Around the Grounds

What an atmosphere there was around the fields this weekend with plenty of smiling faces, Sam serving up delicious coffees in the Coastal Coffee van and our Westside crew cooking up bacon and egg rolls and snags to feed the crowd! We were lucky to also watch some entertaining games of soccer on all Fields!

U7 Geckos

On Saturday the Westside Geckos played against fellow Westsiders – the Goannas.

This week we played well enough to see a win for The Geckos.

Our team is maturing nicely and working well together creating opportunities for goal. We are starting to create space and play as a team which is great to see.

U8 Bees

The Bees flew to Samford for an early 8:40 am kick-off under overcast conditions. Samford had reserved a section on the main field to host the high-flying Bees, the soil was soft, and green grass healthy enough to substitute for lettuce on a sandwich.

The game started well for the Bees with a couple of close opportunities for James and Ollie up front helping the Bees faithful find their voices early. While at the other end Ben used his hands well to make important saves, and provided good rollouts, and quick goal kicks. Eddie braved a headache to run down the wing, but couldn’t get past another headache – the quality Samford centre-back.

0-0 at halftime. The boys looked well placed to go on with it.

Shortly into the second half Will had another likely long-range shot, and Harrison continued his excellent defending and even pushed forward for a couple of dangerous runs. But it was a few tired defensive errors around our goal kicks which provided open goal-scoring opportunities – Samford took all three. Woody was in the thick of the hard clashes assisting Beau but was taken out a couple of times close to goal.

Max scored a well-deserved goal late, and proceeded to aeroplane back to halfway, before flexing like Ronaldo while instructing his teammates to “fire up!”. Yes, this is an U8s football..

It seemed to work, as the Bees lifted and came close with Beau’s shot being blocked. But it wasn’t our day, Samford stole our lollies with a well-played 3-1 win.

The boys have recently faced some new challenges against better-quality defenders. And now have an opportunity to learn & improve at training.

The Player of the Day award went to Harrison – he matched the Samford centre-back and stopped everything in front of him while providing nice passes to his forwards.

U8 Hornets

The Hornets travelled over the hill this week to the Gap to take on the Aberdeen team and were ready for another tough match after their previous run in – however, were down two stingers with Ed and Ned away due to illness.

The Hornets started the game fast with some nice passing down the wings and taking an early 2-nil lead after some nice plays between Mika and Fitzy.

Archie took the keeper gloves for the first half and didn’t see much action early as the Hornets played down in their attacking zone, but the Gap Aberdeen soon found some territory and pegged back 2 goals late in the half to go into the fruit break at 2-all.

The second half saw a real grind between the two teams, with the attack being provided by Patty, Harper, Archie and Fitzy through the midfield and upfront, whilst our usual solid defence was run by Jasper and Attis, with Mika assisting them in the second half.

Cooper donned the keeper gloves in the second half and made some gallant saves, however, the Gap Aberdeen were pressing hard and making it difficult for him to get his goal kicks away.

The Gap scored a late goal to go up 3-2, and the Hornets tried their best with some attempts on goal in the dying minutes but couldn’t find the net.

It was an entertaining game and the Hornets gave their best!

There were 3 ‘Kickin Chicken’ Player of the Day Awards this week, going to Jasper – for his rock-solid defence, Mika for his non-stop running in attack and Cooper for both his keeping and midfield efforts!

U9 Brumbies

A tough game for the Brumbies this week, resulting in their first draw of the season. The girls played super well to be able to hold off Toowong after an unfortunate loss to them in the last game played against them earlier in the season.

Piper and Ruby scored their first goals for the season and they were both great goals set up well by lots of passing down the field between the team.

Player of the Day Awards went to Quinn for playing an awesome game and showing lots of awesome marking up in defence and Freya for never giving up and putting in 110% the whole game.

U10 Wallabies

After a challenging game last week against Bribie Island FC, the Wallabies were fired up for their re-match against Toowong FC Gold.

The boys had a strong training session during the week with Coach Brett, and it showed in their play during the match. A quick start from the Wallabies with fast passing saw an early goal for Hudson who combined well with Dash. Toowong answered quickly with a goal of their own, despite powerful defence from Benson, who keeps growing in his skills and reliability in the defending positions. The match was very even for the remainder of the first half with neither team able to find the net.

Toowong came out in attack mode in the 2nd half with two goals in quick succession. The Wallabies answered back with a goal to Ben – his first of the season!

The game remained close with both sides defending well. We knew it was getting close to full time, when the Wallabies got the ball back and Joel lined up a perfect goal which sailed past the goalkeeper to gain a draw, right as the full-time whistle blew!

The smile on the kids’ faces at the end was great to see.

The team has grown so much in both skill and enthusiasm for the game; their previous game against Toowong earlier in the season was a 7-2 loss. It was a wonderful achievement for the boys to get the draw this week, and they had a great time doing it! Player of the Day Awards went to Cooper, Isak, Joel and Ben. Well done Wallabies!

U12 Warriors

The Warriors took on Taringa Rovers White this week at home and were looking to improve on their last performance against the Rovers from earlier in the Season when they easily accounted for us. Having no subs was going to test the Warrior’s fitness out and they gave their best throughout the entire game.

Arlen and Eva shared the goal-keeping duties and provided some quick “long (over half-way)” throws to keep the Warriors in good attacking positions.

The Warriors went into half-time down 1-nil but stayed competitive on the pitch.

The second half saw a see-sawing affair and the Warriors were quickly running out of puff, and the Rovers found a bit more territory and had more shots on goal – but Eva held her nerve!

The Warriors pegged one back mid-way through the second half after Arlen connected with a bobbling ball from a nice corner kick provided by Flynn and the game finished in a 1-all draw!

Player of the Day Awards went to Savash for non-stop hard work through the midfield and up-front whilst Arlen was again solid in goals and scored the equaliser.

Well done Warriors!