• • Under 8's Lightning Carnival Match Report
    
    What a fantastic Lightning Carnival! The sun was shining, a little bit of wind and the four ovals at Murphy's Reserve were looking good, and were going to see a lot of football! Our three games were against East Malvern, East Brighton and Prahran, and after a very good home and away season with 7 wins and 7 losses, we were all confident that our style of play and team work would hold us in good stead.
    
    First up we had East Malvern, and after a very even first half into the wind, we followed with a flurry of goals in the second. Jacques gave us a good early lead, and then Luca managed two goals in as many minutes that had all the Port Colts supporters on the boundary cheering for more! Some fantastic ball movement in middle from Ashton, Henry M and Connor early, and some great runs and long kicking from our Captain, Thomas. I was really pleased to see some strong tackling here from Ethan, Jenson, Jacob and Jax to really give us the advantage.
    
    After a 30 min break we came back ready for East Brighton. This was a tight game largely going goal for goal that was later confirmed post game by the goal umpire that we had in fact won it by two points! The effort and fight until the last moment is something we were becoming known for over the season, and to see it again today from everyone was brilliant. Trace captained us in this one and led from the front with his tackling giving others first use of the ball. George got a lot of the ball in this one and some great kicks and runs to advantage. Nearly had a snap of the year contender! Ashton was fantastic in front of goal again, and continued to throw himself at everything. Was great to see Henry ES and Henry Mac win some of the ball here and get kicks away, while Will, Hamish and Archie tackled hard. Angus had some cracking runs with the ball and kicked long when we needed it. Thomas managed a late goal to seal our second win of the day!
    
    We then had a Prahran side we knew well. They knocked us over at their place early in the season, and we returned the favour on our home patch, so we knew we were up against a good side. We went behind early and Daniel's drive and run typical of his consistent games over the day and season kept us in it. At one point he was second to the ball, used his body and won it back for the Colts - magnificent stuff! Sasha was captaining our side and played well supporting our player back and preventing goals against. Luke and Liam combined well and also put their bodies on the line for the team and took the mighty Port Colts forward on a number of occasions, as they had done all day. Unfortunately we ran out of time on this one and Prahran were worthy winners. Finally tally for the day was two wins and a loss.
    
    On behalf of Coach Anthony, I'd like to thank all the parents for your help this year. It all works so smoothly when everyone helps out. Big thanks also to our super team manager Trish for making sure all the details were sorted for every game, and also to Rob and Damo for umpiring our games. I also wanted to thank out Club President Darren Williams and Colts organisers Rod Sharpin and Annette Maloney for ensuring we had a team sorted, registered and could provide such a great environment at Murphy Reserve each week. Our club owes a great deal to you. And lastly - a big thank you to all our marvellous under 8's! Watching you all grow over the season to become the team you are, and the way you wear our famous Port Colts jumper with pride was so fantastic to see. I can't wait to see how this team grows into the under 9's next year.
    
    Don't forget presentation night on the 29th Aug - see you all there.
    
    Thanks,
    Wazza
  • Match Report Round 13 Sunday July 29th

• PMCJFC Under 8 vs Beaumaris JFC Under 8

  Sunday 29 July at Banksia Reserve (Away)

  Coach : Anthony Cullen

  Assistants: Warwick Horsley & Damien Oliver

  TM: Trish Oliver

  A bright and early start at 8:00 am out at Banksia Reserve for the last of our home and away games, the weather was suitably chilly for our mighty u8s. The new and vastly improved facilities at Banksia Reserve are a real credit to the footy club and local community; grounds were in good shape with the smaller ovals for our age group all set up and ready to go on arrival, including some very fancy “temporary” shorter posts with great padding and a warmish dressing room to get ready in.

  All were looking forward to the return clash against Beaumaris who gave us a bit of a spanking when last we met. We had three co-captains,  Henry ES, Archie and Jax  and they all gave rousing speeches to the team-especially Jax who was channelling some of the great coaches of the past…..inspiring stuff young man!

