the extra 100 points the leaders have.
So far my team has the likes of Petero Civoniceva, Craig Fitzgibbon, Chris Heighington and Glenn Stewart leading the way up front with the likes of Luke Burt, Hazem el Masri and Luke Covell getting me some points in the backline.
Hindy

 

[JessEel]

How do you do a Hammy while boarding a plane???

Kneeling down to pray.

:lol:!!!!!!!!



very good!!

 

[Hellsy]

Fuifui Moimoi and Eric Grothe have also impressed me, although Guru’s constant high shorts at training are getting to be a little disconcerting. Those white legs hurt the eyes.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[jk13]

hindy heres a good tip, pick yourself. stagg's doing ok as well

 

[Gronk]

Pulling several rabbits out of the hat

I’d like to point out for all our fans that our new strategy for 2009 is to make things interesting and win the game at the death in spectacular fashion.
Well not really, but it would help explain the way we went about getting the two points over the Raiders last weekend. Pulling the rabbit out of the hat probably isn’t the ideal way to go every week when it comes to getting the two points, but two points are two points and we will take them.
Whilst it was a great win and showed character you had to feel a bit sorry for Terry Campese throwing the pass which gave Jarryd Hayne a 95m intercept try. It even conjured up memories of Matt Bowen’s memorable Origin intercept off Brett Kimmorley and, even though I’ve long since forgiven Noddy, I doubt he will ever live that one down.
Two things about last week disappointed me. The first is our attack still looks scratchy despite the fact we are defending well. It’s now round four and the excuse that the combinations need time is running out of legs.
The second was the crowd at the game. All I can put it down to is Canberra are an out of town side. We only got 11,000 there which was a bit disappointing as I don’t think we have been playing badly. Hopefully when we play some other Sydney teams like the Bulldogs, Wests Tigers or Panthers the crowd numbers will improve.
Having said that it was good to see so many Canberra fans making the trip down the highway to be at the game. They are really getting behind their side, despite the three losses to start the season.
We’ll be taking on the Roosters tomorrow night and it’s time to aim up for Friday Night Footy. We need to click and keep our focus, which has been a problem in the past. I don’t think we’re far off our best and could show it this Friday night. It’s a showcase game so it could be time to make a statement.
I think I’ll be expecting Luke Burt to bag some tries and Dream Team points as he has scored 14 tries in 10 matches against the Roosters.
As for the Roosters there is no doubt the fact that Willie Mason and Nate Myles have been stood down from the team for drinking on a day when they weren’t allowed to should make them an easier proposition for us, but it could also mean the rest of their players fire up.
I’ll be trying to fire Craig Fitzgibbon up while I’m out there. I might have to sledge the big fella about his hair or lack of it or something, because I know he’ll be pulling at mine, always does.
As for the bans well the Roosters have their own policies, but I tend to think they are quite strict and I reckon I’d be sneaking in a few beers occasionally. Nowhere near to the point of excess but all these policies are starting to get a bit ridiculous.
I had four beers at Nathan Cayless’ birthday dinner the other night and hardly think that is a crime, yet perhaps at the Roosters it would be cause for suspension, if it was here at Parramatta and I was suspended I would be absolutely filthy!
While I’ll be looking forward to Friday night I am also looking forward to the Golden Slipper on Saturday. Originally I was planning to head to the track, but I’m not too sure I will. My tips are Indian Ocean and Manhattan Rain and I’ve been given a tip for Viewed in The BMW.

Just a quick response to your comments and thanks to Chris, Gerry and Catherine for the kind words and Matt for the Dream Team advice, I may have to take it.
Hindy