15/6/06
Football training
Warm up
Short skills
Long skills
Much better attendance at this session, must be something to do with playing this weekend. The session went pretty well, we’re playing one of the bootom sides so not expecting much of a contest.
17/6/06
Round 9 match - Won by 129 points
Did bugger all down in the backline, stood with my arms folded, 20m in front of man for practically the entire last half. Only 2 marks from opposition kicks for obvious reasons. We did manage to rack up over 200 points though which is very rare. Our forwards and midfield smashed them and that was about it.
20/6/06
Football training
Warm up
15 mins fartlek
Short skills
Long skills
It was freezing during this session, very hard to get warmed up properly. The fartlek was the first bit of scheduled running for a while but not to hard. Skills were good considering the limited numbers, training attendance is slack at the moment. The boys need to realise it’s hard work that has got us where we are and we need to continue with that hard work.
22/6/06
Football training
Warm up
Short skills
Long skills
Lots of numbers for this session, good to see they all got over the Tuesdayitis they had. Blokes not showing up to training sessions is being cracked down upon as well which is good. A couple who missed are starting on the bench, there’s enough competition for spots so they can’t get complacent.
The session was really good apart from that, ball moved well and lots of encouragement from everyone. We’re back to the start of the schedule now having played everyone once already. We’re playing an arch rival this week at their home ground where we haven’t beaten them for years. This will be the week though.
24/6/06
Round 10 match - Won by 72 points
We played the 4th placed team and gave them a hiding. It’s only the 2nd time in 12 years that we’ve beaten them at their ground so that made it even better. The first quarter was even but after that we ran away with it. I played mainly at full back against a player who made the opposition’s team of the century a few years ago. He’s getting a bit old now but is still a useful player. I managed to keep him goal less and had a bit of an impact on the game myself. 3 marks from opposition kicks and another one disallowed due to a team mate giving away a free kick.
The first and 3rd placed teams also played one another with 1st winning easily. We are still a half game from top and a game and a half ahead of third. We play the top team in a few weeks which will be the next big test to look forward to.
27/6/06
Football training
Warm up
Short skills
Running - 10100m with jog back recovery, 1 per minute + 10shuttle runs, 1 per minute
Long skills
The running actually took up most of the session. We’re looking at a few solid weeks of running before easing off heading into the finals. The turnout was better than the last few Tuesday’s as well.
29/6/06
Football training
Warm up
Short skills
Long skills
Just a session. Playing the bottom team on the weekend.
1/7/06
Round 11 match - Won by forfeit
This game started out strange and got even stranger. There was a decent wind blowing to one end and for a change I won the toss so we got to kick with it. The opposition which are on the bottom of the ladder then proceded to play with only one forward and 17 defenders. Needless to say it made it fairly difficult for us to score. We needed to change our style of play a bit quicker than we did and use our free players in the centre of the ground rather than trying to kick long to our forwards. The second quarter started with them having 3 forwards and 15 defenders despite them having the advantage of the wind. With a bit more space in our forward line we were able to score a little more freely. Halftime saw us up by 34 points, not a bad result for them as we beat them by 150 points last time.
This is where it got really interesting though, we came back out after halftime and they only had 12 players out on the ground. We continued to warm up as the umpires weren’t ready to start, thinking that the rest of their team would appear. Nope, none of them did. Teams must have at least 14 players on the ground for the game to proceed so the umpires had no choice but to call the game off, obviously with us winning.
I’ve heard a few reasons for them not coming back out, the first being injuries which is ok except the injured players could’ve stood in their forward line and been ok, it’s not like the ball was going down there anyway. Second was that they’re trying to save their percentage. This seems more likely, they play the second bottom team next week and if they win the battle for relegation will probably come down to percentage. Also as an added bonus their players got an extra half of rest for the upcoming game. It will be interesting to see how the league responds.
4/7/06
Football training
Warm up
Short skills
Fartlek running - 20 minutes
Short skills
Long skills
A pretty intense session mainly to make up for only having half a game last weekend. I got a huge blister on the heel of my right foot as a result of breaking in new orthotics. I went and got some treatment on it once we finished the running and it didn’t hamper me for the rest of training but it’s sore in my work shoes. I’ll have to try and pad it up properly, not a problem for training when I can get the trainers to do it, but my limited supply of gauze and tape at home will be tested.
