Match Reports Round 2

U8 Mixed

The under 8's game started with a terrific gesture from SMDFC by organising the Last Trumpet to be played whilst the kids stood arm in arm with a guard of honour to pay respects towards Anzac Day.

We had Olle, Bobby, Leo & Luca in for thier first game for the season. Stella and Khan gave a great opening speech with the main focus on giving it our best, playing as a team and having fun.

It was a terrific game and our skills and movement of the footy improved each quarter. What was most pleasing was our consistency throughout the day with our attack on the footy, our pressure and the ability to work together as a team. Having 20 players today we had to rotate as best as we could through the bench and not one player complained when they had their turn.

Stella, Hunter, Bobby and Jake were fierce around the contest. Henry showed a great example of pressure by a run for 30 metres into a 3 in one contest to stop the opposition from moving the ball forward.

Hugo H & Lachie provided some great run through the midfield and Hugo K took some great marks in the forward line.

Special mention to Jacob who played his positions well, got a kick behind the ball when needed and created space in the forward line and kicked 2 goals.

The team celebrated the day with a couple of late goals and lots of happy faces!

Thanks again to the parents and supporters, we are creating a terrific tribe to support our team!

Jason

U9 Mixed

Another fantastic game to start our Colt’s first-ever real season of
footy!!!!

This week the Mighty Under 9’s took on a fierce St Kilda squad on our home
ground.

Our boys were well prepared with the additional training session where they
focused on field positioning and intensity in defence.

Their hard work at training paid of with consistent defence in the midfield
and backs, well placed kicks and great communication on the field.

Kicks for goals were controlled and any success between the sticks was as a
direct result of teamwork and sticking to the game plan.

The whole team really dug deep in the last quarter to ensure we kept up the
defence and keep the ball in the hands of our forwards.

A wonderful sight to see our young colts with massive smiles at the end of
the game and a fantastic display of good sportsmanship.

This season is looking bright!

Trent

U10 Mixed

Port Colts v South Melbourne Districts U10’s Mixed Green - Lindsay Hassett Oval, Oval 11

South Melbourne Districts hosted a brief Anzac Day commemorative service before the game. Port and South Melbourne Districts U10’s stood in one row arms over shoulders, facing the Port and SMD U8’s opposite. The Ode of Remembrance was read followed by a well played Last Post on trumpet. All players and families fell silent in remembrance, feeling the warmth of a beautiful sunny and still Autumn morning. The players showed an especially high level of maturity and respect to commemorate this special day.

1st quarter

Colts started warmed up and raring to go, with a good clearance and handball from Jas (2) to Dom R (13), pushing the ball straight into our forward line. Jacob (19) was unselfish and delivered to Oscar (9) who was well positioned and opened our account with a tidy goal.

In the next run of play, Ben (23) gathered a dangerous loose ball in defence under pressure and started a chain of play that delivered the ball again back to our forward line via Jackson (57) to Ethan (7). The linking of play together ensured we kept possession, with coaches and teammates recognising good runs of play end to end.

William (39) kicked well into the forward line and Dom R (13) applied relentless pressure on the opposition, ducking and weaving with a nice handball to Jas (2).

Both teams were mobbing around the ball with a lot of early energy keeping the play tight.

Dom R (13) made a great kick forward to Oscar (9) who marked well. William (39) took a nice mark and in separate play moments later snapped around his body for our second goal.

Jackson (57) made another good clearance from midfield and Harper (3) capped off the quarter with our third goal. Defence stayed strong, keeping SMD scoreless.

2nd quarter

The second quarter was without doubt, the best quarter by U10s in any game, in any year so far. It was all down to one word: unselfish. On multiple occasions, players who could score on their own, shared the ball and shared the reward. It was not a token gesture once or twice, it was like a switch went on and we stopped thinking “how do I score” to “who else can score this for us”. As a spectator it was brilliant to see the young leadership and maturity on display. Overall, this style of play led to a very high scoring quarter:

Dom R (13) passed unselfishly to Jacob (19) who kicked a goal. Lenny (14) passed unselfishly to Jacob (19) who kicked a goal. Dom R (13) tried to deliver to Jacob (19) again but it was too tough to mark and he kicked and hit the post for a point.

