Under 11 Gold
Well done today Cougars.
We dominated the possessions and time in forward line for the whole game.
The first quarter was a little frustrating, because we couldn’t get the reward on the scoreboard with our dominance.
But we asked you to look at the structures and have the forwards move back to the half forward line as they were playing a little too far up to the mid field and we needed to be better with our kicks in to our forward line, looking to our leading forwards. Forward pressure improved, not letting the opposition get the ball out of our forward line easily.
Defenders were great but remember you need to be that ‘elastic’ band and get back on your direct opponent…this needs to improve.
Tackling needs to be a focus…. too many tackles were broken by the opposition…this is such an important skill to keep working on.
Highlights:
# Toby’s strong overhead mark in front of his opponent, up forward.
# Lachies, great running all day, inspiring play.
# Great roving goals in the forward line by Rory and Raf.
# Dimitri, strong overhead mark on the wing and good handball to Yoh, running by, really good team play, keep running by for those handballs, and be sure of the hand balls, catch the fist!
# Lewie really presented and continually lead on the half forward line, giving us a target in the forward line.
# Jay in the backline really attacked the ball, came off his opponent won the ball and kicked it away to the flank – well done.
# James out of defence, under pressure, long kick wide to the flank/wings, as per team rules.
# Hayden from the wing/flank, good long kick, near the ‘hot spot’.
# Jack, won some really important possessions, really attacked the ball.
# Some great quick ball movement from Henry off the half back flank, with a lovely long kick to Ralph on the wing, then to a leading Lewis, who quickly went back and kicked to Yoh who played on and passed to Toby….impressive passage of play
# Soul and Franki both held down the important centre half back and centre half foward positions, going for their marks.
# Isaac, in defence, came off his opponent and punched the ball away from another player on his own, really proactive – well done! Make sure in the field of play if you cant get to the front punch the ball, then we need players looking to rove the ball.
# Zak and Cal, great games in the midfield.
# Good games Marcus, Ralph, Ethan and Bobby!, ran and spread to space, creating opportunities, when we has the ball.
See you at training – whats so pleasing is that it really is a team effort and all players are contributing…then FINALS this weekend, so please get to training.
Under 14 Girls
Hi All,
Well done on so many levels today…an even contribution by everyone was a great way to close out the regular season. Our engine room embraced the challenge Paul gave them to be aggressive and impose themselves on the game and they really did turn the game our way, well done. This will be so important heading into the finals and we will continue to focus on this at training. I was really happy with the games of Lacey, Zara, Faydia and Morgan. These girls really gave us their very best today which is all I can ask, great work, keep it up! Another great performance today came from Christina. She is a competitive beast and when she decides to attack the ball, look out if you get in her way, awesome stuff.
The other big highlight today came from Lulu…she’s very, very good! Played her role to perfection and showed the team that she is always a great option to switch the ball when she is playing on the wing, and tough to boot!
Thanks to Sarah for organising the girls celebration after our game and all the girls who made the under 12s and 10s girls feel so special. At the risk of making Lulu cry again she is a hell of a footy player compared to her face painting skills…stick to footy lu:). But then again, if you work on your face painting as hard as your footy who knows you might end up being a pro!
Special mention to my captains today. Chloe for her 5 goals which earns her the leading goal kicking in our division, congratulations and making the certificates which the girls loved, thanks champ! Great game by Ell today, simply awesome. She worked and worked to the point I had to take her off for a rest because she actually looked tired which trust me means she worked her butt off! (sorry if I shouldn’t write that).
I do expect Ellouise and Chloe W with all our girls to lift now that we are playing finals footy and I’m confident you all will. Remember our season starts now! You are a great bunch of girls and are showing some real team spirit and care for each other that good footy teams have! This will hold us in great shape as we start our finals campaign. We are fit, healthy and hungry for success and our goal is to win the grand final. I believe if we play our best footy we are in with a real chance to win the flag. Remember the word for our finals series is HUNT. We are going to hunt the ball and the opposition when they have the ball all over the ground as mids, forwards and backs.
Thanks again to all our match day volunteers, especially Paul who joined me this morning to watch Montmorency play Eltham, we learnt a lot and I made sure they knew we were there… I wanted them to know as coaches we take our footy seriously which comes from the respect of the effort the girls give week after week on the tarring track and on match day, they deserve that extra effort.
I will be at training for the next 3 weeks on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as Wednesdays. I will be there on the Tuesdays and Thursdays for 5:15 to 7:00.
