On field the Under 19s and reserves had solid wins, while the seniors came up short against Heathmont at home this week. With just one round to play the unders and reserves have locked away a top two finish and the seniors need a win away against Mulgrave to see just where we finish depending on other results. Unfortunately our netball girls were also eliminated from the finals Friday night. Off field another outstanding Sponsors’ lunch this weekend for the Mitcham Senior and Junior Football Club with special guest, retiring great and the people’s champion, Hawthorn’s Jarryd Roughead. WELLL DONE to our under 19s who celebrated there last home game of the season with an Hawaiian shirt day behind the goals - Good fun had by all and very well behaved Check out the official Mitcham website @ www.mitchamfc.com later in the week for the full match reports. Once again BIG THANK YOU to a host of photographers this week in Particular Debbie Stingle, Graham Bradkte and Paul Corris
Under 19 Coaches Report
Round 17 saw us at home against the 3rd placed Heathmont minus our coach who was away on business. After a hard fought but disappointing result last week, we were raring to go and knew we had improvement in us as a group. The focus all week was on improving our communication and problem solving on the ground. From the first bounce, we brought terrific physical pressure, got our hands on the ball and ran and spread. Our mids dominated the first quarter and our forwards worked hard to get 3 early goals on the board. The second quarter was an arm wrestle. Heathmont started to get numbers to contests, create space and have numbers out the back. Our back 6 were superb and managed to quell Heathmont’s forward entries and they remained goalless to half time. At halftime we revisited ‘communication and problem solving’, our focus on improving this to ensure 1v1 pressure especially at the around the ground stoppages. The whole team responded brilliantly. The 3rd and 4th quarters were played largely on our terms with a very even contribution from everyone. Most pleasing was the boys obvious lift in constructive talk and player awareness beyond their own immediate opponent. An area we will continue to work on as we start to see the dividends. A fantastic TEAM performance. Pleasing to have a number of players hitting the scoreboard with big Cam Pirzaz bagging 5. L.Richardson, T. Kerr, T. Stingell, T. Ross, C. O''Connor, J. Valle were named in the best. Thanks everyone for your support.
Steve Richardson Assistant Coach
Reserves Coaches Report
Cracking day on Saturday with sunny skies although the ground was a little chopped up, didn’t matter though as we had a top 2 spot to secure with a win. Our theme was to take our opportunity as these chances don’t come around often and the 1st qtr showed the boys intent kicking 3 goals to zero, the 2nd was a real contested battle as both sides cracked in but we managed to win the qtr and take a 4 goal lead into halftime. They came out hard in the 3rd which we knew they would and after we dominated the first 10 mins booting 3 goals they came back with 4 straight to get within 20 pts heading into the last. The last qtr was a test for us and we were super kicking 3 goals to 0 as our intent and structures stood up to come away with a 40 point win and secure 2nd on the ladder and a date with Boronia in 2 weeks. Our rucks Blakey & Flynners did a job all day for us they were terrific, the mids and back 6 showed great discipline and pressure whilst we got plenty out of everyone to be fair in a even spread of contributors. It’s all in front of us now with the focus this week against Mulgrave, appreciate the support we had on Saturday, see you next week.
Steve Jordan Reserves Coach
Senior Coaches Report
This week we hosted Heathmont, a win for us would guarantee a finals birth and move us closer to locking up a top 2 spot. Conversely Heathmont needed a win to keep their finals hopes alive, so both sides had plenty to play for.heathmont started well kicking the first 2 goals of the game, we started to wrestle back momentum before an unfortunate incident involving a Heathmont player forced a stoppage in the game for 30-40 minutes. Thankfully all indications are he will be ok After the resumption of play Heathmont kicked the final 2 goals to take a 16 point lead into the ¼ time break. In the 2nd quarter we started to get control around the footy and we had a large portion of the play inside our forward 50 but we only managed to reduce the margin to 9 points.We started the 3rd quarter on fire kicking the first 4 goals and opening up a 17 point lead, to Heathmont’s credit they fought back hard kicking the next 3 goals to hold a 4 point lead at ¾ time.The last quarter belonged to Heathmont as they got on top around the footy and were more desperate at the contest to run away with a 19 point win.Jesse Uren and Riley Nicholas were both outstanding all day off half back giving us some really good drive. Thanks to everyone who came out to support us and for those who attended the Sponsors lunch, we really appreciate your support.
We look forward to seeing you all out at Mulgrave as we look to wrap up a finals spot in the last game of the season.
Neil Winterton Senior Coach
Last Modified on 19/08/2019 18:37