  The first quarter got underway with a tough battle for possession taking full swing in the middle of the ground, our mids were winning the ball well and getting it advanced in the windy conditions….Beaumaris defenders were well organised and repelled most of our forward charges. Liam got us on the board with a sneaky dribble quick from the pocket (#savethedribble candidate for sure). Beaumaris managed to get a few points registered for a pretty even first quarter. Our three captains were all determined to put in great games and it showed with their effort across their respective zones. Jax had an almost maniacal approach to winning the ball up front and kept up the spirit all day. Henry M and Ashton were very solid in the mid field and our backline kicked to plan after opposition minor scores just as trained on Wednesday night. Great credit to Sasha, William, Ethan and Jacob, who all contributed when called on with Daniel and Archie leading the way.

  2Q saw us shuffle a few positions including ramping up our backline to defend against the wind. Ashton, Trace and Henrys ES and M were very strong in defending the goal line. We managed to stay close in touch with Beaumaris for much of the quarter with a see-sawing game of hard won possession well and truly underway. Jax, George and Ben knuckled under and really kept things tight….Liam made 10 tackles or so and forced the issue repeatedly. Daniel and Archie were very good up front as were Jacob, Connor and William….just couldn’t get the usual run and carry game going as all credit to Beaumaris who are a really well drilled squad with exceptional team work and focus. Archie copped one high during the quarter and had to be reluctantly replaced to be checked out….thankfully he was recovered enough to get back on the deck later in the game. Half time came with the game in the balance, all troops were upbeat and confident of securing a win.

  3Q we had a freshening breeze at our backs, but just couldn’t land the results despite getting plenty of ball coming our way…really good strong team effort this quarter with contributions evenly spread across the ground…..George was particularly strong with great efforts to win the ball back through strong tackling and ground ball pick-ups. Luca, Jenson and Taj all played good parts in our defensive 50. Hamish, Angus, Jacques and Luke were very good in the mid field and Henry M did some handy ruck work to our advantage. We were very close as the siren sounded after the forwards registered a few good goals.  Our worthy opponents have some very good kickers in the side and they were well placed across the zones to allow them to efficiently move the ball forward when crunch came.

  We were confident we could muster the strength to overcome this team, despite a now howling breeze being to their favour…..what an exciting quarter of footy we witnessed. The ball went back and forward the whole length of the field with some excellent marking, scrapping and kicking from both sides….Beaumaris managed to finish off their forward entries a bit better than we did to run out comfortable winners but it certainly didn’t feel that way on the sidelines as the contest was tight and fought in a good spirit. Taj lost a tooth (due to come out thankfully) so was replaced mid-way through the quarter….Ashton was everywhere and both George and Luca had arguably the best quarters of footy as did many of our team.

  Our home and away season is now over, with just the Lightning Carnival to wrap up the season. Its been a pleasure to coach this team of enthusiastic youngsters, they are all great kids who clearly love their footy and are prepared to listen and learn at training and in games. All have got better as the season has gone on through hard work and great focus…congratulations team. Hopefully you have all had great fun!

  Thanks to Wazza and Damien for all their magnificent assistant coaching, running and drills each Wednesday and on game day…..with my travel schedule,  its fallen to these guys on many occasions to manage training and I’m very grateful for that- great turn out each training with Mums and Dads helping too.  Thanks to all parents who have done the volunteer roles each week…it’s what keeps the kids able to play.

  Huge thanks to Rob who has shouldered the burden of umpiring most weeks – a calm and assured presence for both sides each week (please can we have another one two or more Mums and Dads step up to do the umpire's course and provide some additional resources next year)….

  Biggest thanks of all to our dedicated and amazingly well organised TM, Trish Oliver- makes us all look good each and every week!

  Go Colts!

• Match Report Round 12 Sunday July 22nd 

NO REPORT

Match Report Round 11 Sunday July 15th

PMCJFC Under 8 vs Oakleigh JFC Under 8

Sunday 14 July at Murphy’s Reserve (Home)

Coach : Anthony Cullen

Assistants: Warwick Horsley & Damien Oliver

TM: Trish Oliver

Another great day for footy, cold but generally fine weather greeted our intrepid U8s as they shook off the cobwebs from two weeks away from footy. Having trained well under the guidance of Wazza, the team looked up for the challenge of Oakleigh. With our leader and mentor Trish Oliver away, we were a bit muddled in our setting up, but got there easily with the outstanding help across the parent group, particularly the Boots who were deputised TM and general “go to” persons for the day. After some confusion as to which oval we were playing on, all was settled and agreed with fellow teams and our always on hand and hardworking club committee members- thanks all!

