Under 8 Orange vs St Paul’s McKinnon (R8)

Hi team,

First game after a break and our boys were led out by captains Josh Bou Diab and Lachy Curtis, who were both overdue at having a turn leading the team. After the mid-season break the boys were sent onto the ground already well familiar with our normal game plan but with simple instructions to go back to basics, to get hands on the footy first, and to chase and tackle if they didn’t.

We quickly realised in the first quarter that we were facing our toughest opponent to date – St Paul’s McKinnon, who were strong, had good team structure (initially better than ours) and could piece play together very well. Even though Stricko managed a cheeky goal, for the first time in a long time we
found ourselves in a tough position at the first break not only being down on the ‘scoreboard’ but also being beaten on most areas of the ground.

At the first break the coach gave an irregular semi-spray and told the boys they were better than this and asked them to each answer a simple question – to put their hand up if they honestly believed they had a ‘go’ in the first quarter. In response the silence was almost deafening and not many hands arose (loved seeing this honesty!). To their credit our boys were able to then dust themselves off, regroup, take on some advice about effort and structure, and duly came out firing in the second quarter.

Josh Bou Diab, Zac Saunders and Archie Dowling all got going in the middle and despite only being rewarded with a single goal, Harry Haines simply destroyed the opposition in our forward line. We came into half time with our noses in front and it was great to see that our boys had a really good test to answer.

In the third quarter the St Paul’s McKinnon boys had obviously had a similar talk from their coach and were not prepared to lay down. The ball spent most of its time going back and forward in the middle of the ground and highlights were Spencer Ries getting several kicks, Luke Kollmorgen laying 3 tackles in succession and Henry O’Keefe, Ben Montgomery and Shae Newey all getting plenty of the ball. Then Joe Whelan got into it and had technically kicked the first goal of his career, however the instinct of Zac Saunders took over to mark in the goal square to continue it through, however once again Joe had contributed to a great team goal at a crucial time. The third quarter was tight all the way through and the teams entered the last break still facing an almost even score line.

In the last quarter the opposition again came out firing with an early goal but it was great to see our boys were prepared to fight this out. Hewy Sawatzki came off sick which resulted in some team changes and Zac Saunders found himself up forward again and managed to reply with a goal. For the rest of the match the opposition had the ball in their forward line putting our defenders under relentless pressure, but again Harry Haines took the opposition on laying plenty of tackles and his team mates dug deep to hang on in a very close one.

After the game both coaches commented to both teams on the excellent spirit this match was played in, then our buys took to the rooms to sing the song with gusto. The opposition also sung their song and this was warranted given the spirit they had also played in.

Two things are clear to me after this match. On the one hand it is obvious that our boys have a great fighting spirit and don’t lay down easily. On the other hand from a coaching perspective, there are a few aspects of our game that we need to work on. Our opposition will get better in the latter part of the year, and we too have to keep improving areas of our game at training and on game day.

Great game, but work to do.

Koje & Kurt
Coaches