It was a very wet Lowe Oval that greeted the Navy 16s for their round 5 clash with the Ipswich Cats. With so much rain in the previous couple of days it was a miracle that there was any game at all and to be honest I expected the game to be cancelled. I’m glad it wasn’t because it was a very important game for us. Ipswich were a bit unknown to me as we hadn’t played them in grading or even seen them in the cluster games. One thing was for sure their results indicated that they were a very competitive group, having beaten Ferny Grove comfortably and running the highly fancied Everton to 17 points. They had a couple of Lions Academy boys and also a couple of initial Taipans squad members. Yep they would be handy and we needed to turn up ready to play.
It was a really sodden ground with really no part of it with any real dry patches. What looked dry from the clubrooms side of the ground was in reality really soft and squishy underfoot and there were large puddles of water all over the ground. It was wet weather footy again, no frills, just head over it, in first, tackle smart and move the footy forward. No need to be too cute just put it into our scoring areas as quickly as we could. We did have a bit of an advantage having played a wet weather game last Friday against Jindalee, and played it pretty well for 3 and half quarters so we did have some experience there.
There was no real wind advantage and we kicked to the pool end in the first quarter. It was obvious that Ipswich came to play and both sides attacked the contests hard. We got on the board first through a mark and goal to Dan and then worked really hard for the rest of the quarter to hang on to that early advantage. We only kicked 2 goals for the quarter but the Cats hadn’t troubled the scoreboard and I was pretty pleased at the first break. Especially pleased again with our defence as they made it extremely hard work for the Ipswich boys to get into any real scoring positions. Great attack on the footy and clear heads when in possession continually put the footy to our advantage. Our forwards were creating some opportunities and our midfielders were working in hard and getting it out for us.
Sometimes it can be dangerous to give 16s a rap because they can rest on that during the next quarter but not today. It was a very good wet weather 2nd quarter of footy where we really controlled it and made every ball on the ground a contest. We never let them get into any real space and we pressured them whenever they took possession. They had some big boppers here and there but generally I think we were probably a bit bigger and stronger around the ground and that was starting to tell as we were winning most of the contests and this was allowing us to push the ball forward more often than them. The Cats did manage to kick a goal for the quarter but we got 3 to go in at half time in a good position, up by 27 points.
The message at half time was pretty simple, in tough conditions like this a 5 or 6 goal lead would be almost impossible to reel in in the last quarter so we had to go out and win the quarter. Didn’t really matter by how much but just continue to put them under scoreboard pressure, so win the quarter and we would win the game. We kicked 3 in the first 5 minutes and that was that. The Ipswich boys were on the back foot and their heads started to drop a bit and it really opened the door for us. All of a sudden we started playing footy like it was a dry day, handballs were starting to be seen and we started to run the heavy ball methodically around the ground. We kicked 7 for the quarter and it really was game over. It was a terrific quarter of footy and there probably wasn’t much the opposition could have done. Our midfield was right on top and our big targets Benny O’Sullivan and Dan Willaton were creating havoc, if they weren’t marking it they were feeding it out and giving our small forwards plenty of opportunities.
The scoreboard allowed us to rest some boys for the final quarter and as I commented the starting bench for that last quarter (Dan, Benny O, Callum and Aidan) was as good as you would see. It gave some boys a great opportunity to play on the ball and up the ground and that experience will be invaluable to them going forward. To Ipswich’s credit they really fought the game out and whilst they didn’t add to their goal tally they restricted us to just one and made us work really hard for the final 20 minutes.
All in all it was a fantastic 4 quarter effort and one that we should all be really pleased with, well done. 60 tackles for the game and that smashes the previous best effort of 52 by the 2010 16s against Morningside. Wet conditions help but you still have to make them so congrats boys, great stuff.
Ferny Grove now and I just hope that not one of us even gives our grading game against them a thought. We had a big win that day but who knows what they were doing at that time, since then they have just knocked over 2 teams I rate highly in Everton and Kenmore. They will be desperate, as all teams will, to be the first to knock us off. We need to be ready for the challenge and take it head on. I am really looking forward to it as should most of you boys who suffered at their hands last year.
Final scores Springwood 13-10-88 defeated Ipswich 1-5-11
Goalscorers: Dan Willaton 3, Ben O’Sullivan 3, Jordan Bacic 2, Callum Eddy 2, Ben Menz 1, Jared Denny 1, Aidan Dipietro 1
Best players: Our defence (led most notably by Rhys Murdoch), Ben O’Sullivan, Aidan Dipietro, Dan Willaton, Jordan Bacic and Callum Eddy (11 tackles, a new Under 16s record). Everyone else played their role and I could have named everyone here. That’s what makes a good team boys, contributors everywhere.
Unfortunately Springwood Gold on Friday night just didn’t have the players to make a contest for Aspley so we had to forfeit. 15 players is just not enough and this was due to a combination of injury, illness, unavailability and a fixture clash with the Under 14s. Hopefully we can get this sorted out and hopefully we don’t have to pull the pin again on Friday night against Zillmere up there. Unfortunately the 14s are drawn again on the same night so numbers are going to be thin. Please boys do whatever you can to make yourself available so we can send a team up there, it really is not a great look for our club to forfeit games. As coaches, managers and club administrators we do all we can to make sure you guys can play, you all have to play your part and put your hand up.
Cheers
Steve
Last Modified on 04/06/2012 15:09