Our Co Captains, George and Ethan, won the toss and wisely elected to have the breeze at our backs for Q4. An evenly matched midfield resulted in a real tussle for ball control in the centre of the paddock…there was no easy yards to be had as each and every possession was hard fought and even harder defended by both sides. Oakleigh took advantage of the wind when they did get hold of the ball in space to start putting our backline under pressure….what a display of hard defending we turned on. Whole group continued the fight and Ashton and Daniel led the way with some great counter attack made possible through good solid tackling by Henry E-S, Angus and Hamish. Ben’s goal line “stay at home” role was played to perfection with a couple of certain goals touched on the line! The mids worked hard to gain some ascendancy in the later stages and got the ball forward against the wind. A few minors resulted, but only one goal down was a good effort with a three goal + wind in Oakleigh’s favour.  Liam and Thomas were stand outs in the midfield for Q1. Not a lot of work for our forwards, but when it went our way both Taj and Henry M looked up for it.

We opened up the second quarter with some really positive ball movement out of the centre, excellent service to our forwards by Daniel, Ashton and Angus. Confidence started to grow and we locked the ball in tight in our forward line, aided by the breeze and a tenacious approach, George and Jenson were determined to tackle everything that came their way and again, Liam went looking for the contact and was hard at it…great tackling also in the midfield by Ben, Sasha and Angus saw us win more ball than not. The quarter however “belonged” to Thomas, who was outstanding in both getting his own ball and capitalising on team mates sending it his way…..a three goal haul, including some surging run and carry was a display that had all and sundry cheering. A special mention here must also go to Jenson, who nailed an absolutely perfect legal tackle and was rewarded with a free kick---great to see! We went into half time with a handy lead.

The wind definitely picked up for Q3 and our worthy opposition regrouped for a big second half. Oakleigh midfield threw everything at our team and were very effective with their kicks, our backline came under immense pressure and were forced to repel a virtual tsunami of ball coming their way…..some excellent last line defence by Jacob, George, William and Hamish resulted in Oakleigh kicking 10 points and only one goal for the quarter…..we could only think what the score line might have been had we not been so committed to defence and they kicked a little straighter. We managed to get a bit of ball back through the midfield in later stages of the quarter. Being heavily outscored was not as a result of bad play by our team, we were just outplayed by a very good side who really lifted.

The break allowed us to spin the magnets a bit and confidence was pretty high as we had the wind with us. Again the midfield was a real arm wrestle for possession, we did get on top and started to move the ball well in the forward line…blustery wind made accuracy difficult but we did manage to reduce the margin considerably…Thomas  got another run and gun goal and Daniel kicked an absolute cracker from the pocket on the run with an inside out banana against the wind that truly never looked like missing off the boot, the umpire just watched it sail over his head- Eddie Betts eat your heart out……you cant teach that sort of skill, it’s all natural! The final siren came and we were just short of a win…..definitely no shame in that, we played a quality side who performed well as did our mighty U8s for the most part. We had a few lapses in concentration at some critical times, but we can work on that and as is really important to note/remember this group are all in their first season of junior footy and finding their way week by week. We will be better for the match hit out as we approach the final few games of the season.

We will focus on full game effort at training this week, also on better tackling technique as we probably tested our umpires patience on a few occasions with bringing the opposition to the ground a little too enthusiastically…..great to see motivation like this but we must all ensure injuries are avoided. Reminder to all that our method has to be the “bear hug” without dragging down or slinging!!!

Really pleasing to see improvement and good development across the whole team…..all starting to get that playing a role in team sport is what gets everyone involved, wins games and allows the really skilled ones to look good in doing what they do; which is never possible unless team mates contribute as, when and how they can.  

