Groundhog Day! The alarm went off at 7am on a Sunday Morning on Mothers Day…… did we not do this last year? Shouldn’t we be playing at a later time slot!?………and then you get “dad you better get up or else we will be late”…… I’m sure I was not alone in thinking the same.
The sun was out, the dew was ready to get kicked off, as were our captains – Sonny and Hugo.
The boys won the toss and decided to kick to the city end of the already small oval – I think they were getting ready for the Auskickers to play instead of the u9.
As seen in past rounds, the boys were off to a flyer in all parts of the ground. Jack, Seb and Sonny laid about 4 tackles each in the midfield, William taking one of the marks of the day in the back line and Domenic and Mason both kicking goals.
As the game went on, we saw a lot of great individual and team work efforts – Sonny taking a great mark running back in to play, Campbell great run down the wing and pumping the ball forward, Jack and Ethan both linking up in the forward line and putting huge amounts of pressure on their defence and Patrick continued kicking the ball out of the centre as requested by the coach (but the ground been so small he was covering the distance and just missing the goals), Finn really used his height well and had a great game rucking and handballing and kicking to players in space.
Midway the third quarter our boys were challenged right to the last minute of the game. Our back and mids were put under pressure by the opposition. This is where boys such as Hugo, Luca, Joseph, Daniel and Josh all lifted their work rate and whenever the ball was near them they tried the best to either win it or tackle to make sure we had the advantage, it was great to watch. Another player who had a great game especially in defence in the last quarter was Domenic. His running and kicking was outstanding and always looked for his team mates before kicking – great game mate.
At the end of the game the opposition coach single out one of our players and gave him a recognition award for his efforts and demonstration of sportsmanship when he tackled a player and noticed that he was hurt, he then went back to help him up and asked if he was OK (mind you when this kid tackles you know about it), I too singled out this player and told all the boys just how impressed and proud I was to see this unfold before half time. Ethan well-done and well deserved.
In a very close match, it becomes very obvious the areas in our game that we need to improve. We will be discussing and practising these at training.
Also, please note that due to the last 4 rounds score lines we will be re graded and possibly be moved up a level. This will mean closer and tougher matches so please be ready to train and learn new skills – BUT remember to always enjoy and have fun playing footy.
See you all Thursday.
Al.
PS. Thank you to all the mothers who attended the game and helped out – it was greatly appreciated.
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