William (39) cleared well to Dion (43) and another linked play from Harrison (12) to Dom R (13) to Jacob (19) gave us another chance. Jacob (19) took his time, backed up, lined up and slotted another very confident goal. Harrison (12) kicked a great long range goal.

Tommy Kogler (17) had a chance and very nearly goaled but got a point. Dom R (13) delivered again to Jacob (19) who snapped a great round the body goal. Jacob (19) later took a mark close to goal and unselfishly gave a close handball to Tommy Kogler (17) who kicked the goal for us. The spoils were shared and the coach and team were all proud of a remarkable quarter.

3rd quarter

The quarter started with a big kick forward from the midfield by Thomas Kuklych (29) and he would feature for us several times this quarter, with some fearless hungry tackling winning us possession.

Dion (43) delivered a good ball to Harrison (12) who goaled and again the coach and team recognised the linking play that got the result. William (39) had a good tap out and Thomas Kuklych (29) put on a great tackle and won a free kick. Moments later, he again put on another strong tackle, winning another free. Harper (3) kicked a goal after winning a mark from the SMD kick out from defence. At one point there was so little action in the Port Colts defensive zone a SMD forward decided to just sit down and wait it out!

Jacob (19) had a great clearance from midfield, but the run of play led the ball into the SMD forward line. Colts raced down the ball and it crossed the goal line for a point to SMD, their only point for the entire game!

Oscar (9) put on a fearless smother and Dom R (13) ran across goal in defence to play in the wings which were wide on this ground allowing options for play. Cooper (1) took a good snap over the opposition to goal for us. Harper (3) linked to Ben (23) who linked to Georgio (10).

4th quarter

The opposition came out much stronger this quarter and held more possession with stronger marking. Lennox (14) put on a great tackle. Tommy Kogler (17) got possession from the clearance and only fractionally ran too far following one bounce. He kicked hard and if the play was allowed, it would have been a star goal as he cleared the defence and it bounced through the goal after the whistle - almost!

Dom S (18) put on good tackling and pressure, Oscar (9) linked to Jacob (19) who linked to Zac (8). Thomas Kuklych (29) scrapped for the ball well from the ground and Eddie (22) was great in the forward area. Harper (3) kicked another great goal and Zac (8) passed to Harper (3) unselfishly in the forward area. An injured player for SMD was down for a while and both teams showed concern and clapped when he recovered and was able to play on.

Another great link: Tommy Kogler (17) to Jacob (19) to Zac (8) saw him nearly score. Thomas Kuklych (29) showed another unselfish play to deliver back to Zac (8) who was able to gain a well deserved goal for his efforts this quarter.

Goal kickers: 5 Jacob, 3 Harper, 2 Harrison, 2 Tommy Kogler, Oscar, William, Cooper, Dom R, Zac

Wrap Up:

Colts finished the game with 16 goals across 9 players - a testament to unselfish teamwork. South Melbourne Districts never gave up throughout and the umpiring was consistent and ensured a flowing game. Thanks to Dan for great coaching words of wisdom and inspiring the team to continue the teamwork and recognising linked play. Dom R (13) was awarded a ‘Superstar Award’ by the South Melbourne District team for his efforts in the match. Dom enabled many goals and passages of play today and the award was well deserved.

Parents and families were rewarded with a memorable match, with maturity, selflessness and teamwork all on display. These are traits that make us proud to be part of the club and be role models for our team mates and opposition. Thanks to Jose for the great photos in the Teams app - lots to see if you haven’t already seen them in the chat. Thanks all and see you at training on Wednesday!

U11 Mixed

Certainly a tough day at the office today against our Round 2 opponents, and a very good side in South Melbourne. Conditions were near perfect for footy, with no wind, a little bit of dew on the grass and a beautiful-looking Murphy's deck to host our first home game of the season.

South Melbourne got off to a very good start and kicked a few early goals to open up the first quarter. As a team, we didn't play man-on-man defensively and allowed Souths too many chances. They had their kicking boots on and were kicking straight.

We started to win some of the footy through the middle and after a stirring pre-game speech from our Captain Liam, we could find some passages of good footy. Taj stood out in the ruck, and with support in the midfield from Liam and Connor who both ran all day we managed a few entries into our forward line. Souths were well drilled defensively and managed to repel each of our attacks. Ashton ran and hard and found plenty of the footy, while Jacques as our forward tall option did well using space to his advantage.

