Footy season is finally here! After weeks of preseason and lots of talk the time had come to see what we could put together out on the footy field. Unfortunately numbers (just 36 for the 2 teams) went against us a bit and so we split the Navy and Gold squads into two groups of 18 to make sure everyone got plenty of game time, regardless of which Division they were in. A lesson for me as I didn’t realise the numbers rule had changed, I thought that 18 meant a 16 a side game with 2 on the bench, but no the full 18 on the park and no reserves. Oh well, challenges are there for us to meet, accept and get over. I have now studied the rule, understand it and will select sides this week accordingly.
The recent rain had made Everton’s ground fairly heavy in parts for Navy Pumas game against Ferny Grove, so it looked like it was going to be a tough slog. Grading games are always a bit tough as there are no competition points attached and you never know how teams are going to approach them. Would the Falcons have their strongest side? Should we? My belief has always been that the minute you put the footy jumper on that means you do everything 100%. No, we weren’t going into the game half hearted, we wanted to show Ferny Grove that we weren’t the same team that they beat by 100 points twice last year. Also it was an opportunity for blokes to cement their place in the team by showing that not only could they play but that they could understand and follow the game plans in place. I’m not for one second saying that Ferny Grove did anything untoward, I don’t know them or their players well enough, but I do believe strongly in the grading concept and for it to work properly every team has play its strongest side and play the game to the best of their ability. The system is compromised if teams ease off or rest players and that is not good for the competition. We would be certainly playing our strongest available and we would be trying to win and win by as much as we could. We will do the same this week.
It was going to be an interesting day for me too as I had not really seen any of these blokes play before, I had seen bits and pieces over the years but I had never actually sat and watched and studied. We hadn’t had a practice match up until this stage and had really only just started doing competitive work in the last couple of weeks. I felt we would be rusty but I also felt we would be competitive against a team that is traditionally a very strong Division 2 club.
Right from the first bounce we never looked like we were going to lose the game. We dominated possession from the outset and that continued throughout the entire game, we rarely let the opposition have any time or space to create anything. The quarter by quarter scores reflect that, 4-7 to 1-0, 2-3 to 1-0, 1-10 (no that’s not a typo!) to 2-0 and then a whopping 9-4 to nothing in the last to show that our fitness levels were ok, despite every single player playing every single minute in heavy conditions. The final score line of 16-24 to 4-0 shows how dominant we were. For a first up hit out that was a terrific effort and what was particularly pleasing was the way that all of the boys tried to implement the plans we had talked about and worked on at training and also the fact that everyone contributed. To try to give blokes a spell we swapped a lot of players around in different positions and they all adapted well and importantly had an impact on the game. Our off the ball work was better than I could have hoped for, evidenced by a very good tackle count, where everyone got a tackle stat. That’s awesome and that’s what we want and need consistently.
So the song was sung very enthusiastically and whilst some people might wonder why we were so excited over a grading game win those people should understand where these boys came from in 2011. Both under 16 teams won just a couple of games each in the regular season in Divisions 2 and 4 and finished near last. A lot of boys hadn’t sung the song in a long time and I think it was fair enough that they got right into it.
I’m not going to name best players today as it really was a team effort and everyone played their role, so well done to all. Now we need to move on quickly, realise that the opposition from here on in at grading will be stronger (Kenmore this week and they had a convincing win over an Everton side with a few rep players missing) and we have to build on what was a very good start.
As for the Springwood Gold 16s unfortunately as they were scheduled on at the same time I couldn’t get there to be part of it but thanks to Nathan Kelly for helping out with the coaching duties on the day. Up against Sandgate, traditionally a very strong Under 16s club, in the end they proved to be just a little bit too strong. Advantaged by having players on the bench to rotate their depth was the difference between the 2 sides. The game plans were set for the Gold Pumas and by all reports they tried valiantly to adhere to them, so pretty happy with that. Nathan moved plenty of blokes around to rest some and give others an opportunity and that is exactly what he should have done. Some good tackle stats and overall a great first up effort, with plenty of improvement to come. So heads up boys, as I said at training last night there were some pretty big margins across the 16s fixtures and 62 points, relatively, was not as bad as it looks. Remember too that was your first competitive hit out and a lot of you still don’t really know each other that well. You kicked 9 goals against a very strong team in heavy conditions, plenty of promise there and plenty to look forward to. Wilston Grange this week, at Wynnum so hopefully it will be a game of two more evenly matched teams. Hopefully I can get there by half time and support you guys for the second half. Good luck.
Cheers boys and I will see you all at training.
Steve
Last Modified on 20/03/2012 12:54