Playing our first Heathcote Oval ‘home’ game we fronted up against our closet rival, the Miranda Bombers.

 

Right from the start, our boys looked switched on. We tried Adam as a forward this week and playing on the larger oval provided the freedom for him to create a bit of carnage. He set the tone for the day by creating plenty of opportunities, not only for himself but also his teammates.  

 

Our defence stuck to their task very well and restricted their forward opponents to very little opportunity. They worked together to bring the ball out of our backline.

 

The midfield worked their bum off again this week. Moving up and down the ground supporting both the backs and forwards. The coach must remember to rotate the midfield as they do get tired.

 

The forwards did the right thing and rewarded the hard work done by the backs and midfield by converting chances into goals. Congratulations to Declan on kicking 5 goals, which is a mighty effort

 

We were all rewarded with a victory and then proceeded to sing the Heathcote song. We look forward to singing the Panthers song very soon

 

 

We were invited to play this game at Rosedale Oval (Warwick Farm) as a curtain raiser to the full day of footy involving Moorebank Senior Footy Club. For those that don’t know, Rosedale is on one of the best footy grounds around Sydney and once our boys saw the state of the ground they were all excited.

 

We did give ourselves a chance in this game despite Bankstown always sending out a strong outfit.

 

Early on the contest was tight with each team providing highlights foe the healthy size crowd there to watch. Our backline led by Jack at CHB and James at Fullback were making it difficult for Bankstown to score, ably assisted by John, Brendan, Christian and Mitch. Mitch is providing us with plenty of run out of the backline and he is a beauty at running a straight line to the ball. The coach has gotta love that.

 

Our midfield continued their good form. Zac in the ruck, with Yanni, Liam H and Reagan providing plenty of run we were able to put some goals on the scoreboard. Luke R and Ben played on the wings this week and both worked really hard on a very big ground.

 

The forwards were able to convert. We had Dec at CHF, big Luke at full forward and Adam on a roving commission all of whom got involved in the scoring. Our other forwards, Chop, Jacob, William, Matty and Liam C were getting to the drop of the ball and chasing the defenders when we lost the ball, an important part of footy.

 

Unfortunately at the end of the game we fell just short of the preferred option of a victory, however we did come away with confidence that the work at training we are doing is starting to pay off.

 

 

We fronted up to play our second ‘home’ game of the season at our other ‘home ground’ Olds Park. Unfortunately we were unable to don the Panthers gear as we are still waiting for the shorts to arrive.

 

Our opponent this week was Cronulla who are the benchmark of the competition and we knew we were in for a tough day at the office.

 

In a good sign we had 19 regulars available (hope the knee gets better Ben), 2 boys trying our game for the first time, James and Matt and 2 volunteers from the Panthers U14’s Taylor and Hayden.

 

The first quarter was probably our best quarter of the season to date. We were hard at the footy, led by Yanni, Mitch, Reagan and Liam H. Our big men were up against some real big boys this week but to their credit battled away manfully, well done Jack, Zac and Declan.

 

By the time the quarter time siren sounded we were done by 4 points. We knew they wouldn’t be all that happy and the coach reminded the boys to expect a fired up Cronulla at the start of Quarter 2. And fired up they were. Despite our best efforts, the Sharks rammed on 6 goals to none and went into half time comfortably leading.

 

During the quarter, Cronulla showed by working together, running hard and supporting each other, how a good team can play really good footy.

 

Our backline did battle manfully but it is impossible to stop when the ball is coming into their forward line quickly. Zac at Fullback and James at CHB tried hard, as did Brendan, John and Mitch. Christian had a cracker of a game and has now set himself a benchmark.

 

We fought back in the third quarter and despite just losing the quarter we showed we can match it with the big boys. Matt playing on the wing also had his best game of the season. Dec and Adam were a bit quiet this week however up stepped Jacob, William and Liam C.

 

Cronulla eventually ran out comfortable winners but there was certainly some good signs for our mob.

 

See you at training through the week

 

“Sideline Eye”