[Under editing] You and I - Marcus Bontempelli

One Hundred and Thirty Seven

^^This photo 🥰🥰 

The week flies by in a blur as it really consists of lounging around in the apartment, going and helping out the boys at training, and playing games such as uno, Wii sport and the PS4 as Jack Macrae had to bring his up as he cannot go two seconds without. 

The boys ended up doing a soccer tournament and they were very keen for me to play as well, but I am so shit at PS4 so I got thrashed by Caleb Daniel 6-0. 

But then I made them all play the Wii again, and I smashed all of them so it's even. 

What's been good about this trip is that Marcus and I share an apartment and we love every minute of it. We don't have to be cautious with what we do in case someone turns the corner, it's just 24/7 cuddling and no one cares as it's just us two. Where at home we cop it from Baz and Josh for always being touchy and affectionate with each other. But I know Josh and Alanah are like that too so it's not like they can talk. 

Finally game day arrives and we're making our way to Optus Stadium as the game starts at 1:20 (3:20 Melbourne time). 

I help the Physio's set up and help the boys with a few drills in their pre-game warm up. It's been raining non-stop and it doesn't look like it's gonna stop anytime soon. 

The boys then head back into the rooms to get ready for the game. It's a big one. We need to win this one to really prove that we are contenders. Also if Marcus has a good game today, I reckon he'll win the Brownlow. 

He has to. He has been beast mode all season so far, and we're more than halfway through. 

The boys run out onto the ground in front of an empty Optus Stadium, cause oh yeah right, the Perth government called off crowds last minute as they have had a COVID case. I feel for the fans as this game was gonna be a sell out. I feel bad especially for Bulldogs fans who only get to see us play here once or twice a year, depending if where we play West Coast and Freo. Luckily for them this year we play West Coast twice so they were able to see the boys twice, but not anymore. 

I can hear Marcus revving up the boys as they run onto the ground, with all the medical staff and other staff that have come up to Perth cheering them on. 

I know I will be cheering today so that the boys know they have some sort of crowd. West Coast then run onto the ground and both teams do a few more warm up drills, before Josh Kennedy and Marcus meet in the middle for the coin toss. Marcus as usual wins it and points to the direction he wants to kick. 

He then huddles the boys up for one last rev up before they all take to their positions. The siren sounds over the empty stadium and I clap my hands together yelling out a 'come on boys' which  they happen to hear. 

The ball is bounced and Tim English and Nic Naitanui go at it in the ruck. English does pretty well and taps it straight to Bont who kicks it into our 50 and bounces on the ground as it's still raining and no one can mark it. 

It ends up going for in for a rushed behind by West Coast's brilliant defence. The next inside 50 was also a rush behind before JJ had an opportunity to put a goal on the scoreboard, but missed and gave us three behinds. 

A smother by Cody Weightman set up an Aaron Naughton goal. 

Then Andrew Gaff puts one through for the Eagles and we're leading by 3 points.