Behind the Scenes with the Socceroos

Members of the Socceroos squad will have their photos taking pride of place at many Singaporean homes for years to come.

Members of the Socceroos squad will have their photos taking pride of place at many Singaporean homes for years to come. The hotel the team were based at in Singapore is a popular location for wedding ceremonies and many of the brides and grooms were eager to have some of Australia's finest footballers join them for a photo.

Team discipline is important within the team and the responsibility of collecting player fines has been passed to Patrick "the enforcer" Kisnorbo. The Leicester City defender has taken the role from the retired Tony Popovic. Some of the extensive list of misdemeanours include being late for meetings, wearing the wrong shoes and not returning the highly sort-after ice packs! Sydney FC's David Carney won the first football tipping competition of the tour. Carney almost picked every winner of the NRL, AFL and the Rugby Union international between Australia and New Zealand.

Tim Cahill gave some Singapore-based Everton fans a thrill when he attended a supporter's function during the Australian team's stay. Cahill thrilled the audience by answering questions and posing for photographs and autographs with the fans. It seems that with Singapore not in the AFC Asian Cup finals, Tim's visit has swayed many of the locals to support Australia. Tim was given a terrific surprise with a friend of his mother from Samoa in attendance who he had not seen for five years and is now living in Singapore.

It is always a special occasion when a player makes his debut for Australia and Nathan Burns was given that honour in the match against Singapore. Burns, who was joined for train-on purposes in Singapore by Bruce Djite and Mark Bridge, received his cap after the match from one Australia's greatest ever sportsmen, Steve Waugh. The former Aussie cricket captain (and one-time junior soccer team-mate of Robbie Slater) spent several days in camp on the inivitation of coach Graham Arnold offering mentoring and advice to many of the players.