Nash's Aussie tour report - day four

Wolves correspondent Tim Nash brings you day four of his daily diary from Australia.

Tony Mowbray, or rather West Australian's Perth Glory correspondent Jonathan Cook, is fast emerging a star of the Wolves Australia tour.

Not content with his players having ribbed the hack for his startling resemblance to the former Albion manager during training sessions at the WACA, Wolves boss Mick McCarthy brought the gag into the public arena at yesterday's joint-press conference between himself and Perth Glory counterpart Dave Mitchell.

"I'm sorry, I've got to say something first," said McCarthy chuckling to himself as 'Mowbray' tried to ask a question. "I know the lads said it but you are Tony Mowbray – you're an absolute doppelganger!"

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Much to the amusement of boss Mick McCarthy, the start of the press conference was delayed while several members of the Wolves backroom staff – kit men Trevor Wynne and Steve Morton, as well as club reporter John Hendley – attempted to hoist the sportingbet.com screen in place, surely now the bane of their lives after travelling to Perth Airport to pick the thing up.

But the laughs were briefly on the manager after the huge ad was lifted into place next to Perth Glory's own sponsor screen – only for McCarthy and counterpart Dave Mitchell to be sitting in front of each other's logos, prompting a quick musical chairs shuffle.

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While McCarthy has become something of a media whore over the last few days as Western Australia plugs the Wolves game for all it's worth, director John Gough has been entertaining various people with Wolves connections. He met members of the Wolves-mad Melbourne-based Willis family, who are a group from the Victoria city who have made the four-hour flight in time for tomorrow's game.

Originally from Bilston, Pat Willis came out here when her husband died to be closer to her two sons. Pat is with her friend Lynne Parkes, who runs Gough's William Gough accounts department.

But even this trip is a relatively short hop for the Willises, who last year made the 10,000-mile jaunt to Molineux where Gough showed them around the training ground and invited them into the boardroom for a game. Gough didn't leave empty-handed though – he was presented with a stubby (a short glass bottle used for beer to you and me) by members of the Melbourne Wolves, who meet regularly in a pub there.

And it seems Pat can't escape the Wolves bug, even if she wanted to. When she had her drive surfaced recently, the builders were also Wolves fans.

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On the quiet, us hacks are all wannabee footballers. For us, writing about the game is the next best thing to playing it.

But, of course, every so often temptation gets the better of us and we like to drop the notebook and indulge our passion for playing.

And then we're reminded, in sometimes brutal fashion, why we never made it as players.

Such an example was provided by club reporter John Hendley prior to today's training session at the WACA.

Unable to resist a kickabout with manager Mick McCarthy and kit men Wynne and Morton, 'Foz' proceeded to . . . well, underline why we reporters should stay out of the way when the balls come out, as numerous passes went astray.