Inman Down Under: Handshake agreement gets 49ers into Week 1 mode

MELBOURNE, Australia – Fred Warner stepped off the media podium and chuckled when shown a photo of something that caught my eye at the start of Monday’s practice.

Warner and running back Christian McCaffrey, two pillars of the 49ers’ enterprise, have a pre-practice ritual that resembles a strongman contest.

As other teammates shake hands and form a circle, Warner and McCaffrey stop in their tracks, grip their right hands together … and hold … and hold … and stare at each other.

“We’ve been doing it for a while, and maybe it’s gotten more pronounced,” Warner told me outside the press conference room at AAMI Park. “It’s like, ‘You’ve got to go out and prove you’re the best every day.”

At last, the regular season is here. Macho men hyping themselves up is a welcome sight, especially for my tired eyes that keep waking up at 4:30 a.m.; 49ers legend Patrick Willis told me that early wake-up is a common plight for many others in this traveling party.

Monday marked the first media session here, the first chance to pull a player aside to confirm any observations and ask for insights, without locker-room access we’d normally have back home.

Warner and McCaffrey preceded Mike Evans as the 49ers’ spokesmen at the first media session here, four days before the historic season opener against the Los Angeles Rams at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Warner’s last full game last season was against the Rams, an Oct. 2 overtime win at SoFi Stadium. He broke his right ankle the next week at Tampa Bay and was done for the season.

“I haven’t really had to think about my leg and everything that happened last year,” Warner said. “I’ve just been acting as if it’s the next one. This game coming up is the next one for me. I don’t know what those emotions will be the day of the game. But I’m expecting it to be business as usual: go out there, be the best player I can for my team so we can get a win.”

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

AAMI Park has a “great surface,” Warner said of the natural grass on a rectangular field that otherwise hosts rugby league and soccer matches.

Next door is Olympic Park, a training ground for the 1956 Olympics, and across the street is Rod Laver Arena, home of the Australian Open tennis championships. But directly across Melbourne’s train tracks is “The G,” where 100,000 fans will pack in for the 49ers-Rams rivalry and the majority of which will be 49ers Faithful. “The hope is it’s a sea of red. That’s what the hope always is,” Warner added.

FOOD COURT

Evans said the most pleasant surprise about Australia is its food. “I thought it was going to be bad, honestly, but it’s been pretty good.”

Ditto. My hesitations have been wiped away with a great Italian dinner one night, and then pan-Asian cuisine the next night at Chin Chin, a spot so hip that 49ers and Rams executives were eating there – at separate tables.

However, with the 49ers’ access afoot Monday, time constraints resulted in an All-C diet until dinner: Coffee, croissants, cookies and chips.

I hit bucket-list stops from my Instagram research: Bobby Stop Stealing Our Camping Chairs (for a classic Aussie flat white), Lune for croissants (chocolate was better than the traditional), and, Patricia (for another flat white). At the 49ers’ practice facility, the media was treated to cookies, chips and water. The beer taps were locked, so my fix for a Balter XPA would be delayed until after work.