Belmont Reserves Versus Manning at Forster Park 19 May 2012 – Pregame

Short and sweet this week.

Our Percentage didn’t hit double figures this week, now a massive 7.76%

POS	TEAM	P	W	L	D	B	FF	For	Agst	%	PTS
1	Gosnells (C2R)	5	5	0	0	0	0	550	115	478.26	20
2	Bassendean (C2R)	5	5	0	0	0	0	375	213	176.06	20
3	Kenwick (C2R)	5	3	1	1	0	0	446	244	182.79	14
4	Swan Valley (C2R)	5	3	2	0	0	0	444	203	218.72	12
5	Quinns District (C2R)	5	3	2	0	0	0	413	272	151.84	12
6	Canning VPSP (C2R)	5	2	2	1	0	0	365	304	120.07	10
7	Lynwood Ferndale (C2R)	5	2	3	0	0	0	322	316	101.90	8
8	Cockburn Lakes (C2R)	5	1	4	0	0	0	300	375	80.00	4
9	Manning (C2R)	5	0	5	0	0	0	113	573	19.72	0
10	Belmont Districts (C2R)	5	0	5	0	0	0	60	773	7.76	0

8 changes to last week’s team, with the line-up below. This week we’ll see the fiftieth player this year to come through the ressie’s team. GO TEAM!!! 🙂

Belmont Reserves Squad V’s Manning Saturday 19th May 2012
B:	Simon Byrde	Stephen Epis	Jason McShane
HB:	Aaron Ward (2)	Roger Saab	Jarrod King
C:	Shane Scary	Travis Taylor	Chris Scarey
HF:	Jerry Yarran	Marty O’Connell	Damon Hancey
F:	Martin Joyce	Steve Loicono	Dennis Weaver
Foll:	Jash Laker	Matthew Froggatt	Mark Oram (C)
Int:	William Young	Dippa	Steve Kelly
	Steve Madureira
Coach:	Stephen Epis

Belmont Reserves Versus Kenwick at Mills Park 12 May 2012 – Post mortem

Another day of being beaten towards submission, although we didn’t look a chance at any point, we didn’t tap-out.

We started with only 2 on the bench (Byrdie & myself), as Aaron ward (2) pulled out late (flu), billy young (non-appearance) & I overlooked the fact that Matthew Frogatt was named in the league team on Thursday night.

The game started as a free flowing end-to-end affair with both teams having shots on goal in the first fifteen minutes, Kenwick managed to convert more when in front than us and went to the break with a handy enough lead.

Shane Scarey & Mark oral worked hard to win as much ball as they could from the middle and Brett Oxley and co. in defense did their best to nullify Kenwick’s solid attack.

We were lead in the ruck by “Big Dave” and as the game rolled on, the opposition realized that he wasn’t the same confident player we saw the week before but resembled a large ruck bag to jump into and practice tapping to all points of the clock face.

By early in the second, Dennis Weaver (assistant coach) had to be restrained from breaking the whiteboard over Dave’s skull when he finally managed to find an opportunity to bring him to the pine, as I went on the ground and left him in charge. The opposing rucks by then had their confidence up and didn’t give Marty O’Connell (replacement) much of a look in.

This quarter was dominated by Kenwick’s midfield and the few chances we got up forward were squandered by ordinary disposal ( I was a main culprit) and lack of midfield backup. Kenwick’s full forward “Pissweak” had 6 by halftime (finished with 9) and believe it or not we still didn’t have a goal in the board.

It took some inspired coaching in the third quarter to move Kouta from full back to forward resulting in instant impact and we scored our first and dare I say it… Only goal for the day. The fat lady was well and truly in full verse by now and it was just encouraging to see improvements in our midfielders work rate as well as the emergence of back flanker, Jason McShane, after a scrimmage in the second awakened his passion to play. Steve mad…man ( can’t spell his last name), new to Aussie rules, showed good signs nearly snagging a “sausage roll”. Jason “$6 million man” Austin from Dongarup is improving each week.

General mood is still positive, so that’s good.

Best were Mark Oram, Shane Scarey, Jason McShane, Chris Scarey & Chris Whitty.

Next week we have Manning at home and I expect everyone will be gunning for a birth as they’re only a few percent above us on the ladder at the moment & this is likely to be as good a chance as any to get four points in a while.

Juggy
Reserve’s Coach

Level 1 Coaching course – part 1 of 3

Last night I attended the the first of 3 sessions of the level 1 senior coaching course with Adrian Hickmott, ex-Carlton hardman & current development coach at the Eagles.

Truth be told, I expected this to be a fairly dreary affair, something I just need to get through for 3 Mondays to fulfill a requirement to coach this year. But so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

Hickmott is an inspired, passionate leader and oozes a love for the game of Aussie Rules. He reminded us that the smell of football leather (Sherrin or Burley – I think they’re made in the same factory) and freshly cut grass on the other side of the white line really can transport you to a place all footy players know and cherish at some point in their playing lives.

Adrian told us how he started out coaching thinking he was the bees knees of players and after a decade at the top level knew everything there was to know about footy. Unfortunately for Hickmott his mentor was David Parkin – A man so famous for his outbursts he once dragged Mil Hanna off the footy oval by the throat, through the change-rooms and up against the wall in the coaches room. In the process of dishing out the spray of all sprays to “The Cranium”, Parkin blacked out and awoke in hospital. (BTW, when Parkin arrived at training on Monday he found that the players had planted an oxygen mask in his locker).

Adrian found this blast em into submission style doesn’t work for your average amateur player, so he had to adapt and get smarter about coaching. He found there isn’t a one-size-fits-all, foolproof coaching system, but that understanding the people you’re coaching and finding ways to help them learn the game better would give greater satisfaction than anything when the player pulls it off out on the park.

He made it clear to us that some of the tried and true methods we think are valuable coaching tools and philosophies are not necessarily all they are cracked up to be, considering the truth about what happens in games. For instance we spend lots of time at training trying to get players to keep the ball up off the ground when in fact a ball spends more time on the ground than anywhere else in a game, so why not encourage it?

We were questioned how much time we spend on tackling, taking bumps, shepherding, hand balling under severe pressure, etc and we went through basic drills to show how easy it can be to spend time on these essential skills.

So far the course has been a great eye opener, and it’s refreshing to spend time with a man so passionate about a game I love.

Juggy

Belmont Bombers reserves versus Cockburn at Anning Park. 5 May 2012 – post mortem

Another tough day at the office today as we visited the newly refurbished home of Cockburn Football Club.

This week’s horror buildup saw 1 player after another pull out due to work, weddings and a few question marks. This got so ridiculous to a point where our entire midfield (all in the same car) drove to an oval south of Mandurah by mistake. We weren’t sure if we could field a full squad on the field up until 30 mins before the game.

To make up numbers, I had to suit up again, we called in our regular boundary umpire (Big Dave) as well as a couple of league players (Travis Taylor and Jack Collard) with Birdie’s all clear to make sure we could start.

By half time we were down 10 goals down to 17 men and Cockburn’s full forward already had 6 goals on the board. There really wasn’t any great performers in that half to be honest, although there were a few triers.

I asked for a marked improvement firstly in myself and then the others. A friend told me during the magpies game against Bulldogs Friday night that it shouldn’t matter what the scoreboard says. What matters is that individually when you walk off if you can say I truly gave it my all and don’t feel that there was more I could do. This is what was asked of the players and I feel it was given.

We managed to hold them up in defense more. Travis Lindsay took marks at half back, Brett Oxley spoiled repeatedly, and Jason Mcshane worked diligently in his first game for the club.

We managed to win the odd one out of the centre and create repeated contests with seldom an easy opposition clearance. This was thanks to the strong presence of Big Dave in the Ruck, Scott Smedley’s composure and Mark Oram’s in and under work.

The Link up work of Matthew Froggatt and Shane and Chris Scary gave opportunities to the forwards including myself but we didn’t manage to fully capitalize although we did get more shots on goal with quite a few marks in and around the fifty.

The guys mentioned were the main performers on the day in a heavy duty defeat.

We simply don’t have the skill and fitness to match it at the
Moment and it’s going to take a lot of work to get a full squad to commit to training regularly, but fingers crossed we do and can move forward individually and as a group.

MAINTAIN THE FAITH

Juggy
Belmont Reserves Coach

p.s. RIP MCA

Belmont Bombers Reserves versus Gosnells at Forster Park – Saturday 28 April – post game

POST-MORTEM

We managed to win the first centre clearance and inside fifty, but that would be the last clear win we’d have fmost he next ten minutes. With Gosnells half backs leading Belmont’s forwards into the centre  square at every bounce down, any Matthew froggatt rove or Chris Doherty.s ruck win saw the midfielders overwhelmed at every ball-up.

All the encouragement, berating or education in the world couldn’t help make any in-roads whatsoever  and this was pretty much the case for all but the last ten minutes of the day.

Gosnells apparently left 15 players out of their side this week and will be challenging at the business enif of the season.

Unfortunately we didn’t even manage a “sausage roll” for the day while our opposition feasted on our lack of fitness & experience. A few players didn’t turn up on the day leaving me to even pull on the boots for the first time in 5 years.

There were some good performers on the day though with Froggatt the stand-out.  “froggy” roved tirelessly for the majority of the day winning the ball off  the opposing ruckman’s hands all day.

Our resident Brickie, William Young at fullback out marked his direct opponents  on numerous occasions, even playing a cameo in the ruck late.

New boy, Travis Taylor (cousin of Noel) was outstanding all the day. Travis roved, tackled hassled and used the football well. This was a great display especially after spewing his guts up at his firststranding sessionplastic Tuesday.

Other players to impress included Kris Doherty, Dylan Grayden, Travis Lyndsay & Daniel Stefano.

Thomas Hindmarsh’s second half was inspired as was the last quarter of Brett Oxley.

Dennis Weaver & Adam Lee did a stirling of coaching while I was in the ground. It was great to also have Warren Hotchninjas runner for the day.

Our next mission impossible is Cockburn at Anning Park on Saturday where we’ll be looking to improve markedly.

Juggy

Belmont Reserves Coach

Belmont Bombers Reserves versus Gosnells – Pregame

After 2 massive defeats at the hands of Swan Valley & Canning the realization of the difficulties in moving up a grade with an inexperienced outfit have hit hard but all hope is not lost, although expectations are a little lower than before.

I only took over the reigns as reserves coach 1 week before the season proper after the shock resignation of  the league coach left the clubwith the feelinthreat numbers on the track were to poor to justify his time.

Numbers are not the problem but experience & fitness are probably behind the better clubs at this level.

Coming up against Gosnells this week will likely be another awakening, but I can’t wait to see how much we’ve improved since last week. We managed to get more ressie players on the track this week although there’ll be over 10 changes from last week’s squad due to FIFO’s, soft tissue injuries, holidays and ghosts.

An hour on the old Five point drill (foot, hand, left & right) followed up by half an hour of 101 in midfield stoppage education saw an after 8pm finish and hopefully leads to an increase in efficiency and endurance on Saturday.

Thanks for reading my blog, see you after Saturday

JUGGY

BDFC Reserve’s Coach