Week 2 Newsletter

From the President
Welcome to season 2010. We have worked extremely hard off-season and have created a solid base for the club moving forward. Tim Kilworth has taken over the reins as our Senior Coach. He was the successful Under 19 Coach from season 2009. Tristan Berenger is his Playing Assistant Coach. The reserves is coached by Stuart Hillier; Todd Sigalas is our new Under 19 Coach; and finally Howard Mitchell is coaching our Under 18’s. The Club has appointed Phil Ballis as the Football Operations Director and Warren Carlyle has been appointed Captain of the firsts.

It’s the start of a new era for the club, as many of the older players have left and have been replaced by a young enthusiastic group, the core coming from our successful Under 19’s team of 2009 supported by a number of new players, notably Jack Duke and Scott Needham, and returnees Rohan Kapoor and Pete Jenkin. There is a great feeling around the club this season and it was excellent to see in excess of 100 players and supporters gathered at our old social rooms after training last Thursday to welcome the new players and to kick off what we trust will be a successful 2010. Please feel free to come down for a refreshment on Thursday evenings after 6pm to watch the boys train and mix with other supporters. A hearty meal of pasta is available for players and supporters, supplied by Bill Kurban of Colombo’s, one of our major sponsors, and on that note we encourage all players and supporters to support Colombo’s as they obviously are great supporters of our club.

This Saturday we host Beaumaris, and it would be great to see you all down supporting the boys and to view the new club rooms due to be completed by the end of August 2010. The new club rooms will be fantastic for our football club, as they will incorporate a 180 seat social venue capable of hosting the majority of our functions, they will include four change rooms, associated service areas and a gymnasium for our players. On completion and with an oval on either side, Old Camberwell Grammarians Amateur Football Club will have the best facilities available in amateur football and will provide an excellent base for the club going forward.

                   
Senior Report
Following an extremely positive practise match campaign where we travelled to Geelong, Ballarat and then playing at home, the general consensus was that the boys were ready to take on thew challange of playing one of Premier C's top teams in Rd 1. We welcomed debutantes, Jack Duke, Scott Needham, returnees Rohan Kapoor and Pete Jenkin and recently promoted Under 19s Steve Romanin, Rob Deev, Phil Bennett, Ben Hart, Jack Le Cerf, Nick Latsas, and Sam Killworth. Arriving at Glenhuntly Oval on a balmy Saturday afternoon, we were all taken aback by the intensity, organisation and skill of the "Fields", and that was there Twos!! Quarter 1, and nothing changed. They harassed, moved the ball quickly and efficiently and combined in numbers. We found ourselves under early score board pressure and this trend continued until the half time break where we found ourselves 56 points in arrears. Despite the scoreline margin, the mood remained positive, and the players were reminded not to worry about the scoreboard. If we stuck to the plan, and if a couple of key moves came off, goals would come and then who knows. By three quarter time, the margin had been trimmed to 25 points, through a 6 goals to 1 goal turn around. Jordo Heffernan, Ben Hart, Jack Le Cerf, Ben Craven & Jack Duke, all lead the charge and the rest of the team responded to their endeavours. The mood was extremely bouyant at the final break, despite the fact that we were a couple of players down due to injury, and the on ball rotations were becoming longer as the game wore on. The boys finally finished the match 47 points in arrears, but their efforts were widely acknowledged by the supporter base at the end of the game. Better players were Jack Le Cerf, Jordan Heffernan, Jack Duke, Ben Hart, Simon Bonyhady, and Ben Craven.

Reserves Report
Saturday 17 April was a reality check day for our Reserves side as Caulfield Grammarians gave us a lesson in hard running and correct use of the ball. In a tough opening to the season we struggled to maintain any level of continued pressure and were comprehensively defeated 22 goals 12 behinds to 7 – 7 Surprisingly we kicked the first two goals of the game and things looked good. Unfortunately from that time on the Caulfield mid-field and their creative half back line lead them to a comprehensive victory. In a game where it was hard to find a four quarter winner, we still had Jack Flynn and Steve Warr who worked manfully in defense. Also in defense and when pushed forward Dan Hansen showed some good signs and James Robinson ran himself ragged trying to cover the fleet footed Caulfield brigade. Matt Cottrell will be better for the run and Alex McKenzie will also be the same. With a number of injuries during the course of the game we finished the match with only 18 players and will be looking for a number of replacements for a contest against Beaumaris this week.

Under 19 Report
Obviously a disappointing result going down by 6pts to a team we are evenly matched with. This was a game that could have gone either way however in the end it just got away from us. We showed some great patches of play that reminded everyone of the previous week efforts however these passages where to few and far between to win a game of football. VAFA Premier Division under 19’s is a competition where you must bring you’re ‘A’ game each week, if you don’t expect to lose. Unfortunately we where not quite good enough on the day! We look forward to bouncing back with a vengeance this week away to Old Scotch at Camberwell Sports Ground. A much improved effort is needed and I’m positive that is what we will give!

Under 18 Report
One swallow doesn't make a summer. One sighting or instance of an event does not necessarily indicate a trend. Our first game for premiership points under real competitive pressure and a very warm autumn day of 28C didn’t help our current stage of development. The skills of both sides were understandably 'rusty' being the first game, we were right in the game at half-time but our fitness unquestionably fell away in the second half. Tiredness led to bad disposal and lack of concentration, we had enough inside 50s in the last half but failed to capitalize because of ineffective disposal, not enough rotations or sustained onfield pressure primarily due to a lack of interchange players. The game highlighted a number of basic game strategies and disciplines we have to work on but more than 9 or 10 players at any training are needed to gain a better understanding to progress; The 'upside' for improvement in team performance is obvious BUT only if we can train together. Taking everything into account, we have a lot of positives to work with. We need to respect every person's role in this team and understand we are all part of a group that relies on each other to develop and improve. Communication is the key. We have the foundations both in personnel and potential of a really good team.  

 

Click here for more photos