Match Report – Under 8 Gold – Round 2, 2018
Club note – As our 2nd U8s team was confirmed on Saturday, our U17s Coach Rob Dunford was given less than 24 hours notice to coach this side! He rose to the challenge!
U8 Boys – Bayswater Gold vs Lysterfield Black.
Cold and tired as I stepped out of the car on Sunday morning I must admit I wondered to myself why, after a dozen years of coaching and having coached older age groups for the last 4 years, I had thought taking charge of an U8 side with the help of my son Braidyn would be fun!
2 hours later I had forgotten how cold it was and forgotten how tired I was! What I had remembered is why I thought it would be fun!
Out of 10 players, I knew 1. They didn’t care!
I had no real plan or tactics ready. They didn’t care! Nothing else mattered to them. They were going to play footy. Some of them for the first time ever. It was impossible not to have fun!
After Braidyn took the team for a warm up, slightly low on technique but high on enthusiasm, a somewhat random line up was arranged on the board and the boys took the field.
Despite a couple of early solo efforts from the opposition which resulted in goals the boys kept the enthusiasm up and started getting some shots on goal of their own. As the game went on and the boys started to gain some confidence and more importantly started to feel more comfortable with each other and their new coaches there were some good signs. With all the boys getting involved and trying their hardest we had a lot of the ball and managed to score regularly. There were also many great individual efforts during the game and in the second half some chains of 5 or 6 kick and mark possessions.
At this stage I am still trying to put names to faces and numbers so apologies for the lack of in game descriptions but Dustyn and Owen had great games along with Martin in his first ever game and Noah who got better and better the longer the game went.
All the boys should be really proud of themselves for playing great games and trying their absolute hardest all day.
Thank you to all those who helped on Sunday and to all the parents who offered support. Most of all thanks to those 10 under 8s for reminding me how much joy jnr footy can bring!
A pre-planned footy trip has me in Tasmania Next Week. The following Sunday morning I will be cold and tired ….. And I can’t wait !!!
Rob Dunford
U8-Gold coach