U13 Match Report
Round 5
Match Report: Round 5 U/13’s, May 18th, 2014
Opponent: Bundoora (Away)
Scores
Doncaster Heights 4.7-46
Kew Comets 6.3-39
Goal kickers: Patrick Rodwell 2, Dion Mustafa 2, Christian Toppi 2, Liam Powell 1
Best Players: Dion Mustafa, Christian Toppi, Patrick Rodwell,
General Information for Round 5
This week we were up against Bundoora. During the grading games, Bundoora convincingly won all three games in Black Division to move up to Blue. Their form was hard to read as it was against lesser opposition so we weren’t sure what to expect.
With an early start to the day due to team photos, I thought the boys may be up and about. But it was Bundoora that got the early jump. Before we knew it, we were down by a couple of goals and staring at our second consecutive defeat. The boys regrouped at ¼ time, and with a stiff breeze in the second qtr, we managed to reduce the margin by half time. The 3rd qtr was the crucial a one for us. We needed to stop Bundoora from scoring to give us a good chance of running over the top of them in the last qtr. And that is exactly what we did. We held them goalless and in return we put a few away with some great running against the breeze. The last qtr was a tight tussle, both sides not giving in. But as always our boys refused to hand over the 4 points. We fought it out to the very end to get over the line by 7 points.
It was an ugly game of footy largely due to the blistery conditions. Wins like this are worth more than just 4 points.
Next week we take on Warrandyte. This is another local derby that we must win. Let’s all get to training Thursday to prepare for a massive game.
Well done boys.
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Round 4
Match Report: Round 4 U/13’s, May 11th, 2014
Opponent: Kew Comets (Home)
Scores
Doncaster Heights 4.3-27
Kew Comets 6.5-41
Goal kickers: Patrick Rodwell 2, Liam Powell, Tarquin Oakley
Best Players: Michael Carbone, Ben Robson, Patrick Rodwell
General Information for Round 4
This game was the match of the round in Blue Division with a top of the table clash against Kew Comets. A win today and we climb into the next division, something our team has never done before (move up a grade). So the challenge was put the boys before the game, if we want to climb we must win, simple as that.
Our training this week revolved around some game strategies we are currently learning. Feeding the ball back on a 45 degree to allow our team mate to clear the ball in space. Our focus today is to put this training into practice.
The game started at a furious pace. Both teams were hard at the ball, and at the man with the ball. Our boys for most part stuck to the team rules. We had some great passages of play, end to end footy resulting in goals. The game from start to finish was a tight tussle with neither team willing to give up, and the winner was going to earn the 4 points today. Bone crushing tackles from our skipper all day resulted in the opposition and the umpire fearing for Kew’s safety. The tackling was truly inspirational and an expectation from all of our players.
We battled to the very end and once again we never gave up. Kew Comets are going to be at the pointy end of the season and I look forward to seeing them there. Although we went down by 14 points today, we have so much more improvement in us it’s not funny.
Our team is growing with confidence each and every week. Good performances like today raise expectations. With higher expectations, the demands start to increase. Get ready boys, the show’s about to begin.
See you ALL Thursday at 5:30pm SHARP. Remember, the clock starts when the last player arrives so be on time so your mums and dads don’t have to wait in the cold for you. Poor thingsJ
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Round 3
Match Report: Round 3 U13’s, May 4th 2014
Opponent: Brunswick (Away)
Scores
Doncaster Heights 13.2-80
Brunswick 1.2-8
Goal kickers: Patrick Rodwell 5, Dion Mustafa 4, Christian Toppi 2, James Arnberger 1, Ben
McLeod 1
Best Players: Dion Mustafa, Matthew Ciano, Michael Carbone, Patrick Rodwell
General Information for Round 3
Captain: Patrick Rodwell
Awards: Jesse Yoannidis, Ben Robson, Jack Harrowell, Brett Mills, Ben Rees, Christian Toppi, Ben McLeod (every player that turns up to the social night gets an award)
A great Melbourne winter’s day saw us up against Brunswick this week. It was cold and wet, perfect conditions for our boys to show the rest of the competition who the leaders of the pack are. The boys relished in the conditions, we were first to the ball on many occasions handballing out to a team mate in space. We protected our team mate with the ball several times with a good shepherd and our tackling this week was first rate. All the hard work from our backline and on ballers was rewarded by our forwards by kicking 13 goals for the game. In those conditions, our kicking was brilliant.
