This weekend saw the OFCFNC split between 2 venues. The Seniors/Reserves and Netballers all travelling to Thornton/Eildon, and the Under 18s heading down the hill to arch rival Upwey/Tecoma.
NETBALL
A GRADE
We travelled to Thornton Eildon this week and unfortunately did not come home with the win. We took the first quarter to get into the game & start to play like we can , which left us 11 goals down at quarter time. The remainder of the game was excellent with the score line being even but our poor start cost us. The Thornton goalers were on target and gave few opportunities for rebounds, and our defenders had to work really hard against Thorntons fast paced attack. Nat Sloan put in a great game as GS, our attacking play through centre court was strong with Bec Gray and Sam Royce as key players.
B GRADE
One could say, that the nearly 2 hour drive to Thornton Eildon, is not the best way to head into what was to be a tough game against the Thornton Eildon girls. Our girls however had a solid warm up and were ready to go. The girls were full of energy and determined to win. Defenders were on top of their opponents, center court always on their toes setting up great path ways through to the goalers. Although we lost by 3 goals, over all it was a great game and an outstanding performance by the girls today !
FOOTBALL
U18S
With coach Andy Greenall up at Thornton, in hot pursuit of goal number 100, Tim Scott stepped in to coach the U18s, who took on the always powerful Upwey/Tecoma down at "The Dome". A terrific build up was followed by a very fiercely contested 1st half. We hit the ground running but couldn't make the most of our chances, kicking 1.6 to 2.2 in the 1st quarter. By half time, Upwey had extended the lead to 9 points but our boys were feeling strong and were confidant that they could run out the game. In the 3rd term, our boys lost complete focus for 10 minutes, getting involved in off-the-ball incidents, yellow cards for mouthing off etc and during this period, Upwey slammed on 4 unanswered goals to effectively end the match. A goal in the last 30 seconds left the door slightly open, but kicking against the wind in the last quarter and facing a 5 goal defecit, the boys were in trouble. After a fairly major dressing down by the coach and some major positional changes, the response in the final term was absolutely magnificent. The team leaders took the game by the scruff of the neck and we peppered the forward line at will. When the dust had settled, Upwey had finished 1 goal the victors and our boys suffered their 1st loss for 2009. No doubt a very valuable lesson can be learnt from the weekends match. That to beat the best, requires a full 4 quarter effort and that un-disciplined acts do costs games of football. Some great efforts from all players but I thought Mickey Ruigrok and Josh Wallis were fantastic for the whole match and Tommy Dawson's last quarter was just team lifting.
RESERVES
The Reserves celebrated their recent acquisition of top spot on the ladder with a comfortable 100 point win over a struggling Thornton on Saturday. The goal kicking duo of Andy Greenall & Adam Borg excelled again with 19 goals between them. Andy now has only 4 to go for ‘the ton’ & it’s conceivable that Adam could do likewise before the season ends. In the midfield Gavin Nautili continued to impress with his ability to continually be in space when he receives the ball, whilst Russell Sloan, Shannon Fitzgerald, Tim Wall & James O’Reilly gave the side terrific momentum throughout the game. Unflappable coach ‘Keithy’ Collee once again appeared quite relaxed throughout the day & announced that he was ‘going fishing’ on Sunday .His quiet confidence is probably in part possible due to the consistent reliability of his assistant Mick Woods.
SENIORS
Match Report To Follow
Last Modified on 27/07/2009 13:24