Last home and away game of 2015 had the under 19s playing Templestowe, while the Seniors welcomed The Ringwood Redbacks to Tiger Town. The under 19s had their best game for a number of weeks and certainly there best quarter of footy for the year booting 10 goals in the third to set up a big win. The Reserves wrapped up top spot with another solid display against the now 2nd placed Ringwood to run out 35 point winners and will now have the break in the first week of finals. The Seniors having already cemented top spot and our first minor premiership since 1980 went down by 6 points and that old chestnut bad kicking is bad football rang true when the final siren sounded. That said the loss shouldn’t take away from the outstanding season the club has had including winning the club championship. NOW the real season begins - With both the Seniors and Reserves having a week’s break to plan their finals assault and the under 19s entering a cut throat elimination final Sunday out at Glen Waverley’s central reserve, couple that with the Club hosting 4th Division finals, it really is time for the Tigers to shine.
Congratulations also to Mark Ross and his under 12 Tigers on winning the C Grade premiership Sunday, a fantastic effort and again this a big rubber stamp for the junior program that Craig Giles, Glenn Newnham and Gavin Ward have now put in place for the Mitcham Football Club.
Under 19s Coaches Report
It was fantastic to get back on the winners list in our last home and away match v Templestowe. The boys played some great footy, in particular the second half after Templestowe stayed with us for the first half. Confidence is a big thing in footy and after listening to Senior Coach Neil Winterton speak to our boys on Thursday night, the boys knew exactly what it takes to get back into the form they showed in the first half of the season. Our midfield showed greater accountability and our backs and forwards matched their workmate at both ends of the ground. Josh Doidge was the standout in the middle leading by example and setting the tone for the way we wanted to attack the footy. Adam Glanville was great up forward kicking four goals and setting up another couple. Nathan Foster, Tom Blanche and Mick Barro all kept their opponents very quiet but it was the team effort that was the most pleasing aspect of the game, setting up an 80 point win. We move forward very quickly with all attention turned to our elimination final against Templestowe at Central Reserve. The boys have been eliminated in the first week of the last two finals campaigns so we are definitely committed to turning our finals form around and winning our first final. If we continue to play the same brand of footy we saw on Saturday we are capable of anything in the coming weeks. Congratulations to Neil Winterton, Steve Jordan and their players on locking away the minor premiership in both the
Seniors and Reserves on Saturday. Both sides have had fantastic seasons and we look forward to seeing that continue in two weeks time at East Burwood. Hope to see everyone at the game on Sunday as your support is invaluable to our boys and the staff.
Matt McCubbin Assistant Coach
Reserves Coaches Report
The regular season is over and we are into the exciting part being Finals! We had a big challenge on Saturday against Ringwood who are playing very good footy winning their last 9 in a row, with top spot on the line there was everything to play for, we started well with our pressure being up, but with missed opportunities in front of goal we went into qtr time 2 goals each. In the 2nd term we again kicked poorly but had most of play to go into half time 2 goals ahead. We have put a real focus on the 3rd qtr all year and we knew that the first 5 mins were critical, the boys came out and dominated possession but we didn’t finish it on the scoreboard and to their credit they did with 4 forward entries for 2 goals compared to our 14 for 2 major’s. Our last qtr was terrific we won the contested footy clearly and our ability to keep running and hitting the short was a clear difference, with 3 goals to 1 in the last we finished with a 4 goal win. Our run of half back was super with Tayles & Ruddy leading the way, the on ballers once again were on top lead by Beag’s with Bluey and Menzies, our forwards were a bit wayward however Whitchy kicked 3 and Parksy 2 and we had a spread after that. We genuinely had a very even performance across the ground which is our style all year, Team 1st footy as seen us finish top and I couldn’t be prouder of the boys, we can’t wait for the next challenge in 2 weeks. Well done to the seniors for top spot and a big thank you to all the supporters who have been awesome all year, we all very much appreciate it!
Steve Jordan Reserves Coach
Senior Coaches Report
The last game for the home and away season had us facing the inform Ringwood side who had sewn up a finals place last week on the back of some very good form. We knew that this would be a very good finals tune up for us and we would have to play at our best to get the win. In what was a hotly contested match with neither side able to skip away at any stage we unfortunately wasted some chances in front of goal and were on the end of a 6 point loss. Daniel Johnson was super all day for us down back and Rob Petracca played some really good football in the midfield. We now have the week off to freshen up and correct a few issues that we need to address so we are ready to go in our first final. Congratulations to the boys for finishing on top of the ladder for the home and away season a fantastic achievement but the hard work starts now. Also well done to the reserves for finishing on top and playing a brand of footy at the moment which will be hard to stop in the finals. To the colts congrats on making the finals and hitting some form as well, if you play like that over the coming weeks anything could happen. Thanks to all the supporters who have come right throughout the season, we look forward to your continued support during the finals.
Neil Winterton Senior Coach
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Last Modified on 17/08/2015 21:31