1. Return of the Supercoach.
After his unceremonious exit following the Goannas' heartbreaking 2014 Grand Final loss. The Golden Whistle guru himself Tom Bowes returns to the fray for the Goannas to manage the magnets. Will Coach Bowes bring back his most famous gameplan of plonk himself in the forward pocket and kick two cheap goals? Only time will tell.

2. Debutant Double!
The Goannas are looking forward to welcoming two new players to the fold under the lights in Minatomirai tomorrow night. Jared "I'd rather be boarding" Barnes and Bret "Bigger biceps than Trav" O'Connor will both pull on the red and white for their first run. Go well lads!

3. Ins and Outs (Chopes and Changes)
Round 2 sees a plethora of changes to the team that beat the Tokyo Bay Suns in Round 1. The tissue has been placed on the selection table and the Goannas attack will be bolstered by the 3rd fastest man in Asia, Jason Fan, the Irishman Luke Dillon, Mr. Mount Fuji, Leon Appleby, and perennial pest Jarrod Woodward who returns from an apparently life-threatening hand injury. While the outs include big man Al Wyatt (still looking for his shirt in Osaka), captain Dan Last (still celebrating his two cheap goals in a 5 goal loss against Malaysian Warriors) and club president Sam Ghirardello (still talking to his new BFF Ricky Olarenshaw).

4. #Bunlife
Sausage Saloons are no more, the Goannas are a #Bunlife team now! With Chinatown next door to the ground, who will get on the end of a few steaming Buns this weekend? Owen "Boots" Kearney got a taste in Shanghai, while Pete-zza Chalmers was left wondering what could have BUN when ruckman Mitch Stace snaked his shot at goal after a brilliant chase down tackle.

5. No buns in  the Den! 
One thing is for certain there will be no over the top handpasses in the goalsquare to veteran Oceans "The Trip Advisor" Huynh. Many are questioning his commitment to the club after his efforts to infect the Shanghai touring party with legionaries disease by choosing THE WORST Airbnb in all of China last weekend!
 
6. The Old Enemy
The Poseidons don't look to be the easy beats that they were in recent years. The team has been building and their offseason pick up of Japan Goannas captain Kuno Yosuke will mean the easy goals are no more. There is even talk that Goannas' favourite son Luke Eyes will be heading down to the ground in his Eagles jumper to add his regulation seven goals to the Poseidons scoreline. With these two inclusions, the Goannas are going to be in for a real scrap. WE CAN'T WAIT!

​Jim Stynes, former gaelic player,  is well known for being the poster boy for football converts. A Brownlow medal in 1991 and 264 games with the Melbourne Demons would attest to that. 
Over the years fellow countrymen Tadhg Kennelly has followed suit while on the other side of the spectrum rugby converts like Israel Folau failed to adapt to the chaotic, lung-busting nature of Aussie rules.

Looking back into the archives, there has yet to be a convert hailing from one of Australia's most popular sports and pastimes - swimming. Until, of course, this year.

Takayuki Enomoto started training with the Tokyo Goannas late 2016 and in fact on Grand Final day came to run the water for the team after just hours earlier emerging from the water himself to win his heat in the men's long distance en-route his path to swim for Japan in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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Asked about how gained an interest in our great game, he gave a simple answer. "I had been to Australia 4 times. That's when I first knew about AFL. I started to like it because it is so simple and extreme."

And his pick of teams?

"I support West Coast Eagles because the game I saw live the first time was a match where they won".

Despite his unfortunate choice in teams, he proceeded to fall in love with the game the same way we all did, just a bit later in life. So it was that Taka decided he wanted to be an AFL player despite his burgeoning swimming career. He didn't dispatch his swimming commitments altogether, instead tried to make the two schedules fit. Swim training would be on Saturday while Aussie rules took precedence on Sundays.

With plenty of teams to choose from he chose the famous red and white, explaining, "When I found out AFL is also played in Japan, I wanted to play it with Australians".

Playing with Australians also means you get awarded a nickname. Nothing has stuck permanently as yet but 'Grant Takatt' probably takes the cake at the moment. If you're wondering, that is after Grant Hackett, Australia's legendary long-distance swimmer of yesteryear. Feel free to make other suggestions in the comments section!

As this years pre-season kick-started the Goannas 2017 premiership defence, Taka took it on with intensity, determined to overcome the hurdles picking up a new sport presents. "I think controlling the kicking was the most difficult part to master". 

Whilst kicking is still a work in progress (like many other players in the team mind!), his marking has proved a feature clunking the pill at its highest point with those sticky mitts. He also counts fellow Goannas and Samurai star Yuji Yamamoto for helping him the most during training although seems to have forgotten his name, referring to him as "Japanese national team reinforcement player".

As round 1 approached, Taka was named in the starting line-up after an impressive pre-season training Futako Tamagawa down. He was given the No 9 jumper with his teammates confident he'll showing fellow number-sake Ben Cousins' prowess on-field but just without the white-line fever.

It was a tough first game as well against the experienced Tokyo Bay Suns. Taka made a solid start tackling and harassing every chance he got, showing some toughness in the contest as well. He certainly didn't look like a first-gamer out there, quickly earning many pats on the bums from his team mate (especially Owen 'Boots' Kearney who is a serial bum patter).

In the last quarter, Taka received a handball and streaked into the forward line before spearing a perfect drop punt through the big sticks for his first ever Aussie rules goal. Pandemonium momentarily broke out as teammates mobbed him from all angles. It was the biggest celebration of a goal since Doug Bonham almost scored one from the boundary last year.