7:45am - I wake to a glorious, sun-filled morning in Sydney, which is a welcome change given all the stormy weather we've had during the week. After a 45 minute session of pilates, I cook myself a hearty bacon and egg breakfast and crack open a coconut.
For the record, I am feeling pretty chuffed with myself because I've never been able to open a fresh coconut on my own. The whole concept of wielding a sharp knife at this oddly shaped fruit unnerves me.
11:00am - My cab arrives right on time and after I am greeted by a very bright and happy Lebanese cab driver (I asked him where he was from), he proceeds to tell me a joke on the way to the airport.
A woman and her husband visit the Holy Land in Jerusalem. After a few days there, the husband dies from a heart attack. The woman is beside herself with financial grief because she’s going to find it difficult to pay for her husband's body to be returned to Australia. The local priest offers to bury him for $100. She refuses. He continues to offer again and again at which point she snaps and says, 'I am not burying him here because the last time you buried someone here, he came back from the dead in three days and I don't want that happening'.
I laugh.
11:45am - Our Qantas flight boards for Brisbane on schedule.
My colleague, David Basheer sits next to me across the aisle and we trade notes over the game and . I offer Bash a homemade coconut date-ball that I've pre-packed for myself and he obliges. And why wouldn't he, they're delicious.
He falls asleep and I go over my stat pack and the Brisbane and Newcastle line-ups from last week. At this stage, we know Roar coach Frans Thijssen will put together another young side, ala the game against Melbourne Victory. Quiches are served as part of the lunch menu, I decline but once again, Bash obliges.
1:35pm - Our flight lands in Brisbane and the weather conditions are sublime. Bash and I don't waste any time as we jump into a cab and head to the city where our hotel is located.
2:05pm - After checking-in to our accommodation for the night, I get to my room, unpack my bag and peruse the room service menu, which is a standard ritual for me. After one too many stadium pies, I've learned my lesson and decided that eating before the game is best. I'll have the rib eye with no sauce and a side of garden salad, thanks very much.
2:20pm - My mother calls. 'Have you forgotten my phone number?’ she asks dryly. "No mum but it's game day and I am just going over..." She interrupts. ‘I don't care if it's the World Cup final, call your mother more often would you?' After raising two footballers and a daughter in football media, she clearly doesn't care for excuses.
3:00pm - I make contact with Roar media manager Michelle Tobin to ask her a couple of questions about Frans Thijssen after emerged this week. CEO Chris Fong went on the record saying the club would appoint a new coach at the season’s end.
Michelle assured me that being the man most likely to be in charge next are just media fodder at this stage and that from her knowledge, he's very likely part of the short-list of candidates. She also adds that Thijssen’s future with the club will be assessed by the football department at the end of the season.
At this stage, the line-up for the match against the Jets is still being finalised.
3:30pm - I start thinking about my LIVE team news cross and what it is I am going to say. As is standard, David Zdrilic, our host in the Sydney studio, throws to me at the ground, I prattle off the latest and then throw to the break during coverage. It's all off the cuff, no autocue, just straight down the barrel. I begin making rough notes.
4:00pm - It's time to start touching up my hair and make-up and get ready to leave the hotel for Suncorp Stadium.
4:30pm - After a few quick adjustments, I realise I've got to get going and fast and rush out of my room with my stat pack, notes and match accreditation.
4:45pm - Getting a cab is proving difficult and as a friend arrives to pick-up Bash for a pre-game coffee, I decline a lift to Suncorp because I am sure that my taxi will be here any minute. (He had an Audi TT okay. I am 5"10, there isn't a chance in hell I could have squeezed into that back seat, are you crazy?)
5:00pm - A taxi finally arrives and we tear around the corner only to be met by some seriously horrid traffic.
5:07pm - It now hits me, as I scramble through my bag furiously. I've remembered to bring everything, including a banana and a punnet of freaking blueberries but I've forgotten my SBS microphone sock. (That fluffy thing that sits on top of the mic with SBS branding on it.)
'Is it too late to go back to the hotel sir?' I ask the cab driver completely and utterly distressed. 'Yes ma'am, it's too late. The traffic is too heavy, you won't make it in time', he replies, completely unaffected by my crazy, Balkan temper that I direct at myself.
In almost two seasons of the A-League, this is the first time this has happened to me. I text my floor manager Donald who is already at the stadium and he diligently responds: 'Standby, we have an idea'.
