Reflection on Bali Bombings among the partiers

IT’S 7pm and the Bounty Hotel is buzzing. Swarms of Aussie footballers mingle at the favoured watering hole before hitting Kuta.

Members of the Palmyra Rugby Union Club, from Western Australia, gather at the Bali bombing memorial yesterday.

IT’S 7pm and the Bounty Hotel is buzzing. Swarms of young, testosterone and beer-fuelled Aussie footballers mingle at the favoured watering hole before hitting Kuta’s streets to party.

The young men have been trickling into Bali since Wednesday and now the place is electric with the ties of mateship that go beyond borders.

It would have been much the same spirit that infused the same hotel, the same patch of Bali 12 years ago on October 12 before massive bomb blasts ripped through the Sari Club and Paddy’s Bar, cutting short 202 lives, including 88 Australians.

Among those brutally killed were six members from Sydney’s Coogee Dolphins rugby league team and seven from Perth’s Kingsley Australian rules football club — on the equivalent end-of-season trip as this year’s mob.

On that night, the Bounty Hotel became a triage centre trying to cope with the carnage.

In the lead-up to next week’s commemoration, are these young footballers spooked, particularly in a climate of escalated terrorist threats from fanatical jihadis?

“Yes, definitely,’’ says Greg Hay, 20, from the Sunbury Lions football club in Melbourne with 20 teammates. Admitting to “100 per cent” nervousness, Hay is also on tenterhooks because it is his first trip to Bali.

‘’I thought about the previous terrorist acts. It’s played on my mind, especially because of what we have been through as a club this year already.’’

In July, major club supporters Albert and Maree Rizk perished when their MH17 flight was shot down in Ukraine. Their son James played in the club’s senior team.

“One of the things my parents said to me ... was remember the Bali bombings and terrorists, ­especially because so much has been happening in Australia,’’ Hay says. “I felt it was risky — a switch just went in my head and I thought this is pretty serious; this is ­realistic. But I don’t know how you keep an eye out on it.’’

Scott Simpson, 24, is in Bali with 15 teammates from the VFL Frankston Dolphins in Melbourne. He says terrorism is not foremost in their minds.

“This might be the time to do some damage, if you were in ­Islamic State, because there are a lot of Westerners here. But I’ve never thought I shouldn’t go out,’’ he says.

“It happened 12 years ago. There is a perceived threat but I don’t see there is a ­direct threat to me or my mates.’’