After a month with no footy for our team and club it was less than ideal going into a top of the table clash.
Reynella did a number on us at home last time and left us with lots to think about and work on.
We have pushed the boys pretty hard at training over the last few weeks to replicate games and fitness. And they responded.
Going into the game I was quietly confident of the boys’ improvement and chances of upsetting the Wineflies on their turf.
We had a few changes into the side from injuries and sickness and it proved the difference.
From the first bounce our boys attacked the footy and hunted in numbers. It left our opposition scrambling and making uncharacteristic mistakes.
It was fantastic to watch.
Reynella hit back into the second and third qtr but the boys held firm and kept their foot on the throat as they say and matched them for goals.
It was a pleasing finish with us keeping them scoreless in the last and us putting it to bed by kicking another couple late goals aided by some amazing link up handball and movement from up the ground. Teamwork at its best!
This win means so much for our team to install the belief in themselves. It’s a belief I’ve always had about them and have tried to get them to believe in but now they acknowledge it too. Gold!  
As a coach it’s the best game I’ve been involved in and I couldn’t be prouder of the lads and all their efforts in a four qtr display. Great timing coming into finals.
Don’t be happy with that. Raise the bar again.
Well done lads

After what had felt like forever off we finally got to play some football again, The A grade had their Round 12 clash with Noarlunga called off just after half time way back on July 3rd and had not played a competitive match since, meaning we had 5 weeks between matches. It really felt like round 1 again as it had been that long so we made a specific effort to get the guys mentally back in the game and it seemed like everything we had done over the break had worked as we came out against the side 2nd on the ladder and won the 1st quarter 4.4 to 1.2. The second quarter was even better with the lads scoring 6.2 to 3.3 to head into the break 37pts up, our backs were working well, fwds were kicking goals when they got the opportunity and the mids were working hard. Just before half time we had Tynan Carney and Sam Smith come of with ankle injuries leaving us with only 1 on the bench for the second half, this situation got worse when we resumed after the break as Nash Mitchell tweaked his hammy again and Michael Shearer was put on ice with Hamstring tightness aswell. This meant that Sam Smith (in his 150th A grade game) had to go and stand at Full forward for us on one leg which he did gallantly. The 3rd quarter was a loss for us as Reynella could see we were running out of soldiers and that lifted their spirit and they were emotionally back in the game, the injuries plus probably our worst quarter of football for the year meant we lost the quarter 1.4 to 4.2 with Nathan Beenham scoring our whole score for the quarter. We had full faith that having a 21 point break at 3/4 time and our superior fitness would be enough to get the job done which it was and we ran out 18 point winners. A bit closer than i would have liked but i was very proud of the boys the way they ground out the win. Mitch Johnson was good all day, Brad Kirk was instrumental in the second half repelling their attacks numerous times and Huw Channing got asked to ruck all day which he did very well.

I hope to see everyone at the oval on Saturday
Russell Veenvliet – A-Grade Coach