Around the Grounds
After some “more” rain around during the week, the fields had Friday to dry out enough and host 11 Junior games at the Club on Saturday morning and the weather was perfect!
The were plenty of wins for Westside teams this round with a lot more smiling faces out on the pitch.
Some of our superb volunteers fired up the BBQ and kept the snags up to the crowd, alongside our coffee van friends Coastal Coffee! The BBQ will continue to run every second weekend at the Club so be sure to have a sausage sizzle and a coffee whilst your watching the kids!
U6 Tigers
Another great outing for the Tigers team this week. Unfortunately, we didn’t come away with the win but the team has improved in leaps and bounds with their skills, communication and teamwork.
We had some really promising attacking plays and some awesome defensive efforts from all of the boys this week.
Toby celebrated a birthday and shared some delicious cupcakes which was a great way to end the day. Happy birthday Toby!
Great all-round performances from James and Felix this week saw them walking away with the Player of the Day awards.
Bring on next week!!
U7 Geckos
U7 Geckos played Mitchie FCs’ Adelaide team. It was a great game with solid defence and some great attacking plays from both sides.
Paul received a Player of the Day award for fantastic defending and Lucas received a Player of the Day award for a terrific goal during the game.
U8 Bees
Eight Bees flew a long way north to meet North Pine Wallabies at Dakabin – missing two teammates in Archer and Max. Coming off a bye last week, and a washed-out training, the boys were keen for a run, and both weather & fields were surprisingly good!
The Bees started strong and had the better of the Wallabies for the first half – Harrison was excellent in defence along with Will preventing the Wallabies from shots on goal. James chased, Woody tackled strong, likewise Eddie, and they often found Beau, or Ollie up front, but the Bees could only manage one shot on goal when Harrison surged forward for a run. The Wallabies defence was fast & strong, keeping the Bees (who scored 13 goals in their last game) just outside shooting range. Nil all at the break.
I’m not sure they heard the coach talking with oranges, leftovers, and arms flying about as a large container of half-time oranges was smashed by only 8 Bees in record time!
Stepping out for the second half with full bellies and now running into a strong wind the Bees seemed to slow, but continued to hold the Wallabies out. Ollie, Beau, and Woody had a few chances up front to take the lead, but still couldn’t get a clean shot on goal – again the Wallabies defenders blocked them, or ran them down.
At the 3/4 mark – one sub began to show, and a tired Bees produced a soft goal kick directly in front of goal giving the Wallabies an easy shot to take the lead in what was otherwise a tight contest. The Wallabies lifted after their goal, and with the wind at their back, and confidence high they started to attack more freely, Ben made some nice saves, with Will, Harrison and James continining to chase, but North Pine produced more good scoring shots to put a further three goals past the Bees at the end.
If only the Bees appetite for goal had matched their appetite for half-time oranges! Well played & better luck next week boys.
Player of the Day awards went to:
Eddie – top running through the middle, unlucky not to get a shot on goal, and some great runs down the sideline; and
Will – excellent defending against good attackers, clearing kicks, and through balls to forwards.
U8 Hornets
The Hornets, unfortunately, had a washout this weekend being scheduled to play at the Grange home grounds.
The boys will be raring to go for their Round 12 game at Westside!
U9 Dingoes
With no rain the night before, we were excited to still be able to host the visiting Taringa Rovers side for what was to be another tight contest.
It was a back and forward affair for the first stanza with neither side able to get clean air and break free from the skirmish in the middle of the park.
Once the game settled, we were unlucky to fall behind from a deflection going past our keeper Will who found himself unsighted behind a pack of players.
The battling Dingo midfield of Jaxon, TJ, Toby and Magnus were working hard to maintain possession and feed the front line rotation of Brax and Max who had chances turned away and found ourselves down 0-1 at the break.
A quick break and positive peptalk was all it took to get them moving again. We were solid at the back with Leo and Noah forming a formidable backline with Noah putting in one of the best standing challenges seen, taking the ball and leaving his challenger (with at least a foot in height difference) tumbling on the deck in disbelief.
Will was playing some great outlet balls from the goal line to the wings where some great phases of play saw Toby and Jax come close but it was Magnus who was able to break the deadlock with a brace of goals from some well-formed build up play.
The game finished at 2-1 with a Westside victory. Noah was this week’s ‘Kickin Chicken’ Player of the Day with some committed defending and calm work on the ball providing the foundation of our win today. For a clean sweep from our defenders, Leo was awarded the Zarraffas training award for this week’s commitment to training.
Well done Dingoes!
U9 Brumbies
The Brumbies had a hard-fought 1- nil win this week against Bardon Latrobe.
U10 Wolves
This week saw a full squad back in action, with a number of team members returning from overseas or extended domestic vacations.
