1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr Final Score
Calamvale 1-0-6 4-2-26 6-5-41 8-6-54
Redcliffe 2-2-14 3-2-20 5-3-33 6-6-42
Goal Kickers: Josh Patching 3, Dan Maher 1, Declan Watson 1, Mark Lynne 1
Best Players: Curtis Nicholson, Brodie Mizzi, Connor Bloss, Josh Patching
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Today, and for the third time this year, we travelled to Calamvale to play the Leopards. With a position in the finals at stake with a loss today, we knew Calamvale would be a team ready to do everything it needed to claim a win and the game was played by them like that. They seemed ready to attack both the ball and man and for most of the game were much more desperate and harder at the football than us.
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It is in games like these that we really need everyone of our players to step up and do there bit for the side and to not take a backward step when you have an opposition who feels there best chance of winning is to apply physical pressure at every opportunity, whether the ball is in the vicinity or not. Unfortunately today we had too many players who were not prepared to put there bodies on the line and totally commit to a contest when it was their turn to. If we, as a team, are able to progress as far as we know we are capable of in the finals, we will need each and every player to make a commitment to their teammates that starting from now, they will be prepared to make all the sacrificial acts it takes to make sure at the end of the games we are able to walk off the ground, win lose or draw, knowing that everything they had was left out on the ground and that when they come off they are left completely exhausted.
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And I know this is not in keeping with what I write usually but I just want the players in the side to know that Curtis was physically ill after today's game and could not do anything except sleep on his way home, he had worked so hard today. And believe me, I know only too well we have other players, Ryan, Lachlan, Josh.P, Connor, Ethan, Declan, Mark and Brodie too name a few, who consistently week after week give everything they have to get us a result, but it is the challenge I now throw out to the rest of the group to lift themselves up to that level and at least make sure when it is your turn to go you do so and help us get back to playing the games on our terms, rather than be dictated to by our opposition.
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I could quite easily here write about what happened in today's game as a quarter by quarter list but now, as we get closer to the part of the season we all want to be involved in, I feel it is more important that we, as a group, get together and re-assess where we want to go, how far we want to go, and how we, as individuals, plan to do that for the good of the team. That journey will begin as of tomorrow at training so I hope we all can get there to start the journey together.
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We have come far to far to let this season slip away from us and for the Tigers under 12's of 2009 it is time to draw the line in the sand and tell the rest of the competition that to get past us it is going to take there absolute best.
Chris Nicholson
U12's Coach
