Welcome to all Tocumwal supporters as we take the long and winding Newell Highway to our neighbours and friendly foe the Finley Cats for our twilight game. As always all the best and let's ensure we play with the spirit of good sportsmanship that we want our club to be known for.
Though we all know this rebuilding stage is going to take some time, the improvements are already starting to show, following a pretty good day out against the Rams last week. With the C & C Res girls having great wins and the A grade girls just missing out in a nail biter, whilst the Under 17 boys who could have gone either way at three quarter time showed great maturity to focus on the ball and record their first win against Deni for 12 years.
All the best today to Robert "Cannons" Bray on playing his 50th Reserves game with the red and white and to Ben Phelan on his 100th Senior game with the Bloods.
Under 14's: With a distinct overall height advantage Deni raced away to an early lead ensuring the mercy rule engaged in the 2nd quarter. With changes in place, Toc became more competitive in the following quarters.
With forward players moved to the back line, to "give them a go" the team did a great job adjusting to new positions and again demonstrated great team/club spirit. It is this spirit that will have Toc back to its former strength in no time.
Under 17's: A tremendous team effort to overcome "Deni" last week. Every player contributed to the win. Our hardness at the footy when it counted really stood out. You can see our efforts at training are starting to show positive results in our matches.
Great to see "Rowdy Morham" join Stevo Patten up in the seniors. Hasn't "Rowdy" come a long way with his footy!! Well done Aaron and Steve.
Well today is just another challenge for our Under 17's group. Keeping our mindset on the footy we expect no quarter given. Are we up to the challenge? We believe we are. It would be fair to say that it's been a long while since a "Toc-17" side has been in this position.
To all players today - Give it your very best and as we say to you each week - Enjoy Your Game!!
Reserves: The Toc Magoos are finally starting to settle down only having 6 changes and with too many numbers the President was controversially dropped to make way for some favourite lost sons in Nick Ball and Dave Trotman, who arrived in a taxi from Melbourne in their gear and ready to go.
Both boys showed they had lost nothing with Trotty getting plenty of it through "his bull in a china shop" style to be BOG and put him up for Senior selection while Ballsy showed some of the old class before getting a hit on the old turkey wing.
Once again we had plenty of the play through having a real crack but could not convert it to the score board and it is just a matter of time before we catch a few opposition teams by surprise.
It was the veteran show with Corey "Hercules" Herezo, Reece, Skinny & Jossy leading the way whilst Robbie Pyle, Jordan Poynton & Nathan Morton also held their own.
Seniors: We continued to improve on our last performance and were more competitive for the first 3 quarters before an injury depleted bench and tired legs finally got the better of them allowing the score to blow out to be not truly reflective of what was a very hard fought game.
After a false start the week before, Aaron Morham played his first Senior game and acquitted himself admirably, receiving great praise from Coach Tresize for his hard running and playing to instruction - Well done Aaron as we are sure it will be the first of many with the Bloods.
A bit of consistency settling in with Diva Farrell (Captain Courageous) and Choco Andrew continuing to justify their Murray League selection by doing what they do best while Young Crawf, Espresso Coffey, Mick Madden and Brendan "Slippery" Simpson all played beauties in what was a pretty even team effort.
A highlight of the day was the emergence of Stevie "Wonder" Poynton who with improved fitness is starting to show what he is capable of, regularly rebounding and setting up play with his straight running and speed, I am tipping he will be one of our stars by years end.
