I witnessed several things on Sunday I loved about our game and one glowing thing that made my blood boil. A special shout out to the coach of the Waverley Hawks Under 16 girls who ran to the aid of our Rovers player Tessa Beach. Tessa was unconscious having received a ball kicked into the side of her head in the last quarter of the game at Boss James. Whilst only medical staff are allowed to enter the oval, we had 8-10 adults, both Coaches, the Club Pres, Sally and a paramedic who looked after Tessa brilliantly. The great news is Tessa is all good and back on her feet. In hindsight, we had too many on the ground, myself included.
The Under 16 girls played their hearts out. They kicked 2 goals in the first quarter and led a team that beat them by 45+ points earlier in the season going into the last quarter. The speeches at 3 quarter time by the players and coaches go to show how passionate the young Rover ladies are; they lost by a point, onward and upwards fair damsels.
The Under 16 Girls. Gareth imploring them forward like Brendan Bolton would the MIGHTY BLUES
The second thing that I loved seeing was Tim Sutherland’s Under 11 D1 team win its second D1 game. They started the season in D2 but have proven what a good little team they are. Oli S, Taj, the Tuffley lads, Jay Todd, Jem and a host of others played their hearts out against Brighton Beach at Castlefield. The hardnosed defence of the mighty Rover team won the inside and outside contest to bang on 6. 6. 42 to 0. 3. 3. Watching them sing the song on Sunday late arvo was a great reward for Tim and his players.
Tim with his strong message at 3 quarter time to punch from behind always
Under 11 D5 saluted the judges and now sees them on top of the ladder. These young guys love the no frills no nonsense approach of Dave. They go head down, plenty of passion and love their time together.
Under 10 Silver had a tight contest against South Melbourne at Albert Park. Plenty of skill as shown in this great grab. The Hot Dog tasted extra special after singing the club tones. Daryl’s team in Under 10 White had a day to remember at Castlefield with the modified ground. Players outside zones and confused, hang tight guys.
Angus and his team in Under 14 D3 got the chocolates in Round 8 against The Knights. This is great reward as these guys love the contest and each other. They do it tough some weeks but seldom do they drop the bundle.
The Under 16 D2 lads led the way for the Under 16 squad with a great win over the Dingoes. These lads are serious about their passion for the game and by the look of many photos, Marcus White must have had plenty of touches.
D1 got shown how to play the game against the Sharks although Ralph did say his guys didn’t give in.
The Under 17 guys were great against Ajax. I watched the first half and the size and skill disparity was quite evident, however they clearly enjoy what they are doing.
Michael Benvenuto puts the U15 D1 Gold back in front during a 10pt win against the Sharks.
Under 15 D1 Blue went down to East Brighton in a hard encounter at Hurlingham. Daniel’s team in D4 had the bye.
The Under 12 Girls went about their merry way, sang a song and laughed plenty.
All three Under 8 teams had a wonderful day and enjoyed their Sunday afternoon. Passion, Teamwork, Fun and Respect were shown and enjoyed.
Both Under 9 teams loved the sunny Sunday. Al reported a hard-fought experience for his lads whilst Michael said Prahran finished off a little better in the end.
Meet the lads from Under 12 D6, coached by Michael Cahill. Great lads who need a win to boost confidence. They won in round 1 only this year but I feel the next win is not far away. I was lucky enough to coach several of these lads in 2015-16. Hang in there guys; the stars will align and you will sing the song soon.
Under 12 Div 6
The Under 12 D1 team played last year’s premiers at the Boss at 8.30am. We looked asleep in comparison to the Vampires and we conceded a few goals that were the telling margin in the end.
As you can see, the club had another great day on a perfect day for footy at many venues, several highlights and just one thing that I was not happy to see…
THE LOWLIGHT
I wrote about this weeks ago and I witnessed this firsthand on Sunday, right in front of me. Winning is never more important than one’s integrity. I will repeat this: winning is never more important than one’s integrity. I saw a coach put a player on the ground with no player coming off. The runner, 20 seconds after the coach had put him on, ran out and asked a player to come off. I did a quick head count and advised our TM that the opposition had 19 on the ground. He also had enough time to do a count and said I was correct. As the player approached the bench the ball was coming out of our forward line and the runner asked the player to stop and wait for the ball. The player stopped 5 metres inside the boundary, the ball arrived 2-3 second later. The runner encouraged him to secure and run with it towards his goals, where he kicked it forward. The runner then encouraged him to run through the gate.
I will not call out the club or the team as they are the ones that live with their actions and if cheating is OK and winning is that important then go ahead.
I feel playing within the rules with anything in life is far more important than winning or losing. If you lose you don’t mind if you have been beaten fair and square and by a better team.
I guess that is the message I wish to pass on.
Have a great week everyone, train hard and let’s play fair once more this Sunday.
Go Rovers
Caggs
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