5:35pm - I arrive to a virtually empty stadium, bar the broadcasting crew and a handful of Roar players and club officials. I've always loved getting to games early, there's something about a quiet stadium that I find really peaceful.
5:45pm - I meet with the SBS dedicated floor crew. The cameraman is setting up and at that point, my floor manager emerges with a makeshift mic sock that involved printing out the SBS logo and sticking it over the top of an existing sock. The glamour of television!
At this point, Donald suggests we call the hotel and get them to send over the MIA sock in a cab. Cue the desperate attempt to get in touch with them.
5:55pm - After being on hold for what feels like a decade, I finally get a hold of the hotel and they agree to send it over. With sheer and utter gratitude, I promise the hotel manager Sarah my first-born. She politely declines but thanks me for the offer. I picture her rolling her eyes after she gets off the phone to me.
6:00pm - I meet with senior Roar media manager, Geoff Stead, who advises me that our pre-game selection of captain Matt McKay as a first-choice interview won't work, he's not starting. I take a punt and ask to interview Jerome Polenz, who didn't travel to China earlier in the week and I speculate that he'll be in the XI and Geoff confirms that this will work.
6:10pm - Newcastle Jets defender Taylor Regan arrives for my first round of pre-match interviews. He politely asks not to be questioned about the for allegedly abusing a journalist at Hunter Stadium a week ago. It's clearly a sore point for all of the players and I agree not to ask. The lads have been through enough grief this season.
6:20pm - Polenz emerges for my second interview and I ask him how he and his wife Svenja are enjoying Brisbane before the interview. 'We love it here', he says with a smile. 'Svenja is enjoying it more and more everyday'. After three questions relating to the match, I let him go and wish him well.
6:30pm - Amid all the chaos going on around us, I finally get my hands on a team sheet and finalise my LIVE cross. One change for Roar from last week's A-League encounter and an unchanged line-up for the Jets.
6:45pm - The cab driver phones me: 'I've got a parcel here for you and I am down the road waiting'. I promise him my second-born, he laughs and then declines. Clearly no one wants my future children, today.
7:00pm - With the mic sock now in my possession, I calm down and feel at ease again. Shane, our audio technician helps wire me up for the LIVE cross for SBS World News with myself and Thijssen. (I know flaring up over something as trivial as a mic cube is just ridiculous but I am a perfectionist and like to get things right).
7:13pm - Thijssen comes over after finishing his interview with FOX Sports and request: 'Don't ask me any difficult questions'. I assume he's talking about the Tinkler debacle and I assure him I won't.
7:15pm - Craig Foster crosses to me from the Sydney studio and the first thing I ask Thijssen is about his future with Roar after Fong's statement earlier in the week. He doesn't like the question and it's obvious.
7:18pm - I wrap up the cross and thank Thijssen. He waves his finger at me like my father used to when I was a young pup dressed inappropriately for a night out. 'You said you weren't going to ask difficult questions'. I concede to him that perhaps I am just difficult and scuttle off with a smile.
7:20pm - I remain in the same position in front of the camera and wait for the connection to be established with studio two, where the match is being hosted from. Once connected, I greet my executive producer Stu and he says I look a little 'defeated'. I tell him about the mic cube debacle. "It's been a great start to the coverage," I confess.
7:25pm - After an audio two-way check with Zdrila and Bash to confirm we can hear one another, I tell Zdrila to stop yelling. My producer lets me know that there’s five minutes until we're on air. I ask him what I could do with five minutes to which he sternly replies: 'Nothing, don't move.' I ponder if I could run around the field in that time and realise, no, I can't. I stay put.
7:35pm - 'Throw down to Lucy next', is the cue I hear in my ear as the boys are in studio going through the motions of the pre-game chat. The adrenalin starts to surge. 'Just don't screw it up kid', offers the voice inside my head.
7:36pm - My heart starts racing wildly and I can feel it pounding in my chest. 'It's time now to cross to our sideline reporter in Brisbane, Lucy Zelic for all the latest. Lucy'. And with that, I am off and running.
7:38pm - I survive the stress (and enjoyment) of LIVE television just in time to throw to the break and breathe a sigh of relief.
7:42pm - The teams arrive onto the pitch and the Anzac Day commemorative memorial ceremony takes place. As the entire stadium stands to honour them, I feel an enormous amount of pride as the Australian anthem is belted out.
