Central Blues Australian Football Club

Apparently there's been plenty of chat about this year's footy trip - with rumours and innuendos flying around about a supposed multi-city trips and possible a jaunt over to Europe given the strength of the Canadian dollar over the EURO. Well folks it's all lies. In all seriousness however, the talk has been so rampant that we decided to send our website's most ball-breaking journalist Blues Brother to talk to the people who should know what's going on.

BB sat down with The Chief and Campa (AKA: The Official 2010 Footy Trip Committee) and gotten the downlow on all things Footy Trip 2010.

Dumb & Dumber AKA The Footy Trip Committee

BB: Chief, Campa - what has been decided as this year's Footy Trip destination?

Campa: Who said that? Someone's blindfolded me!!! I'm bloody blind!!!

Chief: Campa, you idiot. That's your eyebrows covering your eyes. BB, our destination this year is New Orleans. It will be on the weekend of November 4-7. We'll be staying in Hotel St. Marie, just off Bourbon St (847 Talouse Street) The plan is for people to book their flights out of Buffalo. We will then assist in organising all the carpooling required to get everyone to Buffalo together. This is by far the most affordable option compared to flying direct out of Toronto.

Campa: Chief you hurt my feelings.

BB: Well seems like the two of you get along very well. So we at BluesNews HQ have been receiving a fair bit of mail from our readers asking about what's going on with the footy trip. Unfortunately we don't have all the answers, which is why we've invited the two of you in.

Campa: Aww geez thanks mate! It's nice to feel smart for once.

Chief: Oh Gawd! Campa can you keep quiet for once? We're tying to look like we're on the ball here. And with stupid comments like that we're not going to get very far.

BB: Now now girls play nice. We're not saying you guys are smart. But the fact that you're supposed to be the Footy Trip Committee we figured you should have some inkling of an idea as to what's going on with this footy trip. Anyways here are some frequently asked questions that we've been seeing the past few weeks. Hopefully you fellas can shed some light for us.

BB: Firstly, when should people be looking to book their flight and accommodations?
Chief: We want to get things booked early this year so that we can get the cheaper rates and people can plan for their time off work, the money they will spend, etc.  The planes are small, so the seats will fill up fast, and New Orleans is hosting a national real estate conference that weekend so the hotel will book quickly as well.

Campa: And with all the real estate yahoos in town you might be able to land a deal on a nice little house too - might be a little water damage but.

BB: Campa, you are seriously are the king of the peanut gallery. Now back to the issues at hand, why are you recommending our players to fly out of Buffalo?
Chief: The flights out of Toronto are at least twice as expensive as Buffalo, so I don't think Toronto is an option for most people.  Buffalo is about a two-hour drive away in New York state and so you pass the border in a car, which is usually easier than in the airport.

BB: Is there a list of people driving to Buffalo so that I can arrange for a ride down there?
Chief: There's about 30 people seriously interested in the trip at this point, so we will have a lot of people driving to Buffalo.  I wouldn't worry too much about arranging your ride at this point, just concentrate on booking your flight and accommodations.  Worst case, we'll arrange for a bus to take us all down and bring us back.

BB: Are most people staying in a room with 2 people or 4 people?
Chief: Depends on how gay you are really.  From the pictures on Facebook, it looks as though the Aussie boys really enjoyed last weekend's parade, so I'm sure their room will be Pride headquarters for the footy trip.  In Vegas (2008), most people did 4 to a room because the rooms were pricier; in Austin (2009), most did 2 to a room because the hotel was a sh#tbox.  Since this year's hotel is both a sh#tbox and expensive, I'd imagine most will do 4 to a room.  (Just kidding, the place looks decent.)

BB: When are most people arriving and leaving?
Chief: This will depend largely on work schedules, but the general consensus so far is to leave Buffalo on November 4th (Thursday) on the 7:16pm United flight and return on November 7th (Sunday) on the 11:05am Continental flight.  Arriving Thursday night makes for more time on the ground and 2-3 solid nights out.  Leaving Sunday morning makes sense because everyone is sufficiently pickled by then, it's time to go.

BB: What's in store for activities while we're down there?
Chief: Campa and I are brewing up some good fun for the boys and we'll keep that one pretty close to our chests until the week we leave.  There are some international negotiations underway for the 3rd Annual Jaimee Cain Putt Putt Challenge, but there doesn't seem to be a wealth of putt-putt courses in Metropolitan New Orleans, or at least any worthy of our calibre of play.  By the way, has anyone seen the trophy?  It was last spotted at the Underground on King, so if someone happens by there on a regular basis (cough...Richo…cough), please enquire.

BB: Ahh Richo - he's truly an animal. Speaking of animal, New Orleans has a reputation as a rough town, what's the chances of someone getting into trouble?
Chief: Bourbon Street may be full of bars, strip clubs, live sex shows, girls doing lovely things for beads and the like, but it is quite safe.  You may not want to wander too far off Bourbon by yourself, however. And judging by Dunney's performance in Ottawa, you may want to wear a flak vest if you're hanging around him after a few pops.

BB: Now this question came from one of the Blues players whom we will choose to not name. Here's what he had to say. "I'm lazy and a bit slow and my mind is numb from reading all of the coach's e-mails, what do I have to do? "
Campa Great question Kenny.

Chief: We were supposed to keep that anonymous Campa you idoit!

Chief:

Step 1: Go to Expedia.ca and book a flight from Buffalo to New Orleans using your credit card (try to pick the same weekend as the rest of us.) Double check the dates and times before booking!
Step 2: Talk to your mates and convince (or pay) one (or three) of them to share a room with you. We'll leave it to you guys to work out who your roommates will be. Contact me and Campa if you don't have anyone and we can sort it out.
Step 3: Go to Hotel St. Marie and reserve a room using Access Code "CAISSIE".  You're done, go back to thinking about what you're going to have for breakfast tomorrow morning.

BB: Well we can see why you're called the Chief. Great stuff mate. Hopefully this information should get our guys going. As Chief mentioned - the sooner you book the better pricing you will get on your flights etc. So start organizing yourselves. Now Chief, was there anymore information I didn't ask about?

Chief: Here are some contacts for more specific questions:

1. If you're interested in pre-arranging a date for yourself in New Orleans, talk to Lefty. He can show you how to effectively use your facebook account in doing so.

2. If you're interested in knowing how NOT to drink yourself into oblivion and passing out for the majority of the weekend talk to Daniel "Junior" Andersen.

Campa: Does anyone want to share a room with me?

The Blue Beetle.. Coming Soon.