We’ve also welcomed a new member to the team – Erez – whose family has recently emigrated from Israel, where he also competed in community football. Also, a quick shout out to DoC, Greg Martin, who took the team for training the Tuesday prior to help the team with their defensive skills, it certainly had an immediate impact.
The Wolves hosted the Taringa Taipans at Westside. In training, the boys have been working super hard on their skills, and everyone’s baseline level is extremely good now. As a result, we played around with the positions a little bit to give players the opportunity to develop their overall gameplay skills. Boy did that pay off!
The Wolves were on fire for this game, securing a 13 – 2 victory, with great performances in every department. The highest scoring game on record for the Wolves. Finn (aka “Flying Finn”) a new addition to the team this season, stole the show scoring 8 goals in the game, equalling the record previously set by Eli back in 2019. Teo scored an awesome goal beating defenders and striking from an extremely tight angle. Eli scored 2, Dex and Jack also scored 1 apiece.
It’s often the case that the focus is on the goal scorers, but shout-outs have to go to the great performances from other positions. Eli, playing mostly in midfield, made some wonderful assists with pinpoint accurate passes to the frontline setting up Finn on a number of occasions. George, Dex, Noah and Alex did an amazing job of winning the ball, holding onto possession and providing assists. Erez showed his skills and slotted straight into the team in midfield. In the back James and Fraser did a great job clearing the ball and making passes up the line, Fraser, in particular, showing his ability to strike the ball cleanly. James covers the centre-back position with amazing pace, great positional awareness, and 9 times out of 10 winning the ball back. Jack, who usually takes left-wing attack, also played in midfield and defence. You can always count on Jack to find space on the pitch, make great tackles and strike the ball amazingly well, nearly always getting on the score sheet as was the case again today.
A special shout-out goes to Landon. The Wolves for the first time are lucky enough to have a dedicated goalkeeper. Landon has been training with Ritz outside of normal training sessions to bolster his skills and has made a massive contribution to the team this season. In this game, in particular, saved a powerful curving shot taken from a free kick. He also positioned himself nicely to close down angles and winning those challenging 1 on 1s verse the strikers. Great work!
The most rewarding element of this game was not just the performance on the pitch, but off the pitch at the end! The team, unprompted, lifted up Finn chanting his name in celebration of his 8 goals. Inspirational to see this kind of team spirit! No surprises – Finn took the Player of the Day award with an additional award going to Erez for quickly fitting into the team and making an impact. In terms of the season, the Wolves have now played 10, won 8 and lost 2. Scoring a total of 67 goals!
Many of the Wolves players were filling in for other teams on the day, so thank you to Eli, Landon, Dex, Jack and Finn for that. Eli scored an awesome solo goal for the U10 Wallabies, beating several defenders on route. Dex also took out a Player of the Day award for the U12 Wanderers.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the photos, let’s go Westside!!!
U10 Wallabies
The U10 Wallabies had a number of players away this week due to illness and holidays. Even Coach Brett was down and out! Despite this, the boys put in a stellar effort against UQFC Dynamite’s. With support from some extra players (and Coach Jon) the boys were able to pull off a 7-1 win!
The game started out quickly, with Westside dominant in attack from the beginning. 2 goals in quick succession from Dash, who displayed his now familiar style of getting involved close to the net and having a crack. Dash had great support from the team especially Isak in scoring both goals. Eli joined in with 2 goals of his own and not to be outdone, Dash got his 3rd goal just before halftime. Patty was instrumental in assisting Dash to find the net. The boys played a cohesive first half and went into the second half in great spirits.
The Dynamite’s came out strongly at the start of the second half, with two clean shots at goal which were saved by goalkeeper Ben. Dash took advantage after a throw-in and got his 4th goal with a run up the entire length of the field. An unintentional handball led to a penalty attempt by the Dynamites’ which just found the net. By then it was all but over, with a final goal from Dex, who had good support from Eddie.
Player of the Day awards went to Dash for his goal-scoring efforts, and Joel, who got some great kicks up the line and seemed to be everywhere! The boys all had a fun game and are playing so well together!
Big thanks this week to the players who helped out – Landon, Eli and Dex from the U10 Wolves, Patty from the U8 Hornets and Coach Jon.
U12 Warriors
The Warriors took on Mitchelton this weekend which saw us play the best team we’ve played this season with players who were technically gifted and scored some brilliant goals.
As always, our Warriors never gave up and always put in 110% even when the result wasn’t going our way! We will again look to improve week in and week out as we are the youngest team in our competition and still working hard on our team gameplay.
Player of the Day awards went to Dashel for a great defensive showing and top-tier tackling and defending, and to Theo for always looking dangerous up top and pressing hard for his teammates to go close to scoring on a few occasions.