Its up to you if you can come down and work on your fitness and skills but know that Rick, Paul and myself are really excited by the improvement of the entire squad and our committed to your improvement, get to training!
Go Cougars
Steve
Under 12 Girls
Hi Everyone, Just a quick note post our final game for 2017. I think it’s only fair to congratulate the team as a whole on their performance today. Everyone contributed at some stage. We do need to acknowledge Myeesha and Raghda as they played a full game with plenty of tackling, and kicking today. I am sure we are all so proud that the girls have continued to pick themselves up and continue playing throughout their first season together, which was no doubt a great learning curve for all of us involved. No denying Montmorency is a very fast and dynamic team and good luck to them in the finals. Thanks again to Abby who has helped the U12Gs throughout the season and has been a great asset to the team. Also it was great to have Mariana playing from U10, looking forward to having her in U12 next year. We hope all the girls enjoyed playing as much as we enjoyed coaching and managing. I hope the girls who are still eligible will play again next season for U12s and build on what they have learnt this year. We will win more games in 2018!! I think we can make the finals… Now there’s a challange! All the girls should be really proud of how they have developed individually and as a team. We even scored a win which many of the 1st year teams don’t get to achieve, actually every team we spoke to said their 1st year was winless. Our opponents today (Montmorency) have been play 5 years of girls footy! To the girls moving on from U12, Lily, Ray, Parker, Chloe P and Agnes, thanks for a great season, all the younger girls will benefit from playing with you this year. I hope we will see each other in the coming weeks, especially to cheer on the U14G team who are in the finals. Thanks again to the parent volunteers and especially to Sharyn, the best team manager. The Club presentation day is in 4 weeks, more to come via email. Well done everyone and thank you so much for the gift vouchers.
Chris & Nigel NJFC U12 Girls
PS – Sharon, pls fwd to Mariana’s family. Thanks
Under 9 Gold
6.59am and the alarm sounded. I bounced up and pulled the curtains back – no rain, a slight breeze and the sun peeking through the clouds. “Woo Hoo! The BOM* was wrong! ” rang out through the house. I consigned my hand written notes on wet weather football to the bin, loaded the family up and headed to the game.
This week’s co-captain Luke shared the pre-game address duties with the coaches. He advised that since this was his birthday and it was the final game, then as far as he was concerned it was the Grand Final. Very sound logic.
Co-captain Noah S took charge on the coin toss but I forgot to inform him of our ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ strategy. West Ivanhoe won the toss and elected to kick to the Separation St end with the breeze.
West Ivanhoe have big selection of under 9’s players on their list. It was decided pre game that both teams would add extra players so that everyone got maximum game time. This suited us as our only ‘out’ this week was Elliott.
This weeks game summary focuses on the midfield zone.
In the first quarter the midfield group of Milo, Jonah, Tyler, Tom F, Noah B and Luke set the tone for the day. They really got fair dinkum about the ruck hit outs. They won a lot of the ball and sent it forward repeatedly for some early goals.
In the second quarter Lamech, Sammy, Tom M, Daniel, Lucien and Harvey M carried on the good work from the first quarter. There was a lot of contested balls won. They made good use of the wind to provide the forwards with a lot of opportunities.
In the penultimate quarter of the season it was Charlie, Will, Sammy, Noah S, Harvey S and Oliver’s turn in the midfield. They strung together some nice kick and mark passages of play and ran with the ball to gain a lot of territory.
The crowd was building and so was the Cougars momentum going into the last quarter. The “Go Cougars!” call was so massive half a dozen players were left sprawling on the ground. Channeling that emotion, it was a rousing team effort to finish off the game. Some individual highlights of the last quarter from across the ground – Milo’s palming ruck work on the outer wing, quick thinking Charlie laying a bear hug tackle when everyone else thought the play had stopped, Sammy’s great tackle in the forward line resulting in a goal, Lamech plucking the ball from the oppositions hands in the goal square.
It was an extra big day for Noah S, Harvey S, Oliver, Tom F and Luke – they all played a second game in the under 10’s. It’s great for them to bank this experience before next year.
So after 14 short weeks the season has come to a close. I know I speak for all three coaches when I say it’s been a terrific season with a really great bunch of boys. Our team slotted into the competition really well – we had the ideal mix of challenging games, close games and some high scoring games. Towards the end of the season we surprised opposition teams with our improvement from the start of the year!
I’ve started marking the calendar, by my reckoning there is approximately 250 pre season training days until the start of the next season!
GO COUGARS!!!
Paul Daffey
Under 9’s Gold Assistant Coach
*Bureau Of Meteorology Website