Well our interleague campaign for this year is over with both teams having a real crack but not coming home with the bickies and I thought I would share the journey with you.
With Travis Ryan stepping down we went through a recruitment process and appointed Scott Beattie to take charge of the seniors. Jason Wells, with a lot of success with under 18s, interrupted by no game last year,
was reappointed as the u18s coach.
Travis had generously offered to give us feedback on his experiences and how he felt we could improve our approach to Interleague, and Travis, the whole Board, together with Scott and Jason had a really productive and frank discussion several months ago and as a Board we recommitted to giving both coaches the support they needed to give us the best chance.
Both coaches assembled their support staff and a lot of time was spent viewing games to come up with squads which were progressively reduced to the sides that went to Windy Hill. To all who were in the initial
squads but didn't make the final one thank you for being a part of the journey. Special mention to the two Under 18s who advised Jason they weren't right last week and excluded themselves.
Our generous major sponsor GOTAFE came on Board and sponsored hoodies for the teams and they looked fantastic.
The Under 18s went down on the Friday afternoon, staying overnight with a really good opportunity to get to know one another while the Seniors made their own way Saturday morning.
Fast forward to the Under 18s and when the Essendon guys ran out I thought "gee they're big" with 15 over 185 cm. Anyway they started pretty well but our team continued to compete but in the end the margin
was 60 points. As Jason said, ten of our senior team had been through the Under 18s in the past and for them to look on it as a learning experience.
I heard Scott say to the seniors "it will take three to three and a half quarters before they crack" and he was nearly right. Essendon got out fast to a 19 point lead and the rest of the game saw us pegging them back and with a minute or so our crowd erupted when what looked like a goal put us in front (we thought) - touched off the boot- ouch !
We went down by 4 points but the team did us proud .At the after match Essendon coach Mick McGuane said it was rare for a team to lose with our stats but that's footy.
We had no idea of how we stacked up against a metro league but now we know, we are really competitive.
I want to thank all those involved who have given their time to this program as volunteers. To both coaching and selection panels well done on selecting two teams who represented our league with pride. To the trainers, water boys and Doctor who assisted during training and on game day thanks very much for your support without your time and effort these guys would be unable to compete like they did.
And now for the good news....our opponent next year is the old rival, Ovens and Murray and we will be working really hard to give our guys the best chance.
Well done everybody
Last Modified on 27/09/2016 17:23