02 May Round 3 2024 Coaches Match Reports
Well settled into the season now as we approach the final Grading round. With this, we should see some longer term fixturing to help with that all important family planning.
What’s been super pleasing to date is the flexibility and support you have all shown to your teams and each other. It’s not easy, with many families juggling multiple kids in different teams, sometimes all playing at the same time many miles apart. Everyone’s willingness to help each other out and support is the true ‘Research Spirit’ and it’s great to be a part of – keep it up.
Girls Under 10s
Today was an exciting day for our under 10 girls we were playing our first official home game at Research Park.There was a huge amount of noise coming out the rooms as we prepared to take on Darebin women’s junior footy club.
Unfortunately Darebin only had 8 players so we offered two girls each quarter to go and play for them so we could at least get a game up and going this was met with mixed emotions to say the least.
So it would be 10 v 10 with us rotating one of our girls off the bench each quarter.
The girls got off to a flyer dominating the first half with Indie our captain of the day leading the way running and taking on the opposition!
There was some great team play with handball from Matilda, Lilian and Indie in the midfield getting the ball forward and our forwards Abby, Mattise, Mila and Willow all looking very dangerous. The ball was mostly in our forward line but we just couldn’t get it through the big sticks scoring a point for the quarter.
The second quarter was the same lots of great play from our girls Harriet, Mila and Willow in the midfield. Linking up with some great handball and kicks and our backline of Ava, Erene, Isla and Mia with a bit more work in this quarter holding strong and clearing all of Darebins attacks!
The second half was pretty even our midfield of FiFi, Erene and Mia were machines in close tackling chasing and winning the footy some great team play by everyone!
There was great sportsmanship all day from our girls going over and helping out Darebin each quarter with very little fuss and playing for them for a quarter even helping them score goals! Well done girls!
A special mention to Matilda for winning the opposition medal truly deserved, she was everywhere winning the footy at every chance she had. Well done Matilda!
Well done to all of our team who I feel are getting better and stronger and are improving each week!
Go Searchers
Boys Under 11s
This week saw us travel over to Greensborough and play our arch nemesis the “green slime”
This was the same team we played in a practise match only weeks ago and were on the end of a disappointing result.We knew we had to bring our A game to be competitive!
Since then we’ve welcomed a few handy players back and we were itching to have another go and lock horns with the big boys.
Greeted with a heavy breeze favouring the southern end of the ground we were dealt an early blow and sent kicking into the wind.
We resisted moving the magnets around and backed our boys in to do everything we’ve been working on at training. The siren blew and it was up to them now, not a lot more we could do from the side lines.
Hunter gave us first ball use all day with his really clever ruck work down to our starting midfield bulls in Cayden, Charlie and Archie.
Early signs were good. The boys were switched on and applied unbelievable pressure. We were first to the footy and led the way with multiple forward entries. It was just a matter of time before we broke through and we did!!
Cayden in full flight, shrugged off a few and slammed through our first.The boys were pumped.First blood into the wind was a great confidence booster.
For the next few minutes a great battle unfolded with our backline thwarting a barrage of entries.Led by Karlius, Miles and Ashton we repelled attack after attack.
The tackling and pressure was over 200- elite levels.It was awesome to watch as coaches. By sheer luck Greensborough finally managed to sneak one through the gate with help from the 30knkt breeze but that was to be their last.
Back in the center, the boys didn’t drop their heads, they rallied again and through some great tough work in the middle we pressed forward. Cameron, who was huge yesterday, quickly kicked long inside 50 and with a courageous mark by Jack we secured our second goal and again the boys lifted.
All quarter we had great team efforts and 1%ers that really set the game up from our back half. Alex, Nico, Ashton, Sebastian and Jeremy just to name a few were really strong with their body work and really opened up the game up for our smaller guys. Those backs were instrumental.
They locked down their much bigger opponents all day and did a fabulous job. We swung Gus into the forward line this week and he gave us a real spark. He presented at the footy all day and worked tirelessly. The goals will come.
Second quarter was our time to really rev the engine and Aston Belot stood up immediately.He took a classy mark, playing undersized and kicked truly. In fact I think he did the old “mate your shoelace is undone” and played on, running in for our 3rd goal and a dream start kicking with the wind.
Our wings in Josh and Cameron and half forwards in Gus, Huddo and Hayden were prolific this quarter sending in multiple entries. Aston was again in the thick of it, slamming one into the post and marking everything.
We peppered the goals all quarter and they had no answer to the onslaught.If it wasn’t for Inaccuracies we could have been a lot further in front.
