Walshy here again everyone, Well for those that live locally you would know yesterday we had some very wet conditions for our last minor round matches for the year against BITS here in Gladstone. The U13s were underway first and the boys battled hard in some very wet conditions but unfortunately were unable to walk away with the win going down by 3 goals. The U15s had a similar story also going down in the end by 22 points in the end with the ground gradually getting worse as more games were played in the soggy conditions. There was a turnaround in recent results for the U17s against BITS having a great win by 16 points against the second placed side, well done boys. Our U17 boys are coming home strong in the back end of the season and have also had a draw earlier in the year against the undefeated Swans team so they certainly have the team to go all the way. Next weekend all our junior grades will be playing in the finals which will be played here in Gladstone, so please everyone get down and support our juniors and club as a whole. U13s and U15s will be facing off against Brothers and our U17s will be playing Glenmore. Onto the Ressies now and this game was a crucial match for both Muddies and BITS, as a win to either side would secure second spot and more importantly a week off next weekend and the double chance. By this stage the ground was an absolute mess but our boys got away to a quick start in the conditions and they put BITS straight on the back foot kicking away to a 4 goal lead at the first change. The boys were able to hold on for the rest of the game as they walked away with the win by 14 points. So our Ressie boys stole second spot off BITS and will now play Glenmore in Rocky in 2 weeks time. Great effort by the boys considering the issues we have had with the amount of changes week in and week out. At this time the boys have beaten Glenmore twice and lost once so hopefully they can get up again and go straight through to the Grand Final. Good luck boys, you know we have the team to do it! Well Seniors were playing their last match of the year as we missed the finals by a couple of games unfortunately. We once again couldnt get over the line against BITS going down by 50 points in the end. In the first quarter we had plenty of the ball but our decision making and skills let us down which resulted in us not getting the score on the scoreboard we needed giving our rivals a 1 goal lead at the first change. The second quarter was the main difference between the 2 sides on the day with BITS using the ball a lot better than us in the conditions kicking away to a 6 goal lead which put our boys on the back foot. After the main break we came back at BITS outplaying and outscoring them but unfortunately we still couldnt take all our chances only being able to get the scores back within 5 goals. In the last BITS once again got the better of us on the scoreboard with our boys battling hard all the way to the end. For me the scoreboard certainly does not reflect the game with the match being a very even hard slog all the way but in the end BITS used the ball better all around the park than we did. Once again we were able to match it with a side for 3 quarters but we again were let down by one quarter of footy which we all know can kill your chances for the win. In a year that could have looked a lot different for the Seniors losing 6 games by a margin of around 4 goals or less has really hurt us in the end. In all those games we had a chance to take the win but unfortunately we couldnt find ways to get over the line. It mainly comes down to not having a core group of our best players that got to play together week in and week out as well as hit the track hard enough to be fit enough not to have last quarter fade outs. All in all I knew I would have my back against the wall taking on the Senior coaching role this year with the nature of the work in town but availability for away games was probably the biggest issue for the year. We have some great players around the club and coming up through juniors which can take us to the finals next year. We showed we have the talent around after we were able to beat the second placed side by 50 points earlier in the year. Thanks to everyone that played Seniors and helped out this year, we have been able to give a lot of younger players and juniors a taste of Senior footy this year that will no doubt pay off in the long run. Onto the ladies now and the girls once again came out on top winning their 12th game of the year beating the BITS girls by 6 goals and managing to keep the opposition to just 4 behinds. I doubt many of the girls had played in conditions like that before with the ground being an absolute mess in the end, still raining and also under lights! The girls have had a great year so far finishing second after the minor rounds and only one win behind the top placed Glenmore team. Like the Ressies, the ladies will also be travelling to Rocky in 2 weeks time to face off against Glenmore for a spot in the Grand Final. No doubt coaches Larkins and Travers will have a few tricks up their sleeves to get the ladies over the line and straight through to the main event. Good luck ladies! So as I said earlier, next week we are hosting the first final with all our junior grades representing our club so please get down to support our future greats of the club. In the Reserves and the Seniors we will have BITS vs Panthers playing off with the losers out of the finals race so plenty of good footy for the day. Lets all get down and watch and support our club since we are lucky enough to host a final this year! Cheers
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 07:08:41 +0000