U15 AFL Swan Shield
U15 AFL Swan Shield Recap
On Tuesday, the Under 15s boys AFL team headed to Albury to compete with the best schools in the Riverina.
Unfortunately, our day didn’t start off on the best foot. The bus overheated and broke down on me, which left us with 20 would-be footballers stranded on the side of the road a few k’s out of Lockhart. I sent an SOS to Lockhart Central School and said “sorry, I’ve got a random request, but could we borrow your bus”. Luckily, it was free, and they and delivered the bus out to us within 15 minutes, and we were back on the road.
Our first match was a bit reminiscent of the performance of our bus. Despite starting strong, looking promising and showing signs of delivering the goods, we came to a standstill just before the break, with Finley piling on 3 classy goals in quick succession. Despite having our chances going forward throughout the match, we were only able to covert one chance after Olly Mohr won a contest 3 on 1 that allowed Judd to stroll into an open goal. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to close the gap any further, going down by 2 goals. Standout players were Bryce, who played a really strong game at fullback and Archer, who showed his smooth moves and classy skills both at full forward and through the middle.
Our second game was against arch rivals the Ag and Mr Davies and I had the boys revved up to prove that, at a minimum, we were the best sporting school in the region. Disappointed from the first match, our boys came out firing and blew Yanco off the park. Pete dominated in the ruck and our midfield started to get some momentum, Jed and Emmett getting clean clearances forward. Zach Hutch was swung forward and starred, providing connection across half forward and looking dangerous around the goals. Judd started clunking his contested marks and Ross and Archer were both able to hit the scoreboard when they were resting at full forward. Best on however, was Briggsy, who was not only a brick wall at Centre Half Back, but was incredibly damaging with his ball use as well, culminating in a bomb from outside 50 that sailed through the goals.
We ran out 7 goals winners and set up a clash in the final against Corowa High School.
Corowa looked the strongest team all day and would have been confident coming into the final. But one thing they hadn’t come up against, were a pack of crazy tough leaguies. Our boys started the game with some incredible tackle pressure, and Luke, Pez, Lachie and Olly left a lot of the Corowa boys thankful that they were wearing blue shorts and not white. We flew out of the blocks kicking 3 goals in the first 5 minutes. Unfortunately, this burnt all of our petrol tickets and we weren’t able to keep up that unreal level of pressure. Corowa were just too classy across the board, and ended up running out comfortable winner.
Overall, we were really proud of the boys efforts, and Mr Davies noted that this was the most competitive footy team that he’s coached in 9 years. Thanks to all the boys who don’t normally play footy who stepped up so we could field a really good team, shout out to Briggsy who was voted as the player of the day. And special that also to Mr Shady and Dave who helped to retrieve the broken down bus and returned Lockhart’s bus back yesterday morning.
Mr Tom Dore
U15 AFL Coach