By Nick Suban
Is was a tough week for the Rebels, after coming off a embarrassing loss to the Gippsland Power, all the Rebels players and coachers really need to forget about last week’s massive loss and prepare for the following game, the boys but it behind them and were really eager and exited about the up coming week and weekend match against the Bendigo Pioneers.
The week started with a meeting about the game, Coach Chris Maple went through all of the positives and negative about the game and where we needed to improve to help us get back on the winners list.
The coach asked of the playing group to improve their training intensity voice and enthusiasm on the training track and around the club, as he though that we were lacking in this area, and to the boys credit Tuesday night training was 100% better and the boys were full of enthusiasm, another theme of training was to help share and care, and practice winning 1 on 1 footy on the contest, it was tough, and all the boys were stuffed, I think it done us really good to have a really hard hit out on the track and helped all the boys get a bit of confidence back.
On the Wednesday , the BAS rounds got under way for Term 3, St Pats took on a very good classy collage outfit, both schools were very hungry for a win as last time was a very close game, it was a typical Ballarat day and both school didn’t hold back, playing great team football and it was a great spectacle watching from the side lines, the first half sore both schools pretty even, but in the second half we sore a dominant St Pats put there foot on the accelerator and win by about 5 goals, both teams played with great spirit and it will be a great game if they are lucky enough to face each other again.
Thursday saw the entire squad get together for the 1srt time for the week. As some player’s need to travel over 2 ½ hours just to reach Ballarat. This was our last training session before the big game in Bendigo against the Pioneers, training again was based on intensity and to the boys credit again I thought training was one of the best for the year, the voice was up and all the boys skills were very impressive and all were really keen to get back on the winners list and prove we are a top four side.
Going onto the game I had good feeling as I thought the boys has prepared well and ready. The team started really well and we were 4 goals up during the 1st quarter, in the second quarter we really needed to keep the pressure on as we were going against the wind that Bendigo really found hard to score into in the first quarter, the boys kicked two goals but missed too many easy goals that could have seen the scoreboard even worse for Bendigo, but still went into half time about 3 goals up, the third quarter was the quarter that we really let the Pioneers back into the game, we didn’t play team footy and went back to the way we were playing the previous week, Bendigo kicked 3 goals against the wind to our poor 4 points, going into the last quarter the scores were even with the Bendigo side now full of confidence, we needed to get back to playing out structures and team footy. The last quarter was a real hit out, many stoppages and both teams giving it there best. Bendigo ran away with the game and come out victors by 10 points.
This week the Rebels have to go back to the drawing board and train with intensity and really get back to the basics, we take on the 8th place Eastern Rangers and both teams are on the same amount of points and its going to be a very tough game, with both team’s really hungry for a win, I’m sure all my fellow Rebels players this week will take some ownership and make a stance and not let what happened the last 2 week happen again, and be very hungry for a win as we are a much better team than we have showed recently.
Note: Congratulations to Nick Suban on being announced in the AFL U18 ALL AUSTRALIAN TEAM which was announced on Saturday.
Last Modified on 08/02/2009 16:53
