It was the start of the season in the Eastern Football League on the weekend and Mitcham Junior Football teams were in the thick of it. With 8 teams this year, our numbers are at an all time high. Here is a run down of all the weekends games.
Our First ever two under 8 teams lined up against each other in Round 1 for show down 1
Peter Ajani had this to say about Mitcham Blacks game - “Today we played our first game against Mitcham Yellow. All the boys were full of energy and ready to go. Today's focus was on "see the ball get the ball" and it saw the boys trying their hearts out to get to the ball. Playing against a very talented Mitcham Yellow team certainly helped made every contest count. All the boys tried their best and there were several impressive passages of play, including some great runs, great marks and 7 fantastic goals by the Mitcham black team. The play of the day was Felix passing to Gus who ran his full distance to then pass to LeBron in the goal square. Lebron then went back and put through a nice goal. Encouragement awards for outstanding performances went to Jett, LeBron, Archie and the “Coach's Choice” Mitcham Medal went to Jesse. Well done boys on a exceptional first game for the Mitcham Black under 8 team.”
Coach of Mitcham Yellow sent in this report – “The first game of the U8's was a huge success for our club. Our Captain for today and the first for Mitcham Yellow was Charlie Trollope. Charlie showed great leadership in all positions and kicked an exceptional Captains goal in the first quarter. All the kids had a great amount of time on the ground with many kids getting a goal or at least having the opportunity to have a shot. All the coaching staff were extremely impressed with the kids progression of skills, team work and awareness of the game which shows the boys are listening and doing well at training. This week the encouragement awards were won by Henry Thomson for great defensive play in both the back and forward lines, Tyson Darmody for some courageous marks across the backline and accurate kicking into the forward line and Alexander Parigi for great teamwork and team mate support throughout the game. Our handball and kicking was fantastic today, with many linking up by foot and hand to run it out of the backline or into the forward line to set up many goals. I was very impressed by how all the kids helped each other and played with great team spirit. I look forward to seeing another great outing next week when we play Norwood Raiders at 9:30am. Mitcham Black are playing at 10:30, so if we can, let’s stay behind and support our mate in their game too. Go Tigers!”
The Under 9’s started proceedings at Walker Park in their first game, taking on Lysterfield. Coach Brad Aujard was full of praise for his team and had this to say about the game – “For the first official game I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. All the boys gave 100% in their effort and played as a team across the entire ground. Jack “Bomber” Pilven led from the front as captain. The encouragement award went to “Rockin” Rory Hume for following instructions. Ethan Jesse “James” stood up in the backline, taking strong marks and executing some big kicks to clear the ball from our defense. Tynan “The Machine” Forster provided excellent run breaking open packs and sending long kicks into our forward line, hitting our players on the chest so we could kick some goals. I can see a bright future for this team and I can’t wait to see what happens for the rest of the season. Well-done boys. GO TIGERS!”
The Under 10’s travelled over to Knox for Round 1 and Coach Carlo Fanfulla posted this match report – “Well Footy is back and our first game was played away against Knox and it was a real pleasure to be playing at Knox Reserve as the ground was in excellent condition. It was great to see our players fighting spirit and how hard they went in for the ball. The boys really amazed me at how good our tackling was in our first game where tackling was allowed. It goes to prove that our boy’s are definitely ready to play under 10’s football. I would like to pay full credit to our new players, who have settled in well and they all contributed in a great game today.”
The Under 11’s were at home to East Burwood and Coach Jason Philactides was very positive in his appraisal of their game – “I thought the boys did really well today for their first game up in 'B' grade. We showed some wonderful glimpses of play, particularly in the 3rd quarter where we controlled the game for most of the quarter and had numerous shots on goal. I think if we had converted many of those opportunities we would have given ourselves a better chance of winning the game. We tackled really well all day achieving our target of 40 tackles for the game and our run and carry was beautiful to watch when we took on the opposition. All in all I was very pleased with what I saw today.”
Final Score: East Burwood 6.14. 50 d Mitcham 2.2. 14
Goals: Daniel Newnham 1 and Nathan Philactides 1
The Under 12’s were away at East Ringwood and Coach Mark Ross had this to say about his team’s efforts – “The U12's started their season off by playing East Ringwood on the large Fred Geale oval. The ground and weather were perfect for football. The Tigers restricted the opposition to only 1 goal up until half time. This was due to the very tight defence. Unfortunately all the great teamwork we produced in the first half went unrewarded on the scoreboard. At half time we spoke about changing the way we played in the first half, and to reduce the handball and kick long at every opportunity to our advantage. This had an immediate impact with goals in both quarters of the second half and this enabled us to get home by the narrowest of margins. A great team effort by all the boys who were asked to run, run and run some more.
Final Score: Mitcham 2.8. 20 d East Ringwood 3.1. 19
The Under 13’s started Season 2015 with an away game against The Basin. Coach Shane Dickson sent in this report – “Our first game of the season was at The Basin and it was a nice day to start the season off with the sun shining. We started the game slow but managed to pick it up in the second half of the first quarter by kicking a couple of quick goals. Unfortunately The Basin got the better of us in the second quarter. The third quarter was a little better as we managed to have more of the ball and to the boys credit they kept on trying all game. The positives were that we kicked 6 goals and there were some great passages of play throughout the game. We still have some things that we need to improve at training and we will work on those. Well done boys, keep working hard as I know you will be improving each week.”
Final Score: The Basin 12.15. 87 d Mitcham 6.5. 41
Goals: Nick Manks (2), Jarrod (1), Harrison (1), Michael (1), Corey (1)
Awards: Nick Manks, Max Webb, and Matt Cost
The Under 15’s kicked off their season playing away and taking on Scoresby. Coach Cam Horsey had this to say about their game – “After a long pre-season, the boys were excited and pumped to finally be able to put their hard work into a full game that carried points. The team list was put into a bit of turmoil with a couple of late withdrawals, however having a strong list meant were able to cover them with confidence. Our early expectations were quickly changed as Scoresby certainly turned up to play and made us have to work a lot harder - Good lesson to learn there! We started strongly with our mid-fielders getting their hands on the ball early, giving us every opportunity to score, but Scoresby kept coming at us. Our back line was as ferocious as ever, making it hard work on the Scoresby forwards with TK standing strong marking everything that came his way. Our run through the middle was impressive with Tim Ross and JP working their butts off as well as our newcomer Ben Smithies working tirelessly in the ruck. The forward line was on fire when the opportunities arose, kicking 13 goals 5. Josh Chivers, Hoppo and Julian worked extremely hard down forward keeping the ball locked in and allowing us the chance to score. One of the most impressive things that came out of the day was how Doigy responded when asked to sacrifice his game and shut down one of Scoresby’s better players. Coop took this job on and did it brilliantly, shutting down the player’s influence on the game. There are plenty of other guys I could mention with their efforts on the day, as everyone did their bit for the team. We will go into next week with confidence knowing their is plenty of room for improvement, as today we played a good team and we were able to come out on top. Great effort and I look forward to next week. Go Tiges!!!
Final Score: Mitcham 13.4. 82 d Scoresby 6.8. 44
Thank you to everyone who attended Jumper Presentation on Friday night. It was a great night and one that many of the younger players will remember. It was great to see so many of them singing the clubs song with such passion.
Once again in 2015 we as a club will try and bring you as many photos as possible from our couple of our club photographers in Graham Bradtke and Bec Clark. If you think you’re handy with a camera just message us and we will add you to the contributors list - HERES THIS WEEKS LINK
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=427780994051452&set=a.427781170718101&type=3&theater
Last Modified on 04/12/2019 12:34