This quarter particularly Charlie and Archie really stepped up at the coal face with their attack on the footy and they just get better every week.We added 2 more for the quarter keeping the home team scoreless. Cayden and Jack with 1 each.
The energy was great in the half time huddle and we reminded the boys about not resting on our laurels and that the game could still be lost. We knew Greensborough would come out firing and we wanted to match their intensity and be sure to not let our hard work fall away.
Kicking against an even stronger breeze our backline (who had not seen the footy for a whole quarter) really set the tone.
Captain courageous Karlius and his fellow bash-brothers crew in Miles, Max, Jeremy and Alex hunted in packs. Jeremy showing his versatility playing a different role perfectly for us.
It was a wall of fire. Again the pressure was relentless. Hunter and miles tackled like men possessed and gave us first use of the footy at every opportunity.
We knew they would come out swinging.
Cameron, Charlie and Archie were everywhere. Feeding Josh on the wing with his speed and footy smarts, it was a pleasure to watch.
Cayden added another classy goal for the quarter and we held Greensborough completely scoreless even with the 5 goal breeze.
Heading into the final quarter with the wind it was time to land the killer blow. We cleared out the 50m arch and let Cayden play out of the square. We wanted to change the way we went about an inaccurate 2nd quarter. The delivery from our on ballers was first class.
Max, Charlie, Cameron and Hunter really showed their craft and the forward entries were top shelf. This allowed our forwards to finish off the good work in a very free flowing affair. We piled on 5 goals to 0 and put the game to bed. Cayden was superb all day with 7 goals and Jack 3 goals played second fiddle to a master class.
Josh and Cameron didn’t stop gut running all day and provided real assistance in linking up passages of play from back to forward.
It was a very across-the-board team result and the scoreboard really reflected that.
Reward for effort.
Girls Under 14s
A good day at the office, the girls knew going into this round it would be a tough fight, being neck and neck for 3 quarters of football, the girls were asked to dig deep and find a way to overcome a tough and physical Mernda side by 18 points.
The courage, determination and skill saw our U14 girls prevail in an excellent display of football to bring home a great win.
Well done Searchers, a great courageous effort this week and we are all very proud of you.
Boys Under 14s
We travelled to Epping for the first time this week. A surprisingly big oval with a swirly northerly blowing over the ground.
My thoughts going into the match was it would be a close game.
We have been hit hard with sickness and injury over the last few weeks, which meant our bench was limited to three. Booga from the U13’S made up one of those spots and he was also a bit under the weather. Thanks Booga.
We started well against the wind and kicked three for the quarter. Epping pushed us hard in defence and they missed a couple of easy goals. At quarter time I could tell the boys where working hard with red faces and lots of water being drunk.
Our tackling was a feature this week and something we have been working on. Brodie was a stand out all day with his tackling and willingness to get to each contest.
Epping are quiet a big team compared to us and they had a full bench to rotate around. After half time I could tell we where struggling with the lack of bench and a couple of boys where not feeling well at all. Epping took the lead in the third and we started to struggle into the wind not scoring for the quarter.
The final quarter was an absolute arm wrestle. I couldn’t be prouder of our effort in the last, they worked their butts off and held Epping scoreless to our one goal. Bailey our jet was taken off with a nasty concussion as he tried to break through three tacklers in the desperate attack on the ball to try and score. Unfortunately we fell five points short.
Bailey was BOG for the third straight week as he continues to take his game to the next level. Brodie was fierce all day and gets better every week. Lachlan playing his third game for us was thrown into the ruck and competed hard all day and never gave up. Henry our captain for the day had his best game for the year. Great example of leadership.
Keep working hard and stay positive. Good results will follow.
Boys Under 15s
Mernda 11.19.85 Defeated RJFC 7.6.48
First loss for the season for the 15s as we faced a team we felt were at a pretty similar level and standard to us. All things being equal, they just played the conditions and the ground the better on the day and we weren’t that far away.
We just struggled with our D50 exits a bit and allowed them to rebound back inside too many times which ultimately gave them far more scoring opportunities than us. Our backs stood tall and battled away down there, but without their skipper this week it was just a little too much to ask of them.
Our offensive game continues to improve and when we had the wind, we made the most of our forward entries by getting the footy into our targeted hot spot which resulted in some strong conversions. Our midfield also had some strong wins against some of their better players which confirms that we are not far away from these better Div 2 Teams.
Azzie was fantastic for us all day through the midfield while Zac C battled away in all positions like he does every week for us. Mitch was the pick of the big men around the ground as well as giving the likes of Linc and Haydos first look at the stoppages. Coop continues to develop his forward IQ and is really becoming a weapon inside 50 for us – He goes to the right spots and it was great for him to get himself onto the end of a goal on Sunday. We also saw some quality footy from Adzy and Rowlesy in the back half – under a heaps of pressure, they battled away all day like the warriors they are.
