THE SEASON THAT WAS – U18’s PENRITH RAMS 2009
The 2009 year was always going to one of improvement over the previous season. With only 5 games being won last year, the anticipation was high given 12 months on with a similar squad that encompassed bigger bodies with greater maturity.
The most pleasing aspect was we secured the majority of last years players with a few player exceptions that were instructed by there scholarship management to move to the newly developing, but powerful Sydney Uni outfit. Our old mates ECE also couldn’t help themselves by dipping there toes in the water to take a hanful of local boys from our region that we had on our books for their junior careers. This was very disappointing also.
So with approx 30 players we commenced pre season early February with 4 weeks of continual road runs with sprint work combined as we built strength & miles into the legs. Early on we had attracted some new faces that came from a Rugby Union background and these boys really shone thru with their enthusiasm from an early stage, that being Nathan , Matt and Hayden.
Our trial games had varied results as we travelled from Wyong to Emu Plains with at times some very confusing maps to work with !!!! However as we performed with mixed results and efforts in both these games I had the feeling all along we were dealing with a squad that resembled a quality racehorse.
Co Captains were appointed being Matty Payne - who has a football pedigree others can only wish for, Lachlan Gippel who was last years coaches award winner and also Jamie King who joined the Rams last years and shows great enthusiasm at all times. Other players in the leadership group were Mitch Reinhard, Ben Robinson, Jakeman King Smith and Reece Johnson, and Harley Stibbard …all high quality footballers in there own right. With pre season done and a few trial matches under our belt we went to the barriers fully wound up only to be scratched at the last minute due to bad weather.....We now had to wait till round 2 to commence our Autumn / Spring campaign !!!!
Round 2 18/04 saw us grace our first game of the year at our home ground of Greygums oval where the pebbles underfoot meet the stray papers that blow from Castlereagh Rd. What an ideal setting for a game of football !!!!! Likened to good money on a sure thing at the racetrack, the boys began beautifully and careered away for a convincing 51 point win over Mac Uni and we backed up a week later with a tough hard fought win in our local derby over ECE in very trying conditions. It was after this game I knew our season was destined to flower & bear fruits…..
A week is a long time in football and week 3 we played the much publicised Sydney Uni outfit and boy did they play ….a 97 point smashing was presented to us where they played a hard running, highly skilled brand of football that gave our lads a real lesson on what was required to play at the top end of the competition !!!…As they say in the classics, always from some bad experiences comes something good if we can learn from it and this game was the line in the sand for the Penrith Rams u18 2009 playing group. We discussed the result in depth & detailed what we had to do if we were serious about playing finals football at training on the following Tuesday night and vowed that we will never play like that ever again !!!!!!
And did the the boys kept their promise ???…oh yes indeed….. they rolled out 7 wins from the next 8 appearances in a very focused, dominate & ruthless brand of football. Our only loss in this period was to Southern Power at home but this was in very dubious circumstances indeed.!!!
During this period we also had 3 new lads join the squad from Emu Plains/Glenmore Park Lions..that being Jackson, Brayden and Shaun who joined Jack “The Man” Ponton as current u16 players still eligible for the u 16 competition but who have slotted into the u18 competition with ease.
That game said and done we then turned our attention to the rematch with Syd Uni at Alan Davidson oval…we had waited 8 weeks for this day to test our improvement on the competition benchmark….and what a match it was….the boys threw everything at this team and fought out a very tough 33 point defeat….We incurred some injuries throughout the game and left with our heads held high albeit not the result that we would have liked….Deep down we knew we could match it with them providing we play at our best and take all opportunities as they arise
Suddenly this team was destined to share in the fight for the ultimate prize in football as we now believed ……The Holy Grail here we come!!!
The next 5 weeks we witnessed 3 club forfeits and two weeks of no games due to a bye & a wet weather round. The last game of the home and away season we had to face a rampaging Southern Power at there home ground . With half a dozen players out and the boys being rusty due to a 6 weeks on the sidelines it was always going to be a massive assignment for the lads…..that said the hit out was good and we quickly refocused our attention on the following weeks final match against a quality Moorebank Sports FC.
The lads really trained the house down on Tuesday night to their credit as we prepared for our first finals match in many years.
The match vs Moorebank was played in windy conditions…..a blistering opening 10 goal qtr by the Rams placed Moorebank on the ropes and from there they basically did not recover going down by just under 10 goals when the game ended. The u16 squad of Jackson, Jack, Brayden & Shawn led the way for the older Rams to follow in what turned out to be a spiteful match with our own Reece Johnson taken to RPA with a serious neck injury in the dying seconds of the game. Reece was released 6 hrs later albeit still feeling quite sore. Also hurt from the game was Alex Henry (knee ) and our own pocket dynamo Ben Robinson who played all day with a broken bone in his hand – which was a great effort..
All three guys were out for big preliminary final game including Kyle McDonagh which was scheduled for his long awaited Army Medical check
Now off to the preliminary final for the boys vs the quality Southern Power outfit
This match was destined to go the wire and that it did…..with both teams putting heart and soul on the line it was a game of inches and not for the faint hearted as four qtrs of tough, ruthless football was played out.. The Power led by a goal at qtr time and increased that to two goals by half time. The coaching staff asked the Rams for a mighty effort in the 3rd qtr to which they delivered placing both teams level pegging as they entered the final quarter of the match ..Both teams displayed the fight and characteristics that gained them a preliminary finals berth but in the end the Rams fell short by just 14 points as the Power wrestled on top in the last 8 minutes of the match and ended our 2009 season
From myself the coach I asked each player before the match to be able to look each other in the eyes and ask the question “Did I give it all today “?
Well I can answer that one from you all…yes you did …..and to somehow pick the best players from today’s game was nearly impossible…All day the boys were led by Matty, Mitch, Adam, Jamie, Harley, Justin, Lachlan , Jakeman ,Nathan, Matt, & Daniel who were just outstanding all day…Jack was brilliant in defence with hard running into the forward line and was joined by the other u16 players Jackson, Brayden and Shaun who worked tirelessly all day and also had backed up in a grand final the day before !!!A great effort by these three lads !!!. I cant leave out Hayden who was sensational all day with James, Alex, Nick, Hamish, & John Spicer who presented time and time again in the forward line…The whole team just gave everything they had on the day…I was so disappointed with the loss but given we had only 21 fit players for the match with four quality players out….it was one of the best games of contested football I have witnessed all year… All of you left nothing on the field today and we all were so very proud of what you achieved.
One very important point that I talked about to the young men from the early days was the inner belief that they needed to have if the Rams were to have a successful year in 2009…Well all of you can stand tall & proud …..but keep that preliminary loss etched in the back of your heads and bring it to our pre season for the 2010 year…
All I can say to the opposing competition is watch out for the Rams U18 squad of 2010....
Thankyou men for a wonderful year of success, memories and most importantly all the fun we had along the way ……Stay safe and take care………….
Thank you - Kev, Geoff, Sharpie, Greg and Baz…..
Last Modified on 21/04/2010 14:14