COACHES REPORT: SUNDAY 11th JULY2010 vs MALVERN RED
My best players this week were; Josh, Alex, Jake, Davis, Adyn, Harrison, Matt L, Sam HK, Sam L (…in fact the whole team contributed)
What a great day, with unusually good weather and no real mud or wind to contend with!!! The boys were all very excited and ready for the contest as was evident with a great warm up and a good pre game.
We were again playing an opposition that where quite bigger and taller than us. We asked the boys before the game to ALL play their role whether it was in defense, on ball or up forward. Everyone had a role and everyone knew what they were expected to do. We challenged the boys to all be able to “put their hands up” after the game in recognizing the fact that had helped contribute to the TEAM and consequently help us WIN the game.
The first quarter started at a frenetic pace with Alex dominating again in the ruck and giving our smaller guys first use of the footy. Josh was sensational in and under with some sure ball handling and excellent clearance work. Connor was again the general in the middle directing traffic and helping to set up a defensive wall whenever required. Davis was moved into the centre square from the start and produced another professional display completely nullifying his opponent and laying 8 huge tackles for the game. Jake and Sam HK were our key targets up forward early and Jake was everywhere whist Sam HK was providing a target. Parker and Rhys presented good targets deep in our forward line and performed really well. All our smaller crumbing forwards, Bradley, Jackson and Ethan all worked super hard on their defensive pressure and helped us get away to a great start.
The second quarter was pretty similar to the first with a similar line up. We were forced to move Sam L back to full back onto a fast leading player and he totally destroyed him and repelled many attacks, Adyn and Harrison were both back to their best with some strong marking and rebound footy. Mac and Henry were both also playing very disciplined games and as usual Henry and Matt L were hard at it!! Our centre line was again extremely disciplined with Hammer, Daniel and Connor all working together to form the wall.
We went into the third quarter just behind but felt if we got off to a good start we could win. The opposition played a terrific quarter and they won the quarter by a couple of goals> We felt that we needed to change a few things around as the wind had picked up and was now really favouring Malvern’s end. Sam L went forward, Alex went to CHB, Harro into the ruck, Sam HK into the middle, Josh back on ball, Davis to the wing, Jake into the middle, Mac to full forward and Rhys to full back.
Well what a FANTASTIC last quarter the boys ALL threw absolutely everything they had at Malvern and after going behind by almost 3 goals we almost snatched victory with us eventually going down by 4 points. I can honestly say that if we take that effort and commitment into our final 3 games of the season we will definitely win some footy matches but that aside it is certainly (as I’ve always said) not the result that we are concerned with but rather the WAY WE ARE GOING ABOUT OUR FOOTY…..Hard, tough, committed and disciplined football.
WELL DONE BOYS!!!! You definitely deserved to sing the song last Sunday…..
I look forward to another great session on Wednesday.
GO ZEBS!!!!!
Stewart Loewe