My dear Lions,

Saturday sees the Finland Lions - the Pride of the North - take to the field in their first European Championships Tournament…  just 444 days after I attempted to recruit the first native Finn into the team.

At that time I had never before set foot in Finland…  in fact I was in Bangkok airport on my way to sign a contract in Helsinki and a Finnish exchange student was singing the Adelaide Crows song whilst boarding the Finnair flight - I thought that this has got to be easy, and slipped him a Finland Lions flyer that I had prepared earlier with the intention of taking a Finland team to the EU Cup in Paris later that year (but never heard from him again !!!).  I did manage to raise interest among enough numbers for a team during that weekend however.

As it turned out, I didn't sign the contract during that trip, and when I did my departure from my existing project was delayed…  as it turned out, I arrived in Finland just 2 weeks before the EU Cup (which had moved to London), and there wasn't the time to re-organise that team.

So, I am extremely happy and proud to finally achieve the goal of getting Finland to a European Championship Tournament.

It has been a very long road to get to this point…  from Finland's first match (an international which was also in Prague) last November where we recorded a win over the Czech Republic, to the 3 matches against "the Swedes" (Stockholm) with a magnificent win and clearly a deserved win after the clear improvement of the team during each of the matches.  In fact to only go down by 5 points on tour - can almost be counted as a win too - since travelling is harder and hangovers are bigger.

Guys - this is the biggest event that the Finland Lions can participate in at our stage of development…  when the team can be fully native - then there are bigger and better tournaments including the International Cup (the World Cup without Australia).

Be very very proud of what we have achieved as a team - and really enjoy yourselves this weekend - run onto that field with pride and carry the momentum of the win over Stockholm into our matches to ensure that Finland's finest start off on the right foot against France in the tournament opener.

Guys - this will be my last weekend in a coaching staff / management role for Finland…  I will always be keen to play (by invitation) from time to time whenever I am in Europe (or Bangkok or wherever else we play).  I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you guys who have been involved until now and who have helped out with "living the dream 2006"…  building the road to our first ever Euro Champs.  In particular I must thank Izzy.

Izzy has done a fantastic job in taking all of the training sessions, recruiting players (particularly Finns), co-ordinating the tour to Stockholm, arranging the last match at home, and also for securing the ground (and groundsmen) for our first home match last May + all the running around for that match right down to delivering the post match beers (very important).

Make sure you guys get around him and support him.  There is a lot of work goes into every match and other activities…  the club will progress in leaps and bounds if there are more hands on deck to help.

Ideally - Finland could host the 2008 CEAFL Championships…  this is only going to happen with a lot of support, but will provide endless benefit to the cause of footy in Finland

Cheers
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