7:50pm - Right before kick-off I glance over at Jets coach Phil Stubbins, who by all account appears to have a very worried look on his face. Shortly after, the referee signals for kick-off and the match is under way.
I pull out my blueberries and banana and I can feel the mic cube next to me ogling them belligerently like an unwanted child. 'You remembered them but not me', I imagine it saying. 'Shh, be quiet, the game is on', I reply. (I assure you, my mental health is fine.)
8:10pm - I am seated right beside the Roar bench where assistant coach Rado Vidosic begins barking out orders and encouraging the boys to go forward and press more often.
'There's no pressure at all', he says frustratedly as he sits back down.
Half-time - As the whistle for the break blows, we relocate to our position outside the mouth of the tunnel and wait for Roar assistant coach Geoff Hopkins to appear for our pre second-half interview. This chat always makes me nervous because we’ve only got a very small window in which to get it done and then roll it out in time. On this occasion, Geoff comes out too late and we can't include it in the coverage.
Second-half - With the game off and running again, both sides make substitutions and more notably, Kofi Danning -a local Canberra boy - makes his way onto the pitch where three minutes later, he opens the scoring for Roar. The stadium goes wild. Not long after, Edson Montano equalises, scoring his sixth goal of the season but a draw won’t be enough for the Jets if they want to avoid the wooden spoon. The match really heats up and the entertainment value is brilliant.
Less than 10 minutes after Montano's effort, young Roar defender Lachlan Jackson scores his first A-League goal. The 8,693 fans that turned up, erupt in ecstasy. Shortly after, Daniel Mullen misses the unmissable - although thankfully for him it appeared he was slightly offside - when he directs the ball over the bar from a yard out. We all, including the Jets bench, slap our foreheads in disbelief.
Full-time - The whistle blows and we all scramble onto the pitch to speak to our pre-selected players for interviews. I wanted to speak to Danning who after suffering two ACL injuries has bounced back to make such an impression on the A-League. I wanted him to share that moment of delight with the audience. His smile during the interview was so contagious and I felt like a proud mother goose.
My next choice was the Sydney FC bound, Andrew Hoole. I wanted to hear his thoughts about his time with the club and how excited he was to start-up with the Sky Blues. You could see the disappointment, it was almost crippling.
Finally, my floor manager asked me if I was ready for Stubbins and I respond, "Get him over here'. After asking the obligatory, match-related questions and questioning his tactical approach coming into the match, I asked him a question that, for the first time in all of the occasions I've spoken to him, stumped him.
"You will start planning for the future with the club now but is there anywhere you can think of where you could have improved personally?" It hit a nerve. He couldn'’t comprehensively answer the question without needing to gather his thoughts first.
Next up, Thijssen was ushered over and after wading through the initial delight from the win, he bristled when I said he had been heavily criticised for the team he put out against the Victory last week.
'I don't know why I have been criticised', was part of his response. 'There you go again with the difficult questions', he must have been thinking. I wrapped it up and waited for Craig Moore to stop gas bagging with the players so we could do our post-match analysis.
10:10pm - After wrapping up the online analysis with Moorey, Bash and I wander over to chat with some of the fans, take a few photos, talk to Thomas Broich and a few of the other Roar players. Broich confesses to us that something was 'missing' from Roar this season but said he couldn't pin-point one exact thing to blame. Consistency was an issue and they weren't playing with the same fluidity as they were in seasons gone by.
'Is it the coach? Is it the players? What do you think it is?' I hammered him with questions and he hesitated in his replies. What I took away from that was that things had clearly changed, in particular the culture; the very thing Roar prided itself on in the past.
Luke DeVere was also there and he revealed he would miss the finals series altogether due to an injury that will keep him sidelined for another four or so weeks. While he's recently signed a long-term contract with the club he does tell reply when questioned that he would still consider other options if they arrive.
10:17pm - After all the chit-chat, myself and Bash make our way to a nearby cab, where we promptly take ourselves back to the hotel and retire for the night. We normally have a post-match drink but on this occasion, we are knackered. We said our goodbyes and promised to see each other in the office next week.
12:15am - I finally switch the television off and lay my head down to sleep. After any broadcast, it takes me a long time to wind down after experiencing all the adrenalin that comes with live TV.
I usually go for a run or read but on this occasion, it's not enough. I guess that's what happens when you really love what you do. It courses through your veins at such a rapid and all-encompassing rate, that it's difficult to imagine life any other way.
This is why I love the beautiful game.
