17 Apr Round One 2024 Match Reports
Round 1 done and dusted and while many mixed results I think everyone got a real good understanding of where their teams are at. This first four-week phase is designed exactly for that, so we expect some mixed results as grading sorts itself out – Our teams will ultimately land in the right spot. So many fantastic stories came out of the weekend, and it makes me so proud to be part of this great club. Many teams had kids playing their first games of Footy ever and the excitement levels fed back was so brilliant to hear.
Luke Groves, Head of Football Operations
Some Footy Highlights
- 30+ players played their First Game of Footy for Research
- Our club fielded our first ever u10 Girls Team – Meaning we now offer Footy across all age groups for Girls to play Junior Footy.
- The u17.5 Boys unfurling their Premiership Flag, then competing really well in their first Div 1 hit-out. These dudes set the standard for the way they go about all aspects of their Footy and are great role models for the younger teams.
- Rolly’s u11 Boys challenging a strong Eltham Team in their first ever “Real” game of Footy.
- Milestones for Anayah (u18 girls – 100th Game) Coop (u15 boys – 50th Game) and Grace (u14 girls – 50th Game)
Girls Under 10
Round 1 v Wallan (away) No Score Recorded
Round 1 saw our inaugural under 10 girls make the journey out to ‘Windy Wallan’ for their first ever game for what was surprisingly a very pleasant and still day…
The focus for the girls were “The 3 F’s- Find space, Fun, and Effort” (i know it doesn’t start with an ‘F’, but the girls got it). The girls took these instructions very literally, and by the time the final siren rang out, it was clear they had all committed 110% and still had big smiles on their faces!
Our girls came out strong in the first 2 quarters, with a couple of quick goals and a smattering of behinds, with our strong defence keeping Wallan scoreless, but Wallan had our measure in the 3rd & 4th as they clawed their way back and got lucky with a couple of goals of their own due to open goal squares.
In the end, a very evenly matched game, with girls football the big winner!
So many highlights for these girls:
- the teamwork and constant encouragement amongst themselves;
- actively taking on direction and instructions from the coaches
- hunger for the ball and all eagerness to get involved
- their respect for the spirit of the game, unphased by being asked to ‘match-up’ and and play a quarter for an under-strength opposition
Willow was the recipient of the Opposition medal for her spirit when it was her turn to play for the opposition (despite coaches instructions not to give 100%) and constantly finding herself in the mix of things. And while all girls gave everything they had and would have been worthy recipients of the RJFC encouragement medal for the round, Erene’s constant 2nd efforts at the ball, and ability to brush off mistakes and try again and again saw her the proud recipient this week.
Big things are happening with these girls… From humble beginnings just 8 weeks ago where most had barely touched a football to now, the future is looking bright at RJFC!
Andy Bata, interim Coach
Boys Under 11s
SCORES – ELTHAM 7-4-46 RESEARCH 3-4-22
GOALS – Josh 1, Cayden 1, Charlie 1
Firstly, I am sorry to disappoint those who thought Frankie from Housos was our guest coach for the day. That was me. I apologise. Steps are in place. It will not happen again.
The match was played in perfect conditions and a lot of good footy was shown by both teams. On the surface, a 4-goal defeat seemed disappointing. However, on reflection, I have no doubt whatsoever the result would comfortably be reversed if a few uncontrollable occurrences didn’t take place. I won’t elaborate; however, I will just say that our boys were very brave and disciplined by accepting what was happening on field and should never have to deal with such a disadvantage again. In 40 odd years of footy, I have never seen anything like it.
Anyway, I know this sounds cliché but seriously, there are so many positive that keep popping into my head since the final siren yesterday.
Archie was magnificent in his first game playing as a rover. A tackling dynamo and bull at the footy. Jack kept our forward line together with real strength and skill. He did all the hard work – goals will come but so impressive and a clever footballer. Max’s hard work is clearly showing. He was a fantastic option for us as a half-back and ruck, which now gives us more flexibility moving ahead. Charlie attacked the footy all day, as always, kicked long, and showed great leadership. Great game Charlie. Hunter dominated in the air and was extremely mobile around the ground, helping “build the wall” with Archie and Charlie. He’ll be hard for any opposition tall to compete against as the season rolls on. Cayden showed flashes of brilliance and we feel he is very close to breaking games apart again – watch this space. Josh ran his guts out up and down the wing and gave us drive. Nico also ran very hard and was in many packs fighting hard for the footy for us – playing 2 years up. Miles was very solid in defence and hard as nails in the middle. He is another that will give us plenty of options here onwards. Jeremy, playing his first game in a couple of years, showed us his skills and pace and things are starting to click into place already. We are very proud of the way Jezza goes about his footy. Seb showed real strength keeping the ball alive and getting it out to our running players on several occasions. Plenty of upside for Seb and we are looking forward to being part of his development over the course of the season – he’s a ripper. Haydon displayed terrific courage, not feeling 100% throughout the week however, he fought for his teammates at every opportunity. Aston gave us spark up forward and will benefit from the run – very exciting times ahead for Astro. Gus was a rock for us in defence. He intercepted many Eltham attacks and looked dangerous when moved forward. Ned (from under 9’s) was outstanding with his decision making and quick hands – playing up 2 years mind you. He’ll be a matchwinner soon. Huddo was inspirational in the huddles and so impressive in his first game for RJFC. We love his work. Quinn started this year as he finished last season – busting packs open with his courage and strength. Ashton played a very impressive first game for RJFC. Ashton has a massive weekend with a basketball comp and still managed to play for us this week. He has already made a positive impact and makes us a stronger team. He’s a remarkable young fella. Karlius had some inspirational and desperate efforts and led our team superbly, keeping the boys together all day. And finally, Rolly, who just received a pop up from Microsoft – Word, congratulating him on breaking his own record for the longest paragraph ever written.
