With many players being unavailable for the weekend, the senior teams played an intra-club match on a hot Saturday at Greygums Oval. Forty Four players took the field from all grades including the new players with the four quarters reduced to 15 minutes each due to the hot conditions.
With players fighting for spots in the various grade, it was a pleasing effort with good intensity for their first hit-out of the season.
The Ramettes were scheduled to play Macquarie University, but the Warriors pulled out of the game during the week. Coach Jason Bradley put the team through a gruelling session, finishing off with a scratch match at the end. They will have a trial next Sunday at Greygums Oval playing both Auburn Tigers and Newtown Breakaways in a NAB Cup styled round-robin. The matches will commence at 9:30 AM.
The Under 18's travelled to Monarch Oval to play Div 1 outfit, Macarthur Giants and were very competitive in their first hitout of the season as coach Rick Allen reports:
The trial match against Division 1 side Macarthur Giants was a solid hit out leading into the season for the majority of our players.
With several players away we were fortunate to have three Under 16 Emu Plains Lions players Brayden Saint-Barry, Jarrad Sherlock and Lachie Cottell step up to fill the void and again I just want to thank the Emu Plains Club and Brayden, Jarrad and Lachie for their contribution - all three acquitted themselves extremely well at under 18 level which was a credit to themselves and their club.
Macarthur Jumped us early to put 4 quick goals on the board in succession before we got into our rhythm and began to hit the scoreboard ourselves - apart from that first 10 minutes of the game the match was a highly competitive fast paced affair with our boys looking right at home against a quality opposition.
Our endeavour, attack on the ball and amount of possession equalled that of our more fancied opponent and in the end it was only our accuracy in front of goal and inconsistency with our disposal skills around the ground that prevented the score-line from being much closer.
In the end 19 scoring shots to 25 was a highly competitive effort against a division 1 side and what particularly pleased me was that every player contributed greatly to our performance. I couldn't have been more impressed with our first up effort and it now gives us an opportunity to work on those areas we need to improve in.
Final Scores: Macarthur 13 . 12 - 90 Penrith 6 . 13 - 49
Goals Durham 3, Zolfel, Dowton, Ehrl
Best Players: Leech, Quicke, Eskander, Green, Durham, Cottell, Sherlock, Eckford
I would like to thank all the players for turning up - to have 19 players commit to playing and have them all turn up is something that should be a given, but I know from experience we were very fortunate to have 19 players who were mature enough and dedicated enough to carry through on the commitment they made. By contrast Macarthur were ringing around trying to get players out of bed at 9:30am - so if we can carry that maturity and commitment on through out the season then we will be very well placed to fulfil our potential!
I would like to thank all those parents that helped to get the players to the ground and in particular Fiona Hanrahan for stepping in to be team manager and the dads that helped out with goal umpiring etc. Also special mentions to the younger Zoff who volunteered to run water and our highly regarded recruit Kayne Quirk who despite not being able to play due to a fractured finger came along to be the team runner.
A reminder that training this Tuesday for the Under 18's will be held at Dukes Oval, Emu Plains where we will be training with the Emu Plains under 16 Squad -normal time (6:30 - 8pm). Then back to Greygums Oval for training as usual on Thursday 21 March.
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PRACTICE MATCH - Under 18's
Next Saturday 23 March we will be taking part in an intra club practice match at Greygums Oval. The match will be played between two teams comprised of a mixture of under 18s and Division 5 players. I would ask that all players be at the ground by 8:45am to allow us time to allocate jumper numbers for the season, sort out the two practice match teams and complete a proper warm up. If you are late you will have to choose from whatever numbers are left!
Last Modified on 21/04/2013 17:43