Submitted by marky mark on July 6, 2009 - 12:07am
Posted in
The Mens B's have had some mixed results. The first week saw them pipped 5-2, with apparently a good solid no frills rucking performance and a few defensive errors coming from inexperience.
The next week then saw them come up against one of the three favourites for the Mens A premiership, The AUTC Mens A grade side. I counted the players in the side and 8 out of the 12 were making their debut season at A grade level, let alone 3-4 guys playing their first mens season of touch.
Despite losing 14-1 there were some promising signs. At least 5 touches came through almost non-existant gaps, due to hesitation and lack of communication on the teams behalf, which will easily be fixed come the end of the season. Once a defensive policy is implemented and learnt I have no doubts that the tries let in can easily be reduced to margins which are respectable. What needs to be done in situations where teams are not competative is concentrate on the things we can control easily and work on gradual and continual improvement. The results wont turn around over night, however with the attitude and philosophy of a team working together to improve, results can be massively improved upon from the seasons start to finish.
Last week saw us play one of the other 3 favourites for the premiership and in the second half the lads made me very proud. Despite giving 5 penalties in a row on our line, causing 5 sets of six in a row, we doggedly defended our line to keep the opposition out. Some of the dives to save tries wer inspirational and the desperation shown for each others team mates was something the Mens As could take note from. You can tell this is a bunch of guys who are willing to work hard for another and wanting to create a no blame culture. Yeah the penalties may have come from bad play from individuals, however not once did they point the finger at each other, they just got on with it and held out an attack which involved 4 players from last seasons State League Defence Eagles Premiership winning side.
To illustrate the teams attitude, they remonstrated with me that they wanted to keep in A/B grade division when the regrading was done as they wanted to prove themselves at this level. Unfortunately we are now in the C grade, however I believe this will allow us to get a better feel for the game and hopefully allow our less experienced players to get involved and evolve for the future.
I also throw out a warning for our guys as well, just because you go down a grade does not mena you are going to win games. We have to work hard at doing that and have to have the same work ethic we had in the higher division, anything else will see us being cellar dwellers of the C grade, something which I don't believe is an exceptable goal.
Everyone this is the team to watch in regards potential improvement. I believe by the end of the season this team wil have evolved the most as individuals and as a team.
Marjk
