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Roos on loose at Moulin Rouge
By Dean Ritchie in Paris
November 11, 2005
THERE are the card sharks who play for cash. The snorer who wears a mouthguard. The compulsive cleaner. The coach who loses his cufflinks. The reader. The guitar player. And the bloke who refuses to close the bathroom door.
This bizarre mix constitute the 2005 Kangaroos.
A fortnight into the tour and some jovial home truths are starting to be revealed - what goes on inside the Kangaroos' rooms, what happens on the bus, who has bad habits and who hangs out with whom.
The Daily Telegraph has followed the tour and can now open the door to the Kangaroos' hotel.
First, there's the card players.
Each player generally takes the same seat on the bus each day and there are seats which face one another for the card fanatics.
Four players always take part - Ben Kennedy, Craig Gower, Steve Price and Trent Barrett.
Kennedy and Price have teamed up but at the moment are down £20 ($48) to Gower and Barrett in euchre.
The roommates stay the same for the entire tour. There's O'Meley and Civoniceva, Ryan and Creagh, Minichiello and Prince, Cooper and Waterhouse, Kennedy and Buderus, Mason and Price, Tate and Gasnier, Grothe and Fitzgibbon, Gower and King, Hindmarsh and Barrett, O'Donnell and Ryles.
Skipper Lockyer has his own room, as do all the Kangaroos staff.
Barrett and Hindmarsh first roomed together on the 2000 tour.
"We get on real good - but he snores," Barrett said. "He now wears a mouthguard to stop it which is very thoughtful - and something I'm pretty happy about."
Asked for Barrett's best habit, Hindmarsh said: "He gets me out of bed in the mornings."
Then asked for Barrett's worst habit, Hindmarsh said: "Getting me out of bed in the mornings."
Tate has a fetish for cleaning. He and Gasnier's room is spotless. But the Dragons centre is concerned.
"He is a clean freak," Gasnier said. "It's bordering on obsessive-compulsive - and I've told him."
In Manchester it was movies and shopping but the past week in Paris has been a little bit more cultural with visits to a World War I battlefield, the exotic Moulin Rouge dance club, the Louvre and other well-known sites of Paris.
Each time the Kangaroos travel they wear stylish black suits boasting the Australian badge. But Tate and coach Wayne Bennett constantly lose their cufflinks.
"I'm running out. I have some spare but my supply is dwindling," said team manager Steve Walters.
Bennett does not sit down the front of the bus with the other officials - or down the back either.
"He's trying to be cooler by sitting in the middle, but he's still a nerd," Walters said.
In his spare time, Fitzgibbon reads and plays music. He has his nose buried in a book about Mao.
Fitzgibbon brought a guitar on tour which he and roommate Grothe play in their free time.
"I'm the one who lugged it across here because Eric's too lazy to," Fitzgibbon said. "But he plays it mostly. I can't get near it."
Fitzgibbon and Grothe lived together when Grothe previously played at the Roosters.
Ryles and O'Meley have iPods which they have with them mostly.
They turn up the music when on the bus. Ryles loves Powderfinger, O'Meley listens to rap band 50 Cent.
Ryles too enjoys leaving the door wide open when using the bathroom - much to the chagrin of O'Donnell.
"He refuses to close the door," O'Donnell said, within earshot of Ryles, who replied, "I like conversation - I hate being on my own".
Asked for O'Donnell's worst habit, Ryles said: "He asks too many questions - it's doing my head in."
Ryles and Hindmarsh walk around tinkering with their playstations.
Buderus is a keen shopper. He spent up at the huge Trafford Centre in Manchester. Mason walked past some media the other day, who had enjoyed a night out. Realising how little this team drink, Mason said: "You guys got a hangover again - it's making me sick!"
The Daily Telegraph
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,17207283-23214,00.html
I would be worried about Barrett smacking me from behind whilst I slept.
By Dean Ritchie in Paris
November 11, 2005
THERE are the card sharks who play for cash. The snorer who wears a mouthguard. The compulsive cleaner. The coach who loses his cufflinks. The reader. The guitar player. And the bloke who refuses to close the bathroom door.
This bizarre mix constitute the 2005 Kangaroos.
A fortnight into the tour and some jovial home truths are starting to be revealed - what goes on inside the Kangaroos' rooms, what happens on the bus, who has bad habits and who hangs out with whom.
The Daily Telegraph has followed the tour and can now open the door to the Kangaroos' hotel.
First, there's the card players.
Each player generally takes the same seat on the bus each day and there are seats which face one another for the card fanatics.
Four players always take part - Ben Kennedy, Craig Gower, Steve Price and Trent Barrett.
Kennedy and Price have teamed up but at the moment are down £20 ($48) to Gower and Barrett in euchre.
The roommates stay the same for the entire tour. There's O'Meley and Civoniceva, Ryan and Creagh, Minichiello and Prince, Cooper and Waterhouse, Kennedy and Buderus, Mason and Price, Tate and Gasnier, Grothe and Fitzgibbon, Gower and King, Hindmarsh and Barrett, O'Donnell and Ryles.
Skipper Lockyer has his own room, as do all the Kangaroos staff.
Barrett and Hindmarsh first roomed together on the 2000 tour.
"We get on real good - but he snores," Barrett said. "He now wears a mouthguard to stop it which is very thoughtful - and something I'm pretty happy about."
Asked for Barrett's best habit, Hindmarsh said: "He gets me out of bed in the mornings."
Then asked for Barrett's worst habit, Hindmarsh said: "Getting me out of bed in the mornings."
Tate has a fetish for cleaning. He and Gasnier's room is spotless. But the Dragons centre is concerned.
"He is a clean freak," Gasnier said. "It's bordering on obsessive-compulsive - and I've told him."
In Manchester it was movies and shopping but the past week in Paris has been a little bit more cultural with visits to a World War I battlefield, the exotic Moulin Rouge dance club, the Louvre and other well-known sites of Paris.
Each time the Kangaroos travel they wear stylish black suits boasting the Australian badge. But Tate and coach Wayne Bennett constantly lose their cufflinks.
"I'm running out. I have some spare but my supply is dwindling," said team manager Steve Walters.
Bennett does not sit down the front of the bus with the other officials - or down the back either.
"He's trying to be cooler by sitting in the middle, but he's still a nerd," Walters said.
In his spare time, Fitzgibbon reads and plays music. He has his nose buried in a book about Mao.
Fitzgibbon brought a guitar on tour which he and roommate Grothe play in their free time.
"I'm the one who lugged it across here because Eric's too lazy to," Fitzgibbon said. "But he plays it mostly. I can't get near it."
Fitzgibbon and Grothe lived together when Grothe previously played at the Roosters.
Ryles and O'Meley have iPods which they have with them mostly.
They turn up the music when on the bus. Ryles loves Powderfinger, O'Meley listens to rap band 50 Cent.
Ryles too enjoys leaving the door wide open when using the bathroom - much to the chagrin of O'Donnell.
"He refuses to close the door," O'Donnell said, within earshot of Ryles, who replied, "I like conversation - I hate being on my own".
Asked for O'Donnell's worst habit, Ryles said: "He asks too many questions - it's doing my head in."
Ryles and Hindmarsh walk around tinkering with their playstations.
Buderus is a keen shopper. He spent up at the huge Trafford Centre in Manchester. Mason walked past some media the other day, who had enjoyed a night out. Realising how little this team drink, Mason said: "You guys got a hangover again - it's making me sick!"
The Daily Telegraph
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,17207283-23214,00.html
I would be worried about Barrett smacking me from behind whilst I slept.
