April 22, 2018 – Round 2
Darling Reserve
After a fairly comfortable game in Round 1 it was soon obvious we were playing a very different side this week in East Malvern. When the boys lined up we were facing quite a few bigger boys and they quickly put us under a lot of pressure. The ball spent most of the first quarter in our back line but our boys stood their ground. With Lachie Nolan repelling the repeated attacks and Luke, who was helping us out from the under 9s, taking a number of saving marks on the last line we managed to hold them to just 1.1.
At quarter time I challenged the boys to increase our pressure level. I asked them to start to increase our tackling and getting our hands on the ball in the packs. The boys responded and it showed on the score board kicking 2.0 to 2.1. Lachie kicked the first and then a player who is quickly becoming reliable in just about every position on the ground, Miles Copper, kicked our second.
The third quarter was a bit of a shootout with Paddy Wilson kicking 2 goals for us in response to 4 from our opposition. Will Boyd Turner started to get involved in the game picking up plenty of contested footy and pushing it forward for us and Jaxen Gordon showing he was quickly learning how we want him to play using the ball very well with some long kicking.
In the final quarter East Malvern finished off the game stronger than us holding us scoreless and kicking 2.3 themselves. However, our endeavour as a team did not drop off. The boys maintained that tackling pressure and their pressure around the ball that I had asked of them. Joe Sansotta kept on wrapping the East Malvern players up with strong tackles every time they picked up the ball while Paddy Wilson was everywhere, throwing himself into every contest, trying his hardest until the end.
Today East Malvern played a little better than us playing a game we will aspire to play like. They worked as a team sharing the ball and moving it forward. We were not too far off but we can learn something from this game.
Again, it was a very even performance across the ground. The awards today went to Jaxen Gordan who made a few mistakes early but never dropped his head and just kept on getting the ball and kicking it forward, Joseph Sansotta who I challenged to be our tackler from the first bounce and he didn’t let me down and Will Boyd Turner who showed me today that there is much more to his game than kicking goals by getting most of his possessions down back and through the midfield.
Goals: Patrick Wilson 2, Lachie Nolan, Miles Cooper.
Once again, thanks to the three under 9s boys, Luke, Harry and Josh who played up for us today. All of them contributed whilst they were out there. A particular thanks to Harry who didn’t take me too literally when I shouted out to him to get on that tall kid and punch. Just to reassure all the parents I was definitely talking about the ball, not the man!
