Round 1 kicked off at The MCG of the East this week against The Upper Ferntree Gully Football Club. Before the day had even started Graham McCallum was on the job at 7.30 in the morning fixing the back of the coaches box after some, let’s say intellectually changed individuals defaced the back of the coaches box overnight. While the on field results didn’t go our way, the junior’s family day was a massive hit and the Noel Jones Membership and Merchandise Tiger tent did a roaring trade. BIG SHOUT out to all those that attended, Kristy Grace for helping put the day together and all those you helped. Winners of the Andrew Peace Wines match day raffle was Brain Lucas 1st prize Matthew O'Dwyer 2nd Prize and Julie Searle 3rd Prize THANK YOU all who purchased tickets.
Congratulations to Cam Taylor who played his first and last game of season 2018 last week to take him to 200 senior games for the Mitcham Footy Club. Tails has been a terrific guy to have around the club and he thought the time was right to hang up the boots but also didn’t want to be keeping a young fella out of the team. Always a selfless player he enjoyed premiership success on two occasions and said that “It's been such an honour to have played this many senior games over the last 12 seasons, plus another 4 in the juniors, with this great club. I have met so many amazing people over the years, many who are some of my closest friends. The people are what make a club and without a doubt Mitcham have the best supporters, volunteers and staff “WELL DONE Tails on a great career but we haven’t seen the last of him taking on a develop role and the seniors runners job.
Next week we face Croydon away as we look to get on the winners list #strongandbold
Under 19s Coach Report
In what was quite a physical game against a bigger opponent our boys jumped out well dominating the quarter; however we didn't get it on the board. UFTG bounced back in the 2nd gaining a 2 goal lead at the half time break. The 2nd half was a tough even struggle in the heat but we just couldn't bridge the gap. In what was the 1st game of 19s for 95% of the team without getting the result, couldn't help but being pleased with the team effort. The ball use, contested ball, the tackling & pressure acts were great,With THE BUY IN awesome, so we have created a benchmark of acceptable performance & more importantly a platform from which to develop as a group Best Billy Stingell ,Laughlin ,Powson,T Stingell ,M Hammond S Antonou
Kevin Bentley
Reserves Coach Report
What a great day to start the year off in perfect conditions, however we couldn't get the right result for us going down by 6 goals. To Upper's credit they put in four qtr effort and hit up the short really well whilst capitalising on their opportunities. We started ok in the first but our second qtr was poor with Upper kicking 6 goals to our 1, from their we fought back in the second half with scores about even but the damaged was done in the 2nd and that remained the margin. Plenty to improve on for our young side playing 4 qtrs will be our focus, some positives though in the second half as we showed we can match it with a very good outfit. Mick Barro was terrific off half back and on the ball, Bluey worked hard all day in the guts and Marty De Luca was solid shutting down a dangerous fwd in the second half. Lots to work on as we move to face last years premiers Croydon this week. Thanks to all the supporters for cheering us on the boys and I very appreciate the support.
Steve Jordan
Senior Coach Report
We kicked off the season against Upper Gully who missed the finals by percentage last season so we knew it would be a tough fist up encounter. After a big pre season and with 7 players playing their first game for the club, it was with great excitement that we approached the game.
Unfortunately any good feelings we had were knocked out of us pretty quickly as we failed to handle the pressure that Upper Gully brought in the first quarter. Simple skill errors, fumbling at ground level and poor decision making haunted us during the first quarter allowing them to open up a 5 goal lead at quarter time.
We were much better for most of 2nd quarter and got ourselves back into the contest only to concede 3 late goals cheap goals. Down to only 1 fit player on the bench for the last quarter and a half we did keep battling away and showed some good signs that we can build on for next week. There certainly were some positives with Jesse Uren and Riley Nicholas both eligible to play under 19’s acquitting themselves really well in their first senior game for the club.
We now know the level that we need to get to and I’m confident that we will regroup and bounce back strongly this week against Croydon
Thanks to everyone who came out to support us on family day, we really appreciate your support.
Neil Winterton
Last Modified on 09/04/2018 20:23