Welcome back Bloods supporters as we host an in form Echuca United unit. Hope everyone enjoyed the week off and is itching to have a go today.
The club would like to express their deepest sympathy to Bree & Nathan Tresize with the passing of Bree's father Lynton Couch. Our thoughts are with you and your families during this tough time. Also the club would like to express our sympathies to Norma Flood and family of the passing of one of our life members in Pat Flood.
Today we celebrate the magnificent contribution to our club in the form of femininity, holding our annual Ladies Day afternoon tea. The afternoon will culminate with the ladies 3, 2, 1 votes and the Inaugural Miss Tocumwal pageant to be held in the rooms after the senior game.
A huge congratulation to Aaron Morham who represented us in the MFL U/16 team at the Moama Carnival and Kaleb Spicer who made the Riverina U/15 side to play 3 games at the NSW Schoolboy Carnival this week in Wollongong - well done fellows. Also to man about town Choco Andrew who was the youngest member of the MFL senior team that played in Mildura on the weekend. Kieren is a great example of someone that just gets on with the job regardless of the situation and while he's always been a beauty I think he will continue to get better and better like a good shiraz as he gets older. Always a great contributor around the club with a smile on his dial he is fast becoming a terrific role model for our junior members - keep it going Choco.
Under 14's - The team had an awesome start this week, having the 1st shot at goal resulting in a behind. The size of the other teams is starting to be less of an issue, as the boys become more determined to do well. The goals ticked up on the board all too regular for the opposition, but the mercy rule was not brought in until late in the 3rd quarter. The boys need to pick up their players particularly in the back line. The bye last week has seemed to put the boys out of sorts, but there was definite improvement on other weeks. Thanks again to our extra U/14 players helping out with boundary and water. The club roster of 2nds players doing our water and boundary clearly needs revising.
Under 17's - Well we knew Barooga thirds were big, but someone forgot to tell us they are from "The land of the Giants!" Who dishes up their meals? After matching the Barooga boys for the first quarter we just couldn't go with them for the rest of the game. The match itself didn't reflect the huge margin at the finish. Poor young "Messy" drew the short straw on a 6'16" forward. We simply ran out of talls above 5'11"! To his credit he stuck it out and showed good inner belief in himself. With the "Butcha Boy", Pod, Gordo, Aaron and Trae combining - we displayed some good team play when going forward. However - we must learn the team requirements when our opposition has the ball. While our win-loss would look negative we can see major improvement with our list - especially some of last year's group. Today against Echuca United we would hope ALL players combine as a unit to achieve our team success. Our helper of the week shall see Kadeyn Munro up front. Kadeyn is learning to be a trainer and doing it quite well - loves the odd "Parma" for a feed and barracks for the "Blue Baggers"! Thanks for your support Kadeyn. To everyone else - enjoy your game!
Reserves - OC's Magoo's welcomed back big Kenny & Ballsy and had young Messy Baldwin come up from the thirds to do battle with an in form Hawks outfit. As has been the case in most of the games this year the boys tried hard all day and had the odd opportunity but just could not finish off their efforts on the scoreboard. Raging Ryan Philippe played a blinder showing no regard for his personal safety by continually putting his body on the line and backing it up with some polished skills to be our best. Luke Fuller continued his consistent form with another solid game as did Ballsy while the old timers in Kenny and Sniffa battled hard all game. Messy also held his own showing his pace running down the opposition on several occasions.
Seniors - The senior team once again went into the game minus some key players in Nathan (unavailable) & Crawf (wobbly rib) which gave Jossy his first senior game this year while Daniel Hickey and Glyn Matters played their first senior games for Tocumwal (Congratulations Daniel & Glyn - hopefully the first of many). It was also a special occasion for the Hickey Family with Daniel playing with Denis and Adrian for the first time in the same team. It may have been fortunate that Frank could not find a pair of boots to fit him as he would have been out there with his boys as well.
In Nathan's absence, David "Black Caviar" Farrell stepped into the coach's role and while his post match address had some present looking at the dictionary, his on field leadership through his encouragement of his team mates and attack on the ball was inspiring to be arguably the best on ground in a soundly beaten team. Stevie "Wonder" Poynton was busier at full back than Simo at a Bluelight Disco, regularly repelling Barooga's forward attacks by backing his judgement and speed to win his position on the day. Choco & Espresso Coffey were again in everything doing their best to create opportunities up the gound with their run and carry play while Jordy Haynes battled hard all day aginst the Hawks tall timber and again Skinny backed up his good form the week before working his skinny little bum off all day.
A reminder that club shirts, hoodies and training jumpers are now in stock. If in need for any of the above see Deb in the office - Prices are the following: Club Shirts - Juniors $30 and Adults $40, Hoodies - Juniors $40 and Adults $50, Training Jumpers - Juniors $20 and Adults $30. As we have limited supply it will be first in best dressed. We will not accept any IOU's.
