Late afternoon game in what remains of our autumn sunshine. We ventured across the highway to East Brighton today. The conditions this week in contract to Round 1, today we had a small ground with near perfect conditions. It was Chris Wormingtons’ birthday and the boys sang happy birthday in a tight huddle before we headed out.
Today I elected Jack Stefanovic and Fletcher Ockerby as our Captains. Both these boys are taking their footy and training very seriously and were deserved leaders today. The pregame talk was simple use the good conditions to run the ball, make sure we don’t kick goals from the midfield even though we probably could, lower your eyes and hit up your mates in the forward line. Enjoy your footy and take off where we left last week.
The game kicked off with a goal on the first forward entry Fletcher hit up Jody from the midfield with Jody converting the set shot. The ball came straight back via a nice running kick from Harry into Toby who also converted his set shot. What a fast start, the Vampires were in shock! Theeran and Jade manned the ruck duties Lincoln, Daniel, Harry and Captain Jack all worked hard in the middle to keep the ball down our end. Magnus took the position of Centre Half Back. Harry had the ball a plenty and was again guiding kicks to his team mates. Toby fought hard all quarter and kicked his second goal. We ended the quarter 3.2 to 0.0. It was a dominating quarter of footy by our Rovers.
The Vampires made some changes. They had a big team with many boys towering over ours. The changes made all the difference with them scoring the next four goals consecutively to take the lead. Our back line played well in attack with Jody, Ollie and Seb rebounding the ball continuously. but we failed to man up and two easy goals were given up in the square. The vampires had momentum and wrestled with us right throughout the quarter. Eventually we got the ball through Jake, Baxter and Tristian in the midfield to our forward line. The Vampires played tight footy and stifled any easy forward possessions. Jade was crashing the packs, Dan and Harry were lurking dangerously then Theeran muscled a ball out of the pack. Lincoln pounced on the ball broke away from the bunch and snapped a bending goal from the pocket just making it through for a goal, our only for the quarter. At half time it was tight footy and tight on the score board with four goals a piece.
In the third we moved Campbell to Full Forward as a key target a surrounded him with crumbers Baxter and Jake ready to catch any spills. The midfield got on top with Jody streaming down the ground multiple times and guiding balls laces out to our forwards. It was the most damaging footy I’ve seen Jody play. Three penetrating kicks resulted in two marks and goals to Campbell and another to Jake who chose to play on and do his “now signature” fend off and snap. Ollie and Seb fought really hard to ensure the ball stayed in our forward area. Our backline as a unit held equally strong and repelled every ball that came down. Dan and Jack tackled hard and were the barometer of pressure down back. The result was no scores to the Vamps and we had control of the game again.
The eastern end was shown to be the scoring end. We were kicking west and needed to work hard in the last quarter to ensure we stayed on top and finished off a good game of footy. Jade and Daniel took the ruck duties, Harry and Lincoln collected valuable possessions in the middle and ensured our forwards had plenty of options. At the first stoppage young Kit MacIntosh filling in from the under 9’s collected and snapped his first U10 goal!. Jody collected the ball on the far pocket and centred beautifully to Fletcher at the top of the square and Fletch put it straight through. The Vampires started to head back east down the far wing and looked dangerous until Lincoln ran down the player for a great tackle. While he didn’t get the free kick (and his Dad explained later that the umpires decision is final regardless) we did get the ball back and it resulted in a third goal for Jody, followed by another goal to Ollie after Harry found him from the wing.
We worked hard today for a convincing win in the end. The most pleasing thing is the team work, and unselfish play the boys are displaying. We hardly ever bomb the ball anymore. We are becoming a very dangerous team with the ball and capitalising on the hard work of the team with great kicks and looking for our mates all over the ground. Another great team effort today! Well done all.
Thanks to all our parent helpers again this week. Thanks also to Kai Hotton and Kit MacIntosh for playing up with us this week. You both contributed well today and easily kept up with the U/10 footy today.
Weekly Awards
Outstanding Contribution – Brown Cow Award – Jody Cripps is a talented footy player and we expect him to get plenty of the ball. He always does. However Jody has really focused on bring others into the game and today he was instrumental in 5 goal assists where hit his targets this complemented 3 goals of his own. Lots of great team footy today. Super game today and taking your game to the next level.
Guts and Determination – HRJFC Award – Fletcher Ockerby was one of our Captains today and he rose to the occasion. Fletcher was a presence in every zone, he competes at every contest and set up two gaols today with great centring kicks and finished off a great day with a mark and goal. Great game today.
Completely Smashed it – Cold Rock Award – Jade Doherty played some different roles in ruck, spare man behind play and also target in forward line. Jade’s effort today was four quarters full, he wasn’t plucking marks today but his contest created opportunities for others and he continuously chased and hit the packs hard. Another contribution today. You don’t have to take marks and kick goals to be effective, competing is what is most important and today Jade did just that!
Outstanding Performance – HRJFC Award – Campbell Hardie had break to the UK last year and took most of the season to settle finishing the season well. He has been working on his fitness and drawn strength from the #4 (Dusty) on his back. Today he showed us the work has been paying off and that he is force when he commits to the contest. Great marks today and two goals when the game was close. Watch our for Campbell Hardie in 2018 he has settled early this year!
Michael Sharpe
U10 Orange Coach
Hampton Rovers JFC
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