Well that’s all she wrote, it’s season over for the Under 16s. Apologies for the delay in writing this last one but I was keen to tie up some loose ends before I wrote it. That’s kind of done, not totally but it will never be resolved totally in my eyes so here it is.
So all of the hard work over the last 8 months came down to one game and unfortunately we fell short by the barest of margins, 1 point. I know it was a week ago and already my memory of it is fading but here is how I remember it.
It was a glorious day, I remember that, the sun was shining, it was nice and warm, with a bit of a breeze blowing down to the river end of the Logan Cobras ground. The ground was in good nick, a biggish ground so plenty of hard running footy required. We faced a Morningside whose season went just as everyone expected it would. When they had their best side available, i.e when they didn’t clash with their Division 1 side and had a full squad to choose from, they were a very good, well drilled, formidable side. This is what we had to contend with, a very capable footy side.
I think we lost the toss, in fact I am sure we did because we kicked into the slight breeze to start the game. I thought we played the best first quarter of footy we have played all year, we were terrific. We kept them goalless with the breeze and kicked four of our own to completely dominate the first quarter. Everywhere were winners on the ground for us and we came into the huddle very excited and very confident that we had the game under control and just needed to win the quarter with the breeze to have a stranglehold on the game at the main break.
Okay, the second quarter, one that will haunt me for a long time. No finger pointing, just the facts. In the first 15 minutes we were on the wrong end of a 10-0 free kick count (7-6 in the first quarter, nice and even) that just completely turned the game on its head. I’m not going to get into the validity or otherwise of those fee kicks, everyone will have differing opinions on them and there is not much to be gained by going over them, other than to give the pure stats, 10 nil. We got our first at the 16 minute mark, by then they had kicked 4 goals to none to tie the game up. That is the facts, nothing more, nothing less. I am not accusing anyone of anything but that is what happened. And when you are up against a good footy side, like Morningside obviously are (they just won their next final on Saturday just gone by 8 goals, ouch) they will take full advantage of a situation like that and turn it into momentum for them. That’s exactly what Morningside did, and good on them, I would hope that we would have done the same if the free kick count was 10 nil our way. Interestingly yesterday I watched the Lions v Bulldogs game on tv, at half time the Lions led by 50. On the back of a free kick count of 21-4 (supplied by the commentators, I didn’t make it up) the Doggies stormed home to almost pinch it. It was all about momentum, the Dogs were able to pick up on it and they became impossible to stop. Anyway I’ll leave that to you to make your own judgements on, I just found that interesting.
So half time and there was a fair bit of frustration and anger in the rooms but we just had to try to forget it and move on. We had to break the game down into a new game, now one of 2 * 20 minute halves, and just try to win the shortened game. We had to try somehow to arrest the free kick count by just being a lot smarter around the contests, being first in and just not giving any opportunities to be penalised. That’s difficult to do and easy to say. Anyway Morningside, with all the confidence and the breeze at the backs, kicked the first 3 of the quarter (that was 7 in a row) to have a handy lead by about 15 minutes in, another and that would have been enough probably. To our boys credit we found something, maybe Morningside dropped off slightly but we managed to kick the last 2 of the quarter to be just a goal down at the last change, with the breeze coming home. The boys seemed pretty pumped at the last change.
To Morningside’s credit they defended exceptionally well in the last quarter, we had our chances, we had more inside 50s than them but just couldn’t deliver that final knockout punch. Jared kicked the only goal of the term to get us within a couple of points but then luck maybe played it’s part too. We missed a 50/50 shot (by a couple of inches), Brandon marked in the pocket only to be a couple of inches over the boundary line and in the dying seconds a handball out of the pack to a running Jai was just a little too hot and he couldn’t quite secure it. Another couple of inches closer to him and he was running into an unguarded goal, at the very least it would have sent the game into extra time and then, who knows what might have happened. Oh well that’s footy, the siren sounded and it was the worst sound I had heard in a long time. The quarter only went 18 minutes due to very few stoppages and I must admit I thought we still had a couple of minutes so that surprised me a bit too. Not complaining, in hindsight that would have been right. What a horrible feeling in the rooms afterwards, anyone who has been through this before would know what it’s like.
It was great to see the fight back, particularly after the Alex Hills game the week before, where we gave nothing at all. This time we didn’t throw it away, we just gritted our teeth and fought it out, you should all be really proud of that. I am proud of what I saw, don’t be fooled by my disappointment at being knocked out, it in no way glosses over how proud of you I am for the way you played and the way you accepted the loss. In fact I think you all handed it better than me. Well done on that. Up against some serious adversity (as mentioned above) as well as having key playmakers in Jack Leahy and Mitch out injured you still got to within a point of a team that beat us by 10 goals earlier in the year and are now in the preliminary final. There’s something in that for sure.
Footy can be a tough game, a sobering game, from the joy of last year’s premiership win to this, what a contrast. In 2009 we lost a Grand Final by a point but that was nowhere near as bad as this, probably because of the way it unfolded, but I’m told that’s footy and if it’s true it is genuinely a stupid game.
