This week, Mary Kaye looks back at Round 13 against the North Queensland Cowboys You can catch up on Mary Kaye's blogs at Ladies who League here
Last weekend was a weekend of firsts for me.
Never in my life did I think that I would be given the opportunity to run through the tunnel at Pirtek Stadium and have the chance to run onto the hallowed turf that is our home ground amongst legends like Luke Burt, Nathan Cayless, Dougy Bollinger, Rob Shehadie, Tahir, Shannon Byrne and Michael Vella.
Somehow that is exactly what I found myself doing on Monday night as I took part in a charity match between Parramatta Mission and the All Stars (how I found myself on a team of all stars I will never know).
Parramatta Mission has been helping the Parramatta community by providing services to people who are homeless, are in crisis or who have been living with mental illness for over 40 years. As the Parramatta Mission has grown over time so has the community which it looks after. Today, Parramatta Mission is one of the largest providers of community mental health services in New South Wales, as well as one of the largest providers of community services to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Western Sydney. With the help of other Mission's, services are provided to people living all over Sydney including the Central Coast, beyond the Blue Mountains, Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and Liverpool.
Putting on this event is another example of the sensational work which the Parramatta Eels do amongst our community. Each day I am proud to be part of a Club with such a tremendous commitment to the community which in turn supports the Club.
Suffice to say I did find myself on the winning team, I made some good metres and did not make any silly errors. Phew.
The second first of the weekend was of course, in relation to our boys performance on the football field on Monday afternoon. Never have I seen anything like it. After a tremendous first half of football, which reminded me very much of our performance against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, a lapse in concentration for 12 minutes of the second half cost us dearly and we never recovered.
Nothing I write in the blog can possibly make the hurt of Monday's performance go away. I imagine that the boys are hurting this week and I know the fans certainly are. After all the hard work we did in the first half, to see it all disappear in a matter of minutes was extremely disappointing.
I know that the boys will be working very hard this weekend to restore some pride in that blue and gold jersey and what better place to start than against the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park this weekend.
Most of you will be thinking that this is a game we cannot win. I am here to tell you otherwise. Desperation does incredible things to football teams and teams do not come more desperate than ours at the moment. Just remember, this is the time of the year you want to be playing the Storm - minus Cooper Cronk, Cam Smith and Billy Slater.
So take a big breath, remember that this week is another week and let's get behind our boys. Remember, we still have half a season to go.
