Coaches Blog Round 15 2017

After thawing out on Saturday night it was good to look back on our day out at Lathlain and know we cobbled together 3 wins.

The colts kicked us off and the boys handled the wet conditions brilliantly. By half time the game was over after the young ducks had piled on 9.3 to a solitary point. That dominance was on the back of a break out game from Blake Pescud who had a staggering 36 touches. Grayden Wilson returned to give us drive off half back and Greg Humphries played one of his best for the year to be strong over the footy all day.

Trohne Ugle kicked 4 classy goals and the work-rate of Greggy Ottaviano was incredible with 17 possessions and no less than 14 tackles.

Great to see the colts play another 3 new faces from our community clubs. Dawson, Hardwick and Cecil all acquitted themselves very well in their first outing. In the end it was a 70 point victory which saw the colts move into equal 3rd spot.

The reserves then ground out a solid 25 point win in the toughest conditions of the day. They got all of the rain and scoring became pretty scarce but the boys just kept grinding away and slowly pulled clear. 10 tackles a piece to Maguire and Smirk led the way in terms of physicality and Cipro and Ridley gave solid support. Big Yukich dominated the ruck to end with 83 hitouts and 6 tackles to be a major factor in keeping the ball moving forward.

The defence of Erceg, Ness and co held up extremely well to constantly repel any forward entries and provided good opportunities going the other way as well.

It was a really strong 4 quarter effort from the boys who played with very good energy all day. The win puts them in 6th but only percentage out of the finals so they are on the build.

In horrible news, young Jason Daniels suffered his second ACL injury in a collision of legs on Saturday and will require a reconstruction. It is a very unlucky and devastating injury for a young bloke who is as tough as nails. He’s a strong kid, so he’ll be back and having another crack in the medium term I’m sure! Good luck JD on your recovery, and get back soon!

At senior level we got the start wrong and were beaten for intensity by a committed Perth line-up. By early in the second quarter we trailed by 33 points and it looked a long way back, but the boys hung in there and pinched a couple of late goals to still be in the hunt at half time.

Things were made a lot tougher due to the loss of Riggio to a calf strain and Coniglio to a broken leg before half time, so the 20 remaining lads had to dig and shoulder some added load. To the boys credit, they did so very well and slowly worked their way back to level pegging, and then got out to a 13pt lead with 10 to go. We got tired late and Perth made a charge at us, but the players hung on to record a win built on good strong character.

Faulkner and Gault led the way all day and were especially strong early when we weren’t going well. Ellard and Crowley battled hard also to bash the ball forward in the wet. Ugle and Bennell played big roles for us and Banfield and Mckenzie lifted under pressure when we needed it most. Ricky Cary produced another complete performance to end with 3, but also created multiple opportunities with his tackle pressure.

It wasn’t pretty but it got us to 8 and 5 with an important match up against the Sharks at home this weekend. There’s a lot at stake over the next fortnight before the bye as we continue to strive to finish as high as possible. We’ll be without Riggs for a week or two and unfortunately Jacob will miss the rest of the year with the fracture. We wish the young bloke all the best in his recovery and I’m sure he’ll be back better than ever next year.

Greg.