Saving Lotte Sullivan | Collingwood/Carlton

113: Daicos and Lipinski

'Come on, inside, orderly fashion'

Jordan Roughead held the doors open, a little exhausted as all the players seemed to take an extra slow and long time walking to the auditorium, coffees in hand, chit-chatting about their Friday night and what was lined up for the rest of the weekend.

They certainly did not expect to be called back on a random Saturday after losing the premiership. It hurt, it ached, and it drove some of them to insanity.

'Why is nobody in uniform?' Annelise Larsen asked Erin, who shrugged. Erin had also abandoned her uniform for the day, glancing around the room for one person, who seemed to be missing.

'Is that all of them?' Craig McRae - the coach who'd quit and now returned - asked, noticing how full the room was getting. And with uniforms missing, how colourful it was.

'Uh...yeah. Yeah, that's all of them' Jordan said, closing the door and heading inside. A loud cry from the other side of the door, as Patrick Lipinski forced it open and walked inside, glaring, coffee now spilt all over his shirt.

Craig exchanged an angry look with Jordan, who shrugged. Patrick had not been there when he'd closed the door.

'Take a seat, Pat' Craig said, trying not to let the early hour on a Saturday morning make him bitter. Patrick looked around the room for an extra seat, eventually finding one next to Josh Daicos. Josh glanced up, tiredly.

'Where's Nick?' Erin asked, still hung up on the fact that somebody was missing. Craig sighed.

'Josh, is Nick coming in today?' He asked, most eyes turning to the quiet Daicos, who shrugged.

'I don't know, haven't seen him. We don't live together. I'm in my apartment and he's at home with the parents' he replied, kind of enjoying the fact that Nick wasn't there to suck the attention out of everything and put it on himself.

'Oh, hi guys' Jordan said, smiling as Jane Harcourt, Grace Moore, Chloe and another Jordan all entered the room, Rhiannon held tightly in Grace's arms.

'Ohhh. Darcy's making his retirement speech' Darcy Cameron realised, before laughing obnoxiously loud.

Josh Carmichael clutched his head - the noise level of the room was giving him a migraine.

Nathan Murphy and Beau McCreery suddenly entered the room, yacking about the Game of Thrones episodes they'd spent all night watching.

'Waiting on Nick, Darcy and Caitlin, anyone else I'm forgetting?' Craig asked.

'Isn't there another sister?' Jordan asked dumbly. Grace, terrified, looked up in horror.

'She's not coming, she's barred from the premises' Annelise confirmed, smiling as if she'd done something.

'Is the welfare coach coming in? I haven't seen him today' Jordan asked Annelise, who shrugged.

'He took a personal phone call this morning, I haven't seen him since' she said coolly.

Darcy Moore suddenly made his appearance, holding the door open for his girlfriend, who walked in, glancing around the room to make sure Ella wasn't invited. Taking a nervous seat next to Jane, she pulled out her notepad, and unclipped the pen attached to her Lilydale Leader lanyard.

'You shouldn't be holding the door open, mate. You'll hurt yourself' Craig said, referring to Darcy's recent stabbing incident. 'It's fine, really' he said, shrugging. He continued holding the door, letting John Noble sneak in, coffee in hand. He immediately took the seat next to Nathan.

'I'm going to guess Nick is a no show today. In that case, Darcy, when you're ready' Craig said, inviting his favourite player up to the stage/podium and stepping over to the side with Annelise and Erin.