Saturday 27th, Sunday 28th (results added)

I was still sore in the morning and called a Physio recommended by Meg and was able to get a 9am appointment. He said my problem was caused by my pelvis being twisted and worked to straighten that and release the muscles and tendons on the right leg. This was causing the left leg to be over stressed and hence the strain. He worked on just about every muscle from my knees to shoulder blades.

Our coach Bev asked me to wear my gear so that the opposition didn't immediately realise I wasn't playing. I didn't do the running but hit some balls to warm up the goalie.

We were doing alright until they took a free without stopping or taking it back to the correct spot. Everyone else stopped, waiting for that to happen but they were effectively allowed to play on, and scored a goal. This upset our team who didn't play as well as we could have after that. In the second half ,Bev asked me to go on and take the short corner strikes. I still had to put in my contacts which took longer than normal since one was torn and in the end I just left it out. I was subbing with the half back, going on when we were in attack and off when they got the ball. I did take 2 corner shots, getting both away. The first missed by a foot on the left and the second was too high. In the end we lost 0-2. We were disappointed with ourselves and annoyed with the umpires who were interpreting the 5 metre rule differently, which made it hard to work out what to do.

We headed back to watch the 6 o'clock game for the 50's and the 40's after that. Like a number of the girls I got fish and chips from the palce we bought the crabs from. the 50s won and the 40's drew.

A couple of the girls came back to our room for drinks afterwards. I still hadn't got anything so I was just on soft drink.

On Sunday morning we left at 7-30 for a practice run on the high school soccer field near the stadium. I wasn't required to to the drills so was getting balls back. It seems hard to belive we played on surfaces like that only a few years ago.

We all headed out at 11 for the South Bank markets. We started at the Eagle pier and took the City Cat (a catamaran ferry). We ate lunch at the fafe area then wandered through the market stalls. Alene and I got temporary tattos. Mine is the Scopion.

We returned to Eagle pier, where they also had market stalls, before heading back to the room for a rest before tonight's game.

Later

The game was at 7pm and a was a lot cooler than for the previous 2 games. Queensland scored an early goal off a short corner. It appeared to have been a shot on goal that went left where the pusher managed a deflection. This time we didn't drop our game and continued to have most of the play but could not score before half time. When we were still scoreless half way through the second half, Bev asked me to go on. I found I could run a bit, as long as I shuffled and only took small steps. We soon got a short corner. There was a mistrap so I didn't get a shot away but Helen pushed it back towards me. I tried a reverse stick shot which was not hard or straight enough but Karen pushed it passed the goalie and in a scramble pushed it in. I subbed off straight away. After that I subbed on when we went into attack and off again afterwards. This confused the reserve umpire who wanted to know what was going on. A manager said she'd tell her - on Saturday. I had only just stepped on the second time as they made a run for goal and Betty pushed one passed the goalie to go 2-1 up. That was the final score and we all went home feeling MUCH better than the day before. That will I think put us second over the team we played, based on goal difference.