Not our day, but still heaps to like as we continue to develop this very new looking group. Big Congrats to Zac Cochrane who was awarded the spirit of ANZAC’s medal by Mernda FC.
Under 16 Girls
Today I was looking forward to seeing how we responded after such a heavy loss the week before! There was lots of enthusiasm and excitement in the rooms as it was Dakota Edmonds 50th game!
We travelled out to Mernda to take them on for the second time this year as we played them in a preseason practice match 4 weeks ago going down by 3 goals on the day so a good contest was on the cards!
We lost the toss and were kicking into a 2-3 goal wind so it was important to limit their scoring and get off to a good start. We started brilliantly it was like watching a different team to the previous week. Our tackling, pressure around the footy and the want to tackle was exceptional it was clear to see that we had come to play today! We opened the scoring with the first goal and we never looked back kicking 4 goals to zero in the first quarter against the wind and then went on to dominate the whole game running out 68-1 winners.
The tackling was awesome all day giving Mernda nothing, our running and transition from defence to attack was exceptional as mentioned by the opposition coach after the game and our mind set which I feel is the most important one of the day was positive and the talk on ground was like nothing we had heard before.
Hopefully all of you girls when we bring all of those things can see how good we can be all of the coaches can see it and believe in you and so should all of you!
Special Mention to Sienna for winning the Anzac Day medal and an extra extra special mention to Dakota on playing her 50th game today. Dakota came to Research after playing her first season as a greensearcher in 2019. She won 2nd best and fairest in 2021 playing centre half back and has silky smooth skills runs all day and mainly plays on the wing. She is a great kick and strong mark! Dakota is also an exceptional cricketer for Greensborough juniors and Melbourne Uni for seniors! We are very lucky to have Dakota and her family at Research!
Well done Dakota 50 awesome games!
Well done team on bouncing back this week!!!
Goals: Best Players:
Freyja 2. THE WHOLE TEAM.
Ayva H 2
Addy 1
Sienna 1
Amy T 1
Amy C 1
Dakota 1
Chloe 1
Boys Under 17.5
Research 4.5.29 def by Whittlesea 12.17.89
Goals: Mathias Twomey, River Mason, Tom Dozzi, Charlie Klaster
Best Players: Jesse Todd, Nathan Bradshaw, Tom Dozzi, Josh Northey, Riley Kerr, Hamish Collins, Charlie Klaster,
After two solid performances in our start in Division 1, we felt we had a good opportunity coming into the game against Whittesea last week.
Once again, we started the game promisingly as we have each week, kicking the first goal from an excellent pass from Angus Robinson lowering his eyes to find Charlie Klaster in front of goal. Whittlesea had the better of the quarter after that and it was noticeable that they were motivated for a result. Their willingness to hunt and tackle in numbers and their overall workrate with their running was noticeable and our team were just off the pace.
We responded with a better second quarter which we won which was encouraging. We are trying to focus on being more composed in possession and to use switches to maintain possession and open up the ground and we saw encouraging signs. We were just 15 points down at half time but an aggressive tackle late in the quarter which saw one of our teammates knocked out seemed to take the wind out of the team when we returned after half time. Third quarters have become a bit of an issue for us and we need to think about what opposition teams are doing at half time to change the game or why we are getting jumped the way we are as for the most part we are competing well in the rest of the game.
With the result of the game out of reach and with it being grading, we tried some different things in the final quarter to see what we could learn. Overall, a bit of a disappointing result but we keep learning and as I write this, I have come home after training with an excellent turn out which is a feature of the spirit in our team and we begin to prepare for another great opportunity this week. It’s a great group to be around and the willingness to embrace the challenge, to love their footy and teammates and to keep improving is a great characteristic of our team.
Congratulations to Riley Kerr who played his 100th game on Sunday. Riley is a fantastic kid who loves his team-mates and club. Riley has been captain for the past four years, the last two as co-captain including last year in our premiership team. He is extremely fit with a great workrate. He rarely misses training from the start of pre-season and throughout the year. He has great athleticism and has learned to play to his strengths, is a determined defender often taking the best forward, is strong in the air and contested footy and likes to sneak down and kick a goal when we let him off the leash and give him a license. He brings great energy and optimism to the team, is highly respected and we are proud of his achievement of 100 games. Well done Riley.
Good luck to all Research teams this weekend.
Paul and the Coaches