Under 11 GOLD
Well done today!
I thought our first quarter today was the best football we have played all season: quick ball movement to our forward line, first to the ball and then ran and spread to space, with handballs and long kicks to players leading to space. Team mates assisted with some good shepherding. When we didn’t have the ball, we really pressured and tackled the opposition, so as to win the ball back. We need to bring this game every week, starting next week against Mill Park.
In fairness, Research came back and our defence held firm, and defended really well. However the win set up in that first quarter.
You are all generally doing the team things that really add up to being successful, like shepherding, smothering, tackling, bumping, talking to one another. The good shepherds allow your team mate to get away from congestion and we do notice this!. Also talking to one another, ‘hot’ your free etc, saying your name if going for the ball, looking to handball to players running by so we get the really quick ball movement. If in congestion quick kicks to space, but if you do have that little bit more time, handballs to players outside or running on and looking to pass to a team mate further afield.
Let’s stick to our game style, wide to the flanks from defence then out to space, along the wings for us to run on to, and then looking for a leading forward or to centre half forward or the ‘hot spot’.
ü Zac’s hard attack on the ball was inspiring all day.
ü Henry’s running and when he got the ball, looked to pass it to a player leading or running to space.
ü Toby’s good centreing kick form the forward pocket to the hot spot that resulted in a goal.
ü Yoh taking the mark, no one there so played on and kick to the hot spot -quick ball movement!.
ü Jay switching the ball out from defence to the other flank where we ran on to the ball and got it out of our defence.
ü Hayden’s attack on the ball, all game.
ü Ethan and Yo’s chase when the opposition player was running out of defence.
ü Dimitri and Franki good over head marking.
The pleasing thing is that every player is involved and doing something and putting in that 100% effort…well done, lets back it up next week.
Thanks,
Nick U11 Gold Coach.
Under 12 Girls
Hi All
Great effort today considering the number of girls we were missing & great that Whittlesea gave us some players. The wind played a big part in the scoring today.
Final score was Whittlesea 14.10 – 94 to Northcote 3.2 – 20. Yes that’s right we kicked 3 goals!!
We started with a goal scored by Myeesha (U10), being able to clear the pack in the goal square and boot it through the centre. Myeesha was consistent all day being ready and willing to attack the ball and did her job well. Great to have Alicia & Lucia playing with us too, 3 under 10’s backing up to help us was great. Thanks. There were the usual great runs by Emily (Captain for the day), combined with some good tackling in the second half of the match. Whittlesea, however, were consistent throughout the whole match in their tackling and very effective. I know some of the girls said they were tackling hard, but this is what needs to be done in footy to help win games. Emily managed a goal after a great tackle in the forward pocket, a reward for great effort. There was consistency in the ways the Cougars played in the first three quarters. Their tackling improved, as seen with Emily, Chloe and Faydia. There were also signs of shepherding. The last quarter was hard, as Thea & Lily both copped injuries, as did Alicia, which let the opposition sneak some final goals through.
Again, the opposition coach commented on our improvement, so please let the girls know that we are getting consistent messages regards this, which is great.
Training as usual this Weds at 6pm.
Our second last game is against Yarrambat at 11.30am (please come well before 11am so we can warm up) this Sunday, we have a great chance to be very competitive. Also, we are having a pizza party post game that Sharyn will update on via email during the week.
Thanks again for a great effort today girls.
Go Cougars, Chris & Nigel.
Under 14 Girls
Hi All, Well done on getting back to our good footy against the toughest team in the competition and sharing the points in a very exciting last quarter. To finish the game off that strong really shows the whole group that we are in this competition up to our necks come finals time! The great effort today came on the back of some great inside work by Ellouise, Mahrosh and Tameeka. This group of 3 are simply sensational and will get better as the season continues.
Ellouise and Tameeka are leading the way on the training track, often training 2 or 3 nights a week with the boys on Tuesdays and Thursday and surprise, surprise they are showing the benefits on Sundays. It’s up to every girl to decide if they are prepared to make the extra effort for the rest of the season and get down to those extra training sessions. You don’t have to join in with the boys if you don’t want to, you can do extra running and kicking practice which every player needs to do. I should be there all 3 nights this week to run our own sessions if there are enough numbers. That result definitely seals a top 2 finish which will see us play Montmorency again in the first final on the 6/8 and I can’t wait to have another crack at them!
Chloe’s 3 goals was good but like everyone of the girls she still has lots of upside and needs to improve in a few areas, and if she like all the girls improve in 2 or 3 areas of their game the result will be a much improved team! It was really exciting to see Antonia with a big smile on her face of going back and kicking an important goal, she is an elite kick, we just need that belief back! Ant like a few of our girls does need to work on getting off that quick handball when under pressure, so again get to training so we can work on these things.
One area of our game that I thought really improved was our tackling. We did a lot of work on it at training so it was great to see an improvement especially from those 3 inside girls, Ellouise, Tameeka and Mahrosh! There were some really good marks today as well which is something that we have been working on over the last few weeks please keep going for them above your head, they win games. Great work Sophie, Antonia and Olive! All in all it was a great team effort, the work rate lifted and we played better footy as individuals and as a team as a result. Thanks again to our volunteers especially Vinnie and Baz who were doing the team manager stuff as wells their normal jobs.
I was thinking of having a training session next Sunday as we have the bye, At this stage it will be after the under 12 girls game at 12:45pm let me know if you can or can’t make it by Wednesday.
See you at training Well Done, you were awesome today!
Go Cougars Steve