It should be noted that 2 milestones were reached this week, first time our team has been undefeated after 3 rounds of footy and it was the first time we have ever beaten a side by 72 points. Great stuff boys very proud of you all but we don’t rest on our past performances. We have plenty of improvement ahead of us and with George and Stav (assistant coach) taking the first half of training sessions, I’m sure our performances will get better each week.
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Round 2
The boys had a great week on the track with ex skipper and premiership player of the senior team George Sahinidis coming out to spend 30 minutes with the boys doing some new drills. The boys loved it and got plenty out of it. Thanks George, hopefully we will see more of you.
Round 2 (ANZAC Day weekend) saw us up against our arch enemy, Beverley Hills. In the same game last year, we went down by 21 points. For us it was all about redemption.
From the very first bounce, this game had 2013 all over it. Every team rule was broken. We weren’t running to create opportunities for our team mates, we didn’t hunt down the opposition when they had the ball and when we had the ball we were turning back into congestion and getting caught with the ball. After a decent spray from me at ¼ time and some home truths pointed at our leadershipgroup and others that weren’t following our team rules, the second qtr saw us starting to follow instructions. At ½ time, although we weren’t playing that well, we regained the lead.
The 3rdqtr was a scrappy affair and this is when I knew the boys flicked the switch on. Beverley Hills didn’t get an easy possession that qtr and I could tell we were just about to run over them. The last qtr started in strange circumstances. Beverley Hills had a loose player in their forward line and we couldn’t work out why. We did a very quick count from the bench and it seemed to us they had 19 players on the ground. They had the ball in their forward line for a few minutes and ended up kicking a goal. While the ball was being returned to the centre of the ground we did another head count and then I asked Patrick our captain to ask the umpire if we could stop the game for an official count. We were right, they did have 19 players on the ground. I feel this inspired the boys to play the best footy for the day and ran out winners by 13 points.
What started out as a nightmare, turned out to be a magnificent victory in the end. I love coaching these boys. I demand a lot out of them and to their credit they deliver. One of our team rules is NEVER GIVE UP. We play footy with this belief front of mind. Average footy teams would have would have packed it in at qtr time but great teams keep pushing until the final siren.
Well done boys, Redemption complete.
Goals – Patrick (2), Christian (2), James, Jack, Ben M, Dion
Best – Fabian, Tarquin, Michael, Dion, Ben Robson, Patrick
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Round 1
U/13 Match Report
After a challenging pre-season we finally got the season up and running against Ashburton at home.
The boys looked ready to go before the game. I could tell they were switched on and ready for a big game. Prior to the game, we went over our team rules which the boys are now very familiar with.
From the opening bounce our boys were ferocious at the ball and our opponents.
Our half back line was awesome with Tommy, Matty C and Jesse providing plenty of run, while our full back line in Tarq, Micky C and Fab (the Generals) just controlled everything down there.
The midfield ran their legs off, up and down the ground all day. Burgs and Benny (Robbo) Robson controlled the wings. Sandy was up against a behemoth in the ruck and held his own and as soon as the ball hit the ground, Christian Toppi, Jacko and Jaydin extracted the ball out of the centre with ease, giving our forwards every opportunity to put a score on the board.
Speaking of our forwards, our Captain Patty said to the rest of the forwards “jump on board boys this is how you play the game, just do as I do”. And that is exactly what happened. Sando, you’ve arrived as a footballer son, you now know what you are capable of and I expect that type of performance EVERY week. Dion crumbed everything that wasn’t marked and big Benny Rees finally stamping his authority on the game at full forward. It was a pleasure to watch and a pleasure to coach.
Not one positional change was made during the day. That’s how good you all played. Hand on heart, I can say for the very first time that every single one of you contributed to our win.
We took them on with only 16 players on a 25 degree day, no interchange, no time for rest. We stuck to our team rules and we beat them by 5 goals. Not a bad effort considering just 11 months ago the same team beat us by 10 goals.
Super proud of you all BUT we now move on to our next challenge.
Training will continue as normal through the school holidays. No excuses accepted.
Final scores
DHJFC 10 – 11 – 71 Def Ashburton 6 – 6 – 42
Awards – Patty, Sando and Tarq
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