Final scores (from memory, I am starting already to repress it) Morningside 7-7-49 def Springwood 7-6-48
Best players:
Jack Mackey – Superb 4 quarter effort on the ball or on the wing. Will be a player to watch will young Jack, as tough as I have seen.
Jack Taylor – Jack Mackey’s partner in crime on the ball and across half back, just never stopped working hard all day
Brighton Page – Integral in helping our defence keep a fast running Morningside to just 7 goals, awesome
Rhys Bernhagen – Ditto, controlled our defensive half.
Jared Denny – Dangerous early and late in the game, despite being double teamed for much of the game
Matt Leadbeater – The skipper really lifted when we needed him to, after a relatively quiet start (by his standards).
Brandon Lynch – By far his best game all year, was a constant headache for the Morningside defence
Ryan Davies – never stopped trying all day, as he does every game.
Lachy Willaton – worked as hard as I have seen him work all year.
Goal kickers – Jared Denny 2, Sean Himstedt 1, Ryan Davies 1, Liam Eddy 1, Matt Leadbeater 1, Lachy Willaton 1
On the bright side 2013 has plenty of upside, so let’s look at the positives from the year:
We beat every team in the competition during the year. We led the competition during much of the year, that was a vast difference to where many of you boys were in 2012.
Many of the second year 16s are now ready to go up to the 18s next year. Some still have some work to do but the improvements you showed this year suggest you won’t be too far away. At the same time most of the first year 16s are now ready to lead the new Under 16s in 2014. Many of you caught me by surprise this year and I will be further surprised if you don’t step up next year and dominate in the way many of our senior players did this year.
We played finals footy and that in itself is a great achievement, always difficult to there, no matter what competition you are playing.
We welcomed some new boys, Jayden, Joel, Jai, Callum, Jack Taylor and Brandon to our great club, hopefully it was a great experience for you and we see you back next year.
Our skipper has finished top 4 in the league best and fairest, good luck next Tuesday Matty.
We had 2 boys, Matt and Jared play Bushies this year, great rewards for 2 stalwarts of our club, and befitting of their genuine talent.
The tackling record got smashed against Morningside a few weeks back, 56 and 14 to Liam. I don’t think that record will be broken for some time.
So let’s look forward to 2014, I sincerely hope that every single one of you signs up and goes around again, to continue your improvement and development into hopefully, one day, senior footballers for the Springwood footy club.
So finally I have to thank a few people, firstly Kristie for her sterling efforts in being our Team Manager this year, nothing was too much trouble for Kristie and we never had any trouble getting all our game day helpers and fulfilling our club obligations, well done Kristie, great job!!
To Steve Leadbeater, thanks very much for all your efforts during the year too, says much about a bloke that he will keep coming back week after week to listen to my dribble, and somehow turn that into a message and get it out there to the players. And my complaining, I do complain a lot and Steve copped a lot of that.
No training night went by without seeing Mark Kennedy and Keith Leahy there, helping out with whatever need to be done, thanks fellas that was so much appreciated, made my job so much easier, you are both champions.
To all of you parents that helped out in any way, shape or form, too many roles to mention (game days and club days), thank you very much, it’s all those little things that help make my job easier and the boy’s stay with us more enjoyable. Thanks again.
Thanks to the footy club, in particular, Paul Simpson, Andrew Hickman and a host of others behind the scenes that enable us to even get a team together to play. Thanks for all your support ladies and gents of the club, far too many to mention by name.
A big thanks to all the parents for bringing your loved one (and Jared) down to our club to play footy. It’s not cheap and it’s sometimes not convenient but you did it anyway, thanks very much for that.
Finally thanks to all you boys for your efforts during the season, it wasn’t always smooth sailing but I hope you learned a lot and I hope you enjoyed it all anyway and of course I hope you like our game more now than when you started this year, especially you new boys. Thanks for all the laughs, there were plenty during the year, and thanks for the memories, there were some games during the year that I will always remember fondly. I now eagerly look forward to the footy trip on the first weekend in October and catching up with you all (and having a sneaky lemonade with your Dads) on the footy trip. We have presentation night to look forward to as well and I look forward to seeing you all there.
Just on another note please remember that the Under 18s play in an elimination final this weekend at Palm Beach this Saturday. As many of you will be team mates with many of these boys next year (and some from last year’s premiership side) I think it would be a great idea if you could get down there and cheer them on. I will put details up on Facebook. If you can’t get there let people know on FB that you are keen and we can organise a lift for you. Also, just on that the Seniors play their first final in about 8 years (after finishing on top of the ladder) at home on Saturday afternoon against the Western Magpies, they too would love your support and hopefully there will be a sea of blue and gold there to cheer them on. If that’s still not enough footy for you then the Under 14s play on Sunday at Logan (where we played last week) at 10.45 against Sandgate. Many of these boys will be your team mates next year so let’s get down there and support them too.
That’s about it from me then, if I have forgotten anything (I’m 51 so it’s a fair chance) I apologise and I will post it on Facebook later. Speaking of which stay tuned on there as there is still lots of info that you need to know about over the next month or so.
GO THE PUMAS!!!!!!
Cheers
Steve
Last Modified on 26/08/2013 15:16