By Nick Suban
It was a tough week and a bit for all the Vic Country boys, it all started with a tough trip to South Australia, with all the boys’ eager to start the carnival with a win, I don’t think we could have had a better preparation, as we had to change our normal way of preparing due to playing interstate. On the day of the game all the boys were very nervous playing at AMMI stadium after the Adelaide V West Coast game, as we all didn’t no what to expect, as there were a lot of players playing there first game for the BIG V. The lead up was intense in the rooms as you could feel all the boys focused and eager to do well. In the first quarter it seemed all the boys were a little flat due to the flight over and few other things, but the Vic Country boys were about 7 goals down.
It turned out that our second quarter would be our best, we got first hands on the ball in the midfield and got the ball down into our forward line, all the backs were solid all game and got a lot of rebound threw Scott Selwood, At half time we were 17 points down. In the last half the South Australian boys were too good and won by about 7 goals. We got back to Melbourne and got to spend a few days at home before we all made our way to Ormond College which was to be our base for the Championships to prepare for the following two games.
It turned out we played Western Australia in the second game as they beat Vic Metro, at Ormond we had a lot to do we played table tennis watched TV played playstation, and just enjoyed each others company. Coach Robert Hyde told us to try and stop their run, WA had a very strong midfield and loved to run forward. The game got changed to MC Labor Park, as the bad ground conditions at Skilled Stadium, the aim was to get our team targets up and put a lot of pressure on them, we had a very good first half and the wet and slippery conditions and went into half time 1 point up.
It didn’t turn out to be the same in the second half as WA got there running game going and ended up about 8 goal winners. We had a carnival lunch and on Saturday before the Western Bulldogs V Port Adelaide game, we had assistant coach of the dogs Chris Bond come in and talk to us, we also had last years number draft pick Bryce Gibbs and Joel Selwood talk to us about the level of AFL Football and what they had learnt from last years Championships, also on Saturday night we had the parent dinner and after that if players wanted they could go home for a few day, I decided to stay along with about 12 others, we went to the Carlton V Melbourne game and did many other things.
When all the boys got back it was back to preparing for the Metro game which had been moved to Casey Fields, we all had our roles to play and we were all eager to get a win, metro got out to a bit of a lead at the end of the first quarter, but coach Robert Hyde was happy as well got all our team indicators and was putting a lot of pressure on metro, the second quarter was much the same, we went into half time about 4 or 5 goals down and in with a big chance, the coach said he wouldn’t yell and scream at us but just couldn’t because we were just trying so hard, putting a lot of pressure on them and got all our team targets.
The third quarter metro got there lead out and we all dropped our heads. The message was to keep pressure on metro and just to out score them, we got our hands on the ball in the midfield and got the ball forward, and our pressure was really good, we out scored metro 3 goals to 5, we went into the rooms and coach Robert Hyde gave us all the stats, we had more possession than metro more insides 50s, more clearances, and more handball receives, so we matched it with them but we just couldn’t hit out targets.
Even though we lost it was a very good week made a lot of new friends, and it was just a very good experience, would like to thank all the coaching staff and all the other staff for a great week.
Last Modified on 08/02/2009 16:30