Melbourne has been turning on some amazing weather and this Sunday was no exception. The sun was beaming down on Beach Road oval and Josh’s message was very clear, today we were coming up against a tough opponent in The kangaroos, it will be a very tough game, we need to move quickly!
Numbers were down today without star recruits Blanca, Maddie and Lily Jones leaving us without any rotations and a bigger ground than we have been used to. This didn’t appear to concern our girls as they listened intently to Josh’s instructions to
Get the ball out quickly, kick long and work together as a team. The girls hit the field led out by our captain Sienna and looked determined to have fun and be the best team we possibly can.
Lilymac won the first tapout which our girls quickly moved the ball into our forward line where Tess got a quick goal and we looked like we were up and about! We had some great defensive work from Abbey, Amelia, Zoe and Emma but the kangaroos fought hard and got a couple of goals back. An excellent passage of play with Sienna getting the ball out of the centre to Nadia who handballed to Matilda C who had a huge shot at goal but sadly didn’t make the distance. This was great footy girls, looking forward to more of this in the next few weeks.
The second quarter the kangas proved to be a very tight unit with some pretty sharp skills who moved the ball very quickly. The girls were learning some very important footy lessons;
No kicking across opposition goals.
No kicking to packs.
Run fast, all the time.
Kick the ball long.
All of these things take time but will definitely happen as confidence builds.
In the second half the girls seemed to settle a bit, some great individual efforts from Amelia who laid a great tackle on the young indigenous dynamo from Brighton Beach. Sienna also kicked the ball about 30 metres through the centre and Viv took a great mark in defence. Josh pleaded with the girls to get it down the south road end as it hadn’t been there all game, they tried but sadly to no avail. It was a close game in the end and we went down by a point. With heads held high the girls thanked our opponents for the great game and headed to the rooms where they were presented with the biggest bag of snakes in history! Nothing like some sugar to mend the defeat, thank you Ian.
Abbey Hickey was given the opposition coaches award, she has been improving so much, her determination is a force to be reckoned with and it was great to see her be rewarded for her efforts.
Josh’s awards went to Nadia, Tess, Abbey and Sienna who all played outstanding games.
Looking forward to our game at Boss James this Sunday against Prahran, should be a ripper, Go Rovers!
