Many people have been asking how the boys went on the weekend.
Apart from many of the boys (who stayed overnight) having a great time on the social front here is a bit of a summary.
The team that Perry supervised played with 8 players and one of the players was a younger boy from Macedon community club who kindly helped us with numbers. Given that, the feedback from Perry was that the boys largely did well-all things considering. The boys obviously tired considerably in the last game and I think copped some goals but if the TD specifically mentions he was impressed for large periods then I think this is a good outcome.
The team that I coached for the day was also up against it numbers wise with 8 and half fit players but even with that I felt it was a frustrating day for the boys. For both teams there were many reasons why the games were always going to be difficult. Whether it be a long early morning drive or a late night at the motel, preparing for the game was different and not ideal for most boys. So while I was not expecting a razor sharp performance the level to which my team couldn’t execute passes and find space was still below what the boys are capable of. A few of the boys battled admirably but it really was a day to put behind us and move on from.
Having said that there is always something to learn or reflect on and this week, at the end of the games my team spoke about the importance of mastering and never being satisfied with the mastery of the absolute fundamentals of good passing and a good level of touch and footwork. We spoke about how we start almost every training session with half an hour of a passing and footwork “drill” of some sort. In light of our game, we confirmed the importance of approaching this with 100% commitment and about working outside of training on these basics daily.
I also left my team with two questions to reflect on. After a fairly flat day, following a goal from Isaak that pegged back a deficit, for the remaining 5 minutes of the final game, the intensity, communication and standards demanded of each other raised considerably compared to the other 50 minutes.
My questions to the boys therefore were:
- “Why did we wait for this situation to raise our level”
- “What do you need to do to make sure you start every game like this?”
I will remind them before next game and see what happens!