Thanks to our club caterers who kindly donated two vouchers for the canteen for BOG from both sides….Oakleigh were very thankful for this touch too. Our nominated selection panel of one (thanks Pat) selected their number 20 who was terrific all day (across all zones)…and Oakleigh awarded our Thomas for his great game and four goals!

Go Colts!

Match Report Round 10 Sunday June 24th

U8s Colts vs. South Melbourne JFC

Albert Park Lake (Away)

Sunday 24 June 2018 10:30 AM

Coach: Anthony Cullen

Assistants: Warwick Horsley and Damien Oliver

Team Manager: Trish Oliver

We were greeted with a slight but very chilly breeze at the home ground of our local rivals, South Melbourne. We have an unbeaten record against the South team, including the season opening Bedford Cup triumph; the whole squad was keen to keep it that way. Decimated by injury, sickness and travel, we took the field one player down under the leadership of Co-Captains Jacob and Luca. We declined the kind offer of an extra player from South but gratefully accepted their generosity in fielding only 17 as well. Thanks to South for that terrific act of sportsmanship!

The opening quarter saw us peppering the goal line with entry after entry, coming away with multiple points but no goal, all were up and about with plenty of great ball winning from the midfield and “locking it away” by the forwards. Taj, Daniel, Archie, Luke and Thomas all shining with great support from George and Ethan. Henry Mac also continued on from his BOG performance of last week. South managed to get a late goal to make it a close run score line, despite the dominance in possession.

Only a few magnet twists for Q2, with backline giving forwards a well-earned rest and get them into the game. A really pleasing aspect of the whole match was the way we set up for every ruck contest, our canny Assistant Ollie was big on developing this particular game skill/sense and we have progressively spent more time of it each week at training. Underlining again just how good a team we have for learning, we dominated the ruck contest all day, winning clearance after clearance with all zones putting into practise our drills to ensure we have time and space around the contest.  Ashton and Liam had a fantastic Q2, winning plenty of hard ball and getting it to our run and gun champs, Daniel and Thomas who both had outstanding metres gained games! South had regrouped and presented with a renewed vigour, our team was equal to that and ramped up their effort to match. We straightened our kicking and went into the half time break with an OK lead.

They call it the premiership quarter for good reason, a freshened up team hit the deck running and soon asserted themselves over our worthy opponent. This was done with contribution from the entire team, yes our “stars” did what they do and ran, kicked and passed really well….but there was absolutely no quarter given anywhere across the paddock. When the ball was there to be won, we won it…. when the tackle was there to be made, we made it….when a team mate presented for a pass, we passed it and most importantly….when a goal was there to be kicked, we kicked it!

We knew South would come at us with a freshening breeze to their end. Pleased to say we were equal to the task and continued in the same vein as Q3. This was an impressive team effort again; lots of those little 1% efforts which go unheralded but mean so much the team.

One play summed up the team effort, focus and development of this team of mighty Colts: with South pressing hard on their half forward line, a sensational (fair) tackle was made with the ball spilling our way, the tackler hacked it forward for an on the run pick up/bounce/weave and kick lace out to a team mate who duly marked, played on and delivered a great pass which was again swallowed up in our forward line, again play on and terrific pass to the (much mentioned and practised) Hot Spot where a chest mark was taken in heavy traffic by our full forward. Turned around, took his time and potted the goal. This brought the house down and the applause was not limited to our own supporters! Under 8s with a chain of play like that certainly brought a smile to the faces of all those watching. Every goal kicked in the second half was a result of great team work.  Well done to George who was rewarded with a goal after sticking to team instructions holding his place deep in the forward line which is hard to do when everyone is keen to “see ball get ball”….same applies to our “stay at home” fullbacks who stuck to their role and were great as last line of defence – Henry E-S, Angus and Luca all did this at various stages.

Connor and Henry M ran hard all day and Jax, Angus, Ethan, Hamish, Henry Mac, Jacob were tough in defence in all zones.

Another good game for our Colts, the South coach extended his compliments to our group and was effusive in praise for their team work and ball skills…well done all.

Go Colts