Headline: Really honest and industrious work-rate win. Excellent start, strong finish.
Goal kickers: Bas Sardo 3, Liam Kenny 3, Mitch Hall 1, Matt Warman 1, Connor McConville 1, Beau Harrison 1, Liam O’Driscoll 1, Cooper Goulding 1.
Player performance: Flockart flawless at full back marking strongly and executing smart kick-ins. McConville went from the go-get and took them on all-day, had a real impact, threatened the scorers constantly, has taken his game to another level this year (apparently rowed all summer). Coops usual sort of engine room performance, relentless in and under, run and carry, solid when rotating in defence. Bas and Liam K were excellent targets up forward giving great structure and confidence for the midfield and forwards to drive the ball to the top of the square (good cameo’s forward also from Liam O, and Matt Warman). Matt S backed up a best on field last game with relentless doggedness around the contest and provided good spark. Elliott, McKinley and White were consistent all game with great attack and use of the footy down back and when rotating through the mid. Nolan, Timms, Hall and Bird, Young & Harrison had flashes of brilliance and look forward to four quarter games in the weeks ahead. Big effort from a dominant ruck display from Big Boy Ben Allan, taken your game in the ruck to another level this year and around the ground with strong overhead marking and physical pressure around the contest.
Play of the Day: 15 minute mark of the last quarter. Excellent quick ball movement to the running half back line to set up attack. Matt Spazziani centre clearance handballs to running Matt Young, who handballs to running Marcus White or kicks to the wing / half forward to Bas who drives the ball into 45m, chases and kicks second time and Coops scores a goal.
Tackle of the day: Beau in the last quarter (similar to Mitch Hall’s last quarter tackle last week)…forward pressure…that’s gold.
Game summary: The game was well set up in the first quarter today (5 goals straight) with strong tackling and competitiveness at the contested ball…really set the tone, so important to be mentally and physically switched on from the start to assert yourself into the contest, particularly with repeat efforts. Builds confidence. Sends the right message. Gets some momentum going our way and creates, importantly, score board pressure which cannot be underestimated. This is even more important when playing with just 18 and no one on the bench!!!
The second quarter, Waverley were happy to make it a physical scrap and at times we played into that whereby they were able to break from the contested scrap with some quick handball and switch to get space. The backline stood up to the task, well led by Felix and Tom at full-back and CH back, respectively. The rotations and set positional back six really played accountable footy. Good “half time” chat out in the middle before coming in; was important to paint the picture of what lay ahead.
Third quarter while we scored 3 goals two of which came within the first 4 minutes, after that we switched off and found ourselves spectating / ball watching, being flat footed instead of hitting the contest with speed, which resulted in “panic kicking” leading to unnecessary turnovers. Important to stay in the game. More on field “talk” will give your teammates the information they need to make the best decision of what to do next, it also builds confidence enabling you to have an impact on the game without gaining possession.
Really pleased with the last quarter. We asked for lots of run and quick ball movement to finish the game on top full of run…and each and every one of you did that which was a credit to you. Particularly pleased with Bassy who’d been in a manful tussle all-day, remained disciplined and focused on winning the ball, absolutely dominated at CH forward when it could have gone the other way; you won the contest – big tick.
Areas for team improvement: Paul and I will work on ensuring the on-field mid-field rotations are clear after we lost a bit of structure in the third quarter and got caught out with 5 down back a few times. There were only 1-2 switch of plays today and we handballed to flat-footed team mates which just reinforced contested ball pressure. Run hard to give options, spread wide to create link up handball to create time to hit up a target downfield.
Two from two is great start boys. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, and make the most of what is excellent footy weather to bank the early season wins.
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