Sunday proved to be a tough one against Ormond at their home ground. Every week we seem to be struggling to fill a team, let alone have a bench. Fortunately, four gems from the Under 12’s, in Max, James, Harry and Matt, joined us to play key roles. With six regular Under 13 players missing, we played with 16, against Ormond who had 17 and it showed.
Ormond jumped us early and kept bombing the ball in. Our set up struggled to cope, and we were down by 40 points at quarter time. What is really pleasing however, was that once we relayed our message at quarter time, to stick to your man and to kick to the flanks, we nullified the opposition and played some great football. Matt G from the Under 12’s kicked our only goal for the match from some excellent build up, and we were down by 48 points at the half.
Football is played over four quarters…however we are struggling to keep the boys focused for two full quarters let alone four. We need to focus our training efforts on the development skills. When the boys play with their school during the week, or in the playground, we ask them to work hard on sharpening the basics. The better we get with the basics, the clearer we can be with our team focus. Concentration will also be one of the focus points for us at training this week. At three quarter time we were down by 70 points and ended up losing 105 to 11.
Despite the final score, there were some real positives from the game! There was outstanding leadership from our elected captain Taro. He stood out yesterday and I am looking forward to this continuing. Taro was best on ground just ahead of Tom. Camdyn and Angus were fantastic in their efforts, and I love seeing the big fella taking the game on. Notable mentions were Christian and Dion, and one young man in particular put a big smile on my face, and that was Marco. His determination and the look on his face when chasing down the opposition was special, and a proud moment in my short stint as coach.
Our focus now is for the boys to learn to play and to enjoy the team environment. We’ve also needed to top up each of our three games from the younger teams. It would be great if the boys could encourage one or two of their mates to join the team as the competition resets after next week.
Go Rovers!
Coach – Bill Barbas