6/7/06
Football training
Warm up
Short skills
Long skills
Short session tonight, my blister was hurting like crazy. Other than that training was ok, looking forward to playing a full game this week, unless the opposition decide to walk off again. Got the blister well patched up after training, hopefully it won’t give me too much trouble on the weekend.
8/7/06
Round 12 match - Won by 75 points
Geez we started slowly. We we’re a bit flat before the game which sometimes doesn’t matter but it did today. We found ourselves about 3 goals down at quarter time. The backline lifted in the second quarter so even though our midfield and forwards were still down we managed to win the quarter. After half time we really got going. The opposition had a player sent of for punching one of our blokes right in front of the umpire. We took full advantage, so did the bloke that was hit, he kicked 2 goals almost immediately and ended up with 6 for the game. By 3 quarter time we were 4 goals ahead and then smashed them in the last.
I played pretty well for the 1st 3 quarters, didn’t have to do anything in the last. Took 6 marks from opposition kicks, above average. Next week is the big test, 1st vs 2nd. If we win we’ll pretty much be guaranteed a double chance in the finals.
11/7/06
Football training
Warm up
Short skills
Running - 575m, 550m, 2*25m
Long skills
Wet and windy session. I took the running fairly easy except for the 25m sprints. Our skills were actually good considering the conditions. Hopefully more of the same on Thursday heading into the big game.
13/7/06
Football training
Warm up
Short skills
Long skills
A couple of new drills tonight. They went fairly well and the balls moved well. Everyone’s pumped for the weekend, big chance for us to assert our dominance on the competition.
15/7/06
Round 13 match - Won by 32 points
Woohoo, on top of the ladder. The conditions were terrible for footy, rained the whole game with one end of the ground pretty much under water and the centre was a bog. Didn’t matter much to us though we started slowly again. We got on top in the second quarter and stayed there for the rest of the game.
I played pretty well, 3 marks from opposition kicks and cleaned up a fair few along the ground as well. I also managed to escape unharmed from sliding into the fence in the first quarter.
We now have a couple of easier teams before our next big challenge against the 3rd placed team.
18/7/06
Football training
Our ground was in such a waterlogged state that the local council wouldn’t let us train on it. We had a team meeting instead and then went out for dinner. This and a short session and Thursday night means I won’t have done much training this week. Should be pretty fresh for the weekend’s game.
20/7/06
Football training
Warm up
Running - 10*50m tempo, jog back recovery
Short skills
Six of us completed this session before the main group started training. Our wives and girlfriends were playing in a netball grand final while we were supposed to be training so we trained early and went and watched the game which they won. I think our session was more solid than the main group’s anyway, we didn’t have breaks to set up drills or have things explained to us. Our ground is still in terrible shape but the weather has been good for the last couple of days so hopefully it’ll come up ok for the weekend.
22/7/06
Round 14 match - Won by 132 points
Pretty good conditions today, a bit of a breeze down to one end though. Lucky it was fairly warm cos I didn’t have much to do in the backline, only 2 marks from opposition kicks. These massive margins make the game a bit uninteresting, looking forward to a couple of weeks time when we have another GF rematch from last year.
24/7/06
Rehab
1km jog
Stretching
8*50m strides
Weights circuit
Stationary skills
We’ve started Monday night rehab training sessions in the lead up to the finals. Just a light session to get the boys together and doing something before the main session on Tuesday.
from the sounds of things you live in melbourne, wet and windy. which league do you play? hope all goes well in the finals mate. good luck
Certainly do and it was wet again last night. I play in the Essendon league for Strathmore.
25/7/06
Football training
Warm up
Short skills
Long skills
The ground was a muddy mess again which contributed to this session being ordinary. Basically we didn’t hit targets, couldn’t catch and during decision making drills we made errors. I wasn’t immune from this and my intensity needs to improve at training over the next few weeks.