U18 Girls Rd5 Match Report…
Round 5 – Wantirna South vs Upper Bayswater.
We were hit with some bad news during the week, with Chloe’s doctors advising her that she can’t play this season after her reviewing her x-ray results. The coaching group are disappointed, because this robs us of another strong inside midfielder with a beautiful kick. Scarlett was out this week with a calf injury. We hope treatment goes well, as she has been a key part of the backline early in the season.
After welcoming back Chelsea last round, this round it was Bridie who played her first game for a while. We now have a really well-balanced, versatile team, with our midfielders able to rotate forward and back, and most of our other players able to play at either end of the ground as well. Our rotations worked well this week, with most players coming off twice during the game for around 8 or 9 minutes rest. The coaching staff really loved that the players on the bench were all keen to get straight back on.
The nature of our game means a lot of attention goes on the midfield, and our team is no exception. Jocelyn, Paige, Rhian, Rana and Jaslyn have all made strong starts to the season, and we’ve already come to expect consistently good performances from them. Sienna and Em P in the ruck as well, with both girls spending time in the backline helping us cover the loss of Scarlett, and allowing Tahlia to continue her good work monstering her opponents in the forward line. Libby changed roles this week, slotting beautifully into the backline, defending well and giving us lots of drive.
Improvement for our team has also come from other players around the ground. Here are just some examples:
- Viv with composure and deceptive closing speed in the backline.
- Em CT’s hard work at training translating to being able to impact more contests on game day.
- Charli competing hard and hitting the scoreboard.
- Darcy’s aggressiveness at the footy.
- Jess’ general improvement every week in her first season.
Our focus for the game was to stop our opponents running free when they had the ball, and to work hard off the ball when our teammates had it, and we did both of those things really well. At no stage was one of our players walking across the ground by themselves when they should have had an opponent, and we saw plenty of shepherds and bumps. Every player on our team contributed something to the result.
In a consistent four quarter effort, we ran out victors 11.8-74 to Wantirna South’s 2.5-17