The Cambridge Dictionary describes the word PREPARATION: The things that you do or the time that you spend preparing for something:
The teacher didn’t seem to have done much preparation for the class.
The team blamed injuries and lack of preparation for their failure to win.
Meet Oli Howell. Oli is a great young guy, very respectful and a real good sport. He played a great game for the Under 12 D1 team at Boss James on Sunday kicking 3 goals in a 20 point win over Ajax. I was talking to Oli and his mum Vanessa about why Oli played well. I said “Oli in life we are at our best when our PREPARATION is good”. We talked about diet, hydration, sleep, homework, helping around the house, levels of respect and playing with siblings. Oli agreed that doing these things allows him to go into games feeling good about himself and have a clear mind knowing that he has a real balance in his life. It allows us to do the things we love and the feeling of success feels better when you have worked hard to achieve it.
Oli & his mates, the Under 12 D1 team. Good win over the Jakas.
I coached the Under 15 D1 Gold team earlier that day as Bomber was away. In contrast to Oli’s preparation, team Gold conceded 2 goals in the first 90 seconds of the game. Players turned up to the ground 5 minutes prior to the game, players that needed taped ankles realised it wasn’t done 5 minutes prior to the start, players had injuries from sport the day before and forgot to tell the coach, players not looking at the whiteboard and lining up in the back line when they were picked in the forward line, players looking for mouth guards after we had run out, all things that hamper team performance. 50-13 at half time came down to a lack of preparation. We out-scored them in the second half but the damage was done.
We talked post game about our preparation and the effect it had on our intensity at the contest. I asked for a show of hands as to how many felt they had performed to somewhere near their ability. I was happy that only 3-4 lads felt that they had played well. You will always struggle to flick the switch with intensity if the PREPARATION IS NOT SOUND. These are all learning curves in sport and life.
Lowlight
Runners – give two messages and get off please. No coaching on the ground.
Highlights
Dave Burton had the Under 11 D5 team flying yesterday. The intensity that his lads were playing with was first class and they had a good win. Fletcher Hall #3 was in everything. Tim Sutherland’s lads in U11 D1 also had their first win in D1 in the fog at the Boss. Great stuff Under 11 squad.
Ray Charles, sorry Dave Burton, with his Under 11 Div 5 side
Under 12 D6 played a slick outfit from Waverley Hawks. I watched 3 quarters of this game and noticed the boys never gave up.
Under 8 Purple sang the song after playing the Sharks in a hard contest.
Under 8 Yellow had several lads play well. Seb Lynch and Eddie Thomas were in the thick of the action and Julian said the lads linked really well.
Andrew reported his Under 8 team showed up to play: skill, speed and desire always a great recipe to smile on Sunday night.
Under 10 White had a great match and a few little mistakes put the opposition in a better place to enjoy their hotdog post game.
Under 9 Yellow enjoyed the sauce on the hotdog, it was extra sweet having sung a song. Michael said the game was played at a frantic pace. Al’s Under 9 team had the bye.
Both Under 13 teams experienced heartburn: D1 went down by a single point. Ned ’Buckets’ Gray managed 3 goals out of the 4. The Under 13 D3 team went down by 9 points to Northvale.
The Under 16 D1 team had some great passages of play. Ralph wrote: “Then we came up against a very disciplined and strong Cheltenham-Highett outfit who, quite simply, were more skilled and clearly went in much harder than us and wanted the ball much more than us on the day”. That summed it up.
Under 16 D2, undermanned but never gave up the fight.
The Under 16 girls had a lesson handed out by Mordi Brae going down by 4 goals. I watched the first half and Mordi came to play, experience on every line. Our girls showed some good form also and the Under 12 girls went on their merry way winning in a canter against St Kilda City.
Under 15 D1 Blue was beaten by The Sharks in a great standard of footy. 3 goals 10 behinds before we scored didn’t help. Matt Pine worked hard all day. Kizza, Kuba, Archie and Bully were all great on the day.
Under 15 D4 had a close game against Waverley going down just. Charlie Conroy and Will Laverty hit the board – great signs from this group of lads that are loving playing with mates.
The Under 14 team were beaten but never gave up. A great group of lads who always enjoy their footy.
The Under 17 team always has a laugh and plays good footy. I watched these guys last week and they all roll the sleeves up and crack in.
Great footy on a wonderful day once the fog burnt off, I hope everyone enjoyed their day.
Go Rovers
Caggs
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