After a shuffle of ground positions, the second quarter started much the same way as the first, we just let Souths have too much space. Luke and Angus formed a really tight combination a number of times and covered most of the ground themselves to help out in defense and attack. Ashton continued his run and attack on the footy, and after a pleasing move down the wing, he got himself first to the footy and under a pack where his forearm and wrist took the full brunt of a wayward boot. He's a brave lad and even after wanting to play on, needed to come off for the game and get his arm seen to. We all certainly wish Ashton a speedy recovery.

After a long discussion as a team at half time, we talked about keeping much tighter on our opposition. This seemed to work and the second half of footy was a much more even game. Archie didn't leave his man for the rest of the game and impacted the ball when we needed him to, and there were tough tackles from Hamish, Callen, Trace and Henry that were making it very difficult for Souths. We had some passages of play down the wings as we'd practised, end up in a few great chains of possession. Liam, Daniel, Luke, Jack and Jacob getting involved in these and pushing us forward. We then had a great moment with Tajgetting the ball out of the ruck and getting it forward for Luca to find the footy and snap a great goal. This was a highlight of a very good quarter.

We finished the game strongly with some excellent marks from Chris, Taj, Henry and George, and did not let Souths off the leash with Ethan B, Archie, Angus and Liam playing particularly well in the last quarter, and with Connor and Daniel sprinting up and down the wings we were always a dangerous chance at more scoring opportunities.

I was really pleased to see us run the game out in the way we did. Definitely a tough game today, but we will learn from it and be better for it.

Lots to work on at training this week.

Go Colts!

Wazza

U12 Mixed

Rnd 2- U12 Mixed Port Colts v Hampton Rovers

Anzac Day, Sunday 25th April at Woodruff Oval

What a perfect sunny autumn day for football. Plucky skipper Harry Lord lost the toss and the Colts were kicking to the Williamstown Road end.

It was the brightest of starts for the Colts. Ruckman Frost’s hitout was gathered by Nelson-Holliday, booted long to the running half-forward O’Halloran-Scott who passed to Turner in space. The Kobra pounced and goalled from about 20m out. It was smiles all around; a goal in the first 20 seconds without a Rover hand touching the ball.

Initial optimism was soon muted. Hampton quickly found their stride and poured on the next few goals. Colts players, who had worked diligently on tackling at training, started to display this skill in an effort to retard some bigger bodies. Karamoskos and Johnson were rewarded by their great tackling technique, the latter receiving a free for a perfect tackle at half forward. However Port’s only other score for the quarter, a long range point, had been countered by the visitor’s 6 goals 5 behinds.

The second quarter became a dogfight with Port digging in grimly trying to halt Hampton’s relentless forward parries. Jones led his band of backmen: Dastan-Nicholson, Anderson and Williams. Hampton bested Port for the quarter but Port’s backline had pressured them to only 2 goals 6 behinds rather than the inverse.

Skipper Lord implored his group to lift at the main break. However the all-important third quarter amply displayed the difference in class between the two sides. Hampton ran riot out of the centre and their burgeoning forwards found freedom to lead into the vacant hotspot. Mids Kuklych and Bacon ran hard and Woodhouse willed himself to near exhaustion, but the Hampton juggernaut ground onwards.

The last quarter showed a Port team beaten but unbowed. Haynes was moved onto the dominant Hampton full-forward Aujard and more than held his own. Super-sub Kogler, freed up in the ruck, won the majority of centre hit outs and followed up in a Natanui-like fashion. Then another running Turner goal lifted the whole side.

After the game teams lined up for a moving Anzac Day commemoration with local councillors Messrs Pearl and Martin present.

Scoreboard-wise the first two games have been hard going. In these grading rounds the team has been out-classsed by clubs that have multiple teams and are able to stack their “A” teams with very good players. Like the Anzacs of yore who landed on the wrong beach we seemed to have landed in the wrong division. This will be rectified come the season proper and the football department is buoyed by future possibilities. The group is resilient and learning much with every outing. Some of the linking up play has been superb and will only get better.

Thanks to all volunteers and our subs this week: Luke Oliver, Luca Tandurella and Claudia Kogler.

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