AFLW Competition 

SNC vs Mercedes

When the tall Mercedes girls strode off their school bus in numbers, there was a few people heard asking the question about their whole team possibly being Year 12 students.  This made some of our shorter girls wonder about tackling around their knees..

But, when the ball was thrown into the air it soon hit the ground and that’s where we dominated the game. Charlize Williams did her best against her lanky ruck opponent, Ella Reilly won the ball with strong support from a tough Summer Pollard and the ball entered our forward 50. Our new player Sophie Eaton made the most of her opportunities and with the help of Kyla Shephard it didn’t take long for Glenda Cornwell to kick  a few goals. 

Captain Chloe Reilly showed that she is next level with a number of strong efforts to collect the ball, shrug off some tackles and boot the ball to make goal scoring look easy. We had the luxury of having Paige Craven-Bower play her first game for 2021 and she put on a display of precision kicking, strong marking and two (2) effortless goals. Some other first-gamers were Angel Moffat and Cassandra Marciano who were strong, tough and hard-working and a bonus to our team and certainly did their best to bring the Mercedes girls down to the ground with a thump.

Our backs continued to be solid with Chloe Miller not letting anything get past her, Ciera Power held her own against a tall and fast opponent and Ava Clements showed her skill and awareness around the ball. Lachauntae Eades just has great skill, run