My Aussie Rules Rd #1 2008 Match Report

This is the first of, hopefully, a season's worth of match reports for matches I play in throughout 2008. Figured I might as well give an update on how things are going more regularly since there appears to be some interest.

Going into Round #1 2008 I was unsure as to which team I would be selected for. Readers of this blog will know that it is my season aim to gain regular selection in the Reserves team by the end of this season. Predictably I was picked in the 3rds for Round #1. Even though I say "predictably" I was still slightly disappointed as it is an indication to some degree that I'm not where I want to be yet. Would love to have been a fly on the wall in the Reserves team selection meeting though to see if my name even came up...

Anyway so first match was up versus Jimboomba. Supposedly an away game for us by their ground was unuseable and it was rescheduled to a home game. Never went there last year either interestingly enough. That was due to drought issues though. Not sure what the deal is now.

The match was scheduled for a 6:30pm start on Saturday night meaning the club had a "Triple Header" with games from all three grades being hosted @ YFC on the same day. It was eventually moved to 5:30pm which was a lot better for everyone involved.

Starting the match I was named on a half forward flank but the structure we set up meant this meant little (refer to quick hack at an image below).



Basically this was to leave lots of space open and keep the key forwards free to roam.

The first half I rarely saw the ball enter our 50. And when it did it was rare to get a clean possession to one of our forwards. Basically we were getting spanked. No goals up to half time and I don't think I had a clean possession to this point. Was involved in a few scraps but not sure I had a clean disposal.

At half time our coach had to head off (this was planned) and my 3rds coach from last year (2nds coach this year) took over. He revamped our fwd structure back to a more tradition setup (again refer to image below).



Towards the end of the match, especially the last quarter, the ball was entering our forward line quite regularly. Played the 3rd quarter @ Centre Half Forward (CHF) and the 4th from Full Forward (FF).

We kicked 3 goals in the 2nd half and I think two of those were in the last to get some kind of score on the board. But were pumped overall 16.11 (107) to 3.7 (25).

On a personal front the 2nd half was a bit better. The last quarter specifically. Got onto some long leads and took what I think was a great mark leading out from the goal square and marked just before the 50m arc. Heaps of times got out in front of my opponent when @ FF. No goals though and only a handful of possessions.

The CHF quarter was ok with me getting on some long leads and basically running around. For a while I was so frustrated with their ability to gain a centre clearance I was sprinting into the middle after the bounce to try and help out. Tried it a few times unsuccessfully but finally got my hands on it... to my surprise though. Was stunned to get it, was about to get tackled, looked around for a red and black jersey, didn't see one and had to quickly handball off and tried to chase it up. They still got the clearance but I held it up for a little bit.

Ran out the game quite well in terms of fitness. Felt fine at the end of the game despite a fair amount of short spurts and running. At one point in the 2nd quarter I was just sprinting off mini leads, turning, sprinting off in another direction, stopping, spinning and sprinting off somewhere else again for a couple of minutes. Was quite fun actually and I like to think caused my opponent some headaches.

Anyway that should do for now. If you have specific questions on the match, really only think Ben might, let me know :)