Seriously, we will be much better for that hit out. A few first gamers learning the ropes, a few below their usual brilliant best and some rotten bad luck. We’ll now put that one behind us and we are really looking forward to this week’s game.
Thanks to everyone for their work, in particular Corey who has been fantastic, again, for getting our team up and running with his professionalism and efficiency. Our assistant coaches Brad, Dan, Dave, Corey have worked week in, week out, getting our group match ready and will continue to guide our boys with their experience and knowledge. And thank you to all parents who helped with the required jobs in order for the boys to play footy.
Cheers,
Rolly (Microsoft Word – World Record holder for longest paragraph ever written – yet again).
Boys Under 13s
After what felt like a long preseason, Round 1 kicked off last weekend. After the success we had last year, our first opponent was last year’s Division 1 grand finalists Diamond Creek on their big ground.
Unfortunately, they were too good for us this week and had an 86-point win.
Although the score wasn’t very flattering for us, I thought the result didn’t reflect the way we played. The effort the team put in and the willingness to fight it out until the end made me a very proud coach.
The team has gone through a bit of change with a new coach, personnel changes, and the challenge of playing our grading games in Division 1. It will take a few games for the team to gel but every week will bring growth and development in our players. I am really confident it will make this group stronger in the medium to long term.
Playing these highly skilled teams will push our boys out of their comfort zones and I expect to see lots of improvement in skills for each and every one of them. Really excited for our first game at Research Park this weekend and watching the kids coming fighting once again! Go Searchers!
John Gould
Boys Under 14
Our first grading game was against Panton hill on their home ground. After a long preseason and with nine new faces in the team it was great to finally get underway.
The boys started off a bit slow with early goals to both teams. With so many new players it took a quarter to get into top gear. After quarter time we hit our straps. Our use of hand ball was a highlight which continued for the whole game. A lot of our preseason has been practising what the boys executed really well on Sunday. Using handball to exit congestion and spread to create options and move the ball quickly. This lead to some really well structured goals after halftime.
Highlights where Harold Noonan’s attack on the ball with clean hands, shooting off the handball which lead to a perfect passage of free flowing football for a goal. Bailey’s four goal BOG performance. Xavier’s (Rav) first game coming up from the U13’s. Roaming up and down the ground and kicking a couple of goals. Also Harvey K up from U13’s as well with some real classy touches across half back. Harrison Jones had a cracking game. Tom J gave us great rebound from CHB all day. Awesome effort from all the brand new faces to the club. Ace, Lachlan, Brodie, Max and Everitt.
Once the mercy rule was applied we let a couple of easy goals get through. But the game was well a truly won by then.
Overall an awesome team effort. Onto to Mernda at home next week.
Keep working hard at training boys.
Dan Makris.
Boys Under 15
RJFC 18-13-121 Defeated Wallan 8-5-53
Goals – Hughy 6, Ozzy 2, Zac 2, Mitch 1, Levi 1, Trent 1, Harry 1, Azzy 1, Archie 1, Charlie 1, Haydos 1
The Under 15’s played their first game of the season at Research Park against Wallan, a team coming up from division 3. The game was fairly one sided from the first bounce as the boys got off to a quick start kicking 6 goals to 2 in the first quarter. Throughout the game, we used our kick-mark system and put pressure around the ball to get it inside 50. Once it was there, we scored a lot of the time showing in our 18-goal haul.
It was a well-rounded performance by the whole team, however a few standouts include- Hugh Hegarty who kicked a bag of 6 goals and was our main target forward all day, Hayden Jones who ran and distributed the ball off half-back and through the middle of the ground, and Morgan Taylor who provided tackling pressure around the contest as well as finding lots of the ball. It was also great to see our 5 new players- Trent and Travis Murray, Charlie Skerritt, Harry Henshall and Archie Cleary all play great games and some of them even kicking thier first goals. However, it was especially great to see Cooper Gatt in his 50th game applying his regular forward pressure and tackles.
All around it was a special game for the team, welcoming in lots of new faces and to get the win for Cooper makes it even more special!
Girls Under 16
After a long pre-season round 1 was finally here. Our first up assignment was against Monty away at Lower Plenty’s ground.
We started the game on fire and kicked the first goal of the game in the first 5 minutes and we were looking really good playing some good running footy. After that the game turned into a stop start no flow on game with lots of stoppages!
Monty got a goal and levelled the score and that was where the scoring stopped apart from a few points here and there. In the end a 2 point loss.
We are a much better team when we are out and running taking the game on backing ourselves in and not going into our shells. We learnt a lot out there today and hopefully the girls can see that when we play our way we can be a great team.
The girls tried hard all day and played their hearts out right to the last second of the game with a couple of late chances to steal the game. As coaches that’s all we can ask Great effort girls.
A shout out to the girls who played their first official game for Research. Amy Thomson, Ava Fantauzzo and Freya Duckworth. Well done girls!
Kevin Maher
Boys Under 17.5
Research 9.7.61 def by Yarrambat 12.12.84
Goals: Riley Kerr (2), Harry Wenn, Tom Dozzi, Angus Whitford, Josh Northey, Will Hensel
Best Players: Charlie Klaster, Riley Kerr, Harry Wenn, Jesse Todd, Josh Northey,
Nathan Bradshaw, Billy Johnson, Will Hensel
The start of a new season and lots of new and unknown experiences for our team. One was the highlight on Sunday in front of a big crowd at Research Park of unfurling our premiership flag and it was very special to ask Jenni Welch, supported by her son, Hayden and our co-captains Riley Kerr and Josh Northey to raise the flag. Jenni has been such a fantastic supporter and contributor to our team since Under 9’s (actually Auskick!) as Team Manager and Medic as well as a long-standing member of the Club Committee so it was brilliant to recognise her with thishonour.
The team has been training hard since November and in total have completed 24 training session with practice matches against quality YJFL teams, Macleod, and Parkside. After our premiership year in 2023, we have taken the leap into Division 1 with much uncertainty about how we will measure up. We have also added 5 new players to our team with some great talent and experience joining our team.
A big welcome to Harry Wenn, Jesse Todd, Zac Jenkins, Tom Dozzi and Joey Morrison and their families and to Matt Dozzi who joins us as Assistant Coach. The fixture Gods tested us early, with our first game scheduled to play Yarrambat, runners up in Division 1 last year and one of the favourites for this season. There was nervousness in the group about how we might compete, but we came out of the blocks early, kicking four goals to one in an outstanding first quarter. We won the middle, committed ourselves to contested footy, played the type of team defence we planned for and had multiple inside 50 entries dominating the quarter.
Yarrambat were always going to respond, and they went on a 7 goal run which we did not deal with well. This is a great learning for our team who have not seen this before and we discussed at half time about the need to lock down when against a run like that and to the boys’ credit, we saw a much more disciplined defensive effort in the second half.
Overall, we couldn’t be happier with the start to our Division 1 journey. We finished the game strongly winning the last quarter and kicking 4.4, running the game out and showing that our fitness is in good shape. We won two quarters in the game and demonstrated that we can compete at the level and while only the first game, we take a huge amount of confidence into the next three games of grading.
Congratulations to our team leaders who were announced during the week:
Co-Captains: Riley Kerr and Josh Northey
Vice Captains: Billy Johnson, Nathan Bradshaw, Harry Wenn, Jesse Todd, Alex Lopes
We look forward to Round 2 with a trip to South Morang
Paul and the Coaches
Girls U18
Research 14.9.93 def Montmorency 4.1.25
Goals: Abigail Flenley, Ally Pilakis (3), Alli Allen, Scarlett Fitzpatrick, Anayah Maher (2) , Finley Bell, Jaya Montfort
Great start to the season for our U18 Girls this week. With 3 new players debuting for Research and the age groups coming back together it was a very different look from last year. A special thanks to the U16’s that came up and helped us with numbers.
This day was also a massive celebration to one our most decorated players Anayah Maher playing her 100th game. Anayah stared in front of family and friends and got us underway with the first clearance of the game also accumulating a heap of the ball a kicking two goals.
The first qrt was tight with both sides hitting the scoreboard, but from the 2nd qrt it was all our way.
Our midfield kept fresh with multiple players moving through there, with new players Tess and Scarllet dominating. Also a new forward found in Ally kicking 3 goals.
Abi continued on from last year also with 3 goals. Our back line was extremely solid all day with the help of the midfielders working both ways, while our forwards chased out hard to lock the ball in or give the team repeat entries.
Best Players: Alli Allen, Bella Turner, Tess Gilson, Abi Flenley, Anayah Maher, Scarlett Fitpatrick, Ally Pilakis.
Congratulations to our team leaders who were announced during the week:
Captain: Anayah Maher
Vice Captain: Abigail Flenley
Leadership: Charlotte Kerr, Scarlett Hall and Matilda Raphael
We look forward to Round 2 with our first home game v Eltham
Adam, Chris and Craig