Match report

Match report

Well done to the Woodside Reds today who played a very experienced, older and organized Stirling districts. Our inexperience showed through and it is easy to feel that we did not play well. These types of games though are a great way to think about why we lost, and how we can improve our games into the future. We have to remember we have only played 3 games together! Our lack of confidence saw us making silly mistakes with slow passes that were easily intercepted, and our long balls were often straight to the Stirling players. These are areas we will work on and improve as we find our positions and abilities. On thinking about it, my coaching error was to play too many people in defence which constantly brings the ball back to where the players are. We will work on different formations over the next weeks.

Several people shone through in the difficulty. Cooper played an outstanding game in centre defence despite it not being an ideal first game to try the position. Cohen marked out their number 9 (who was able to score from a corner!) and slowed their attack dramatically. Bob worked hard in defence and coupled with Riley kept their attack working hard. Sam got into some tough tackles and fed some nice passes through to the attacking midfield. George also provided some strength in centre defence in the beginning before trying his hand at left midfield. Lysiane did some hard pushing and had a few perfectly placed forward passes. Manny was creative in attack during the first half, before experiencing right defence for the first time! His reading of the play and courage against some big opponents, coupled with his greatly place passes earnt him player of the match. Ryan didn’t get chances on goal as he was marked out by 3 players! Flynn played some beautiful balls up the left wing.

Special mentions again go to Riley T and Banjo who both did some outstanding keeping, and experiences like today only see them improving with the practice under pressure! It was great to see that there were several times we did talk, space and pass that threw them a little ... if we keep learning to do this we will only get stronger!  I was really happy that everybody kept their heads up and did not give up.