As we journeyed out to Essendon to take on top placed Therry Penola, the phone calls kept flooding in, troops from the reserves called up to senior duties and players pulling out with various injuries. It was a nightmare morning that left the coach wondering where the nearest pub was and how could he get the team there quickest!!
Left with 18 men and facing a monstrous TP side that touched us up to the tune of 100+ at full strength it was not looking good. However, the message was simple, nothing gets too hard for this group, we dont chuck in the towel, we stick together, stay positive and always earn respect for the jumper.
Its not often said after a 150 point shallacking, but i could not be prouder of the boys on saturday. It would have been very easy to chuck it in but we kept plugging away, stuck to the task and kept our collective chin up the whole day. Credit to this group, our attitude has not changed the whole year despite our lack of success.
There were some monstrous individual efforts to mention. The Big Rig PJ rucked unchanged all day, winning his position and in a purple patch in the 3rd quarter the PJ and Fonzy combination gave us centre clearance domination giving us a sniff of winning the quarter. The manchild Porter was required down back to take on the monster coming out of full forward. No task is too hard nor opponent too big for this 18 year old and he is fast becoming one of the first picked each week. The midfield group competed pretty much unchanged all day with Fonzy, Manley, O'Loughlin, Miteff, Owen, Kearney and co giving it everything. Big Spencer was inspired up forward, with the retired Jab playing the stay at homwe decoy to perfection, Spencer kicked our entire score - well except for the nuffy TP player who took 7 bounces and had a ping from 40m out at the wrong end of the ground. The backline stuck to the task all day and continued to compete.
A lot of players as well as the senior coach commented after the game about the efforts and it was recognised by all there. Match it this week with a full list and some handy inclusions and who knows what the result could be.
go bloods
mickeyo #54
Last Modified on 29/07/2011 10:03