Hampton Rovers 8.4.52 defeated St Peters 2.7.19
I believe the two hardest things to teach as a coach are belief and desire. To believe in yourself that you can achieve anything and a desire to keep on improving and never give up.
You could see in the pre-game warm up that our players were switched on even with the early start and the cold cross wind whipping across the oval. Round 6 was finally here and we were playing St Peters (who were re-graded from Division 1) on their home turf. Led out by our two captains in Dion and Christian, it didn’t take long for our engine room to get going with Jem, Taj and the Tuffley boys leading the way. We scored 2 goals and kept the opposition scoreless for the quarter as we went into the quarter time break. Kicking against the wind in the second it was time for a backline to shine and we weren’t let down with Joe (The General) leading the way, supported by a magnificent cast including Ollie, Jacob, Freddie and Jay at full back. We only conceded 1 goal for the quarter which was a terrific effort.
The half-time address was simple. Keep the pressure on, play in front and take advantage of the wind. With this, we kicked 3 more goals while keeping the opposition scoreless. With the likes of Tom, Christian, Dion and Orlando getting involved across the ground, Matt, Jay and Anthony shining in the forward line and Luke and Max continuing on with their strong presence on the field, we were setting a well-deserved win against a quality opposition. We continued in the last with a great pass (no that wasn’t off the side of the boot as some people suggested) from Jay to Mitch Nolan resulting in a beautiful set shot goal and a terrific solo effort and final siren goal from Taj, capped off another strong performance from this wonderful football team.
Goals: Mitch Tuffley 1, Mitch Nolan 1, Matt Gleeson 1, Jem Thomas 1, Jay Todd 1, Taj Hotton 3
Awards: Freddie received an encouragement award for the great courage he showed in the backline and for his great tackling all day. Max received our guts & determination award as he showed tremendously strong on field presence throughout the game. Mitch Nolan puts in his best game for the year so far and received our achievement award with a wonderful display of skill and polish and last but not least, Jem Thomas received the player of the day award for his best on ground performance all day from one end of the ground to the other.
We look forward to our next challenge as we grow and mature as a team.
Chris Gleeson
Assistant Coach
