Match Report - u11 Blacks vs East Sandringham 2

Written by Don Hollick | 23 May 2011

Match Report

The city boys ventured away down the highway for an early start against East Sandringham, a club that has produced more than one superstar in Chris Judd, Jobe Watson and Shane Warne. In the pre match address Coach Mick suggested we shouldn’t be  intimidated against this recently promoted team and he asked that we tackle and hit the packs hard when it is our turn to get the ball. In one of his finest addresses- Coach Sayers kept the message simple with no mention of structures, hard ball gets or even mobile phone confiscations.

Ist quarter:

Kicking against a five goal wind after losing the toss, our opponents quickly took advantage of their height advantage and scored freely while we sorted out our defense. Hugo at full back was kicking out well and Joel made sure he was on the end of some of these kick outs. It was good to see Captain Joel leading by example and not afraid to use his left foot when required. With Connor, Mac and Declan defending desperately, eventually City settled and with the help of Oliver, Bobby and Harry contesting well, Oscar winning the hit outs in the ruck and 2 marks from Elliot we went in to the break down by 33 points. (4 tackles)

East Sandy 5.3.33 City – nil

2^nd quarter:

After the slow start in the first quarter the boys started to construct some team oriented plays with Zach tacking beautifully and Connor and Dylan getting a couple of kicks. Nicholas got some touches and Cameron presented well. Sandy got a couple of goals but our run started with Samuel, Curtis and Oliver and  all of a sudden the forward line was open and we had a great chance as Dylan snagged the air conveyance at half forward, kicked across his body towards the running Kye who played on had a bounce and duly slotted it through for a great goal. Cody and Max were doing some great work and Joel, Zach and Oscar were starting to win the ball from stoppages. Bobby got it out to  Zach who then went for a run and bounce and Connor looked all class as he turned defense into attack a number of times. Mac also showed his composure with some sensible defensive play by kicking long with the wind.  The one percenters were happening with some shepherds and the tackle count was doubled  for the quarter with (8 completed tackles). We went in for the oranges at:

East Sandy 8.3 -51 to city 1.1-7

3^rd quarter;

Fired up after the half time address from Coach Mick the StKilda City Under 11 Blacks  started to put his instructions into action with low kicks against the wind to advantage and to try and create stoppages wherever possible. The Sandy team had a number of tall lads and we kept it on the ground through the good work of Max, Harry, Marco and Connor. The wind was howling but the StKilda City defense stood firm. Elliot got a couple of kicks from half back and although not getting the ball past half forward at all during the quarter we managed to restrict the scoring to 2.6 for the quarter and Hugo certainly mastered the kick out after behinds. Bobby, Joel and Mac (3 marks for the quarter) were good targets.  Oscar continued to push and attack the contest like his mighty Tigers the night before.  Cameron was gaining in confidence and Connor won a free after nearly getting decapitated and the lads went in to ¾ time with heads held high, knowing they could compete with anyone. (8 tackles)

East Sandy  

4^th Quarter

Now that we had the blustery wind, Hugo went to full forward and took a couple of marks and was just out of range of goal a couple of times as we started to keep the ball on our forward line for long periods. Zac made 3 great tackles,  Elliot and Curtis caught some ball and the Saints crowd went wild encouraging the efforts. Cody took a strong mark and went back but the wind affected the kick for goal and he scored a minor. Max won the ball did a short pass to the always running Joel and he let fly with a long range bomb for our second goal. We continued to try and Samuel, Oliver, Max all contributed. Big Oscar took a couple of towering marks and showed vision with his kicking. Marco led well and found himself in space and Max and Harry locked it in a number of times. Declan went hard at the contest, Curtis managed to create stoppages and Connor was a cool presence. We were missing the injured Adam Oulton but it was good to see him in the stands supporting the team. A couple of the City boys took some big hits (Bobby, Marco, Joel, Oscar) during the day and it was pleasing to see players get back up shake off the injury and keep running. The young umpire did a great job although some of the coaches felt it was difficult at times to be rewarded after good tackles.

The siren eventually sounded and although we still suffered a loss after starting slowly,  the coaches all rightly suggested that  to keep this tall Sandy team scoreless in the last quarter was fine effort. (10 tackles)

Oscar won the Best Player award for his tireless efforts, Max won the coaches award and Brick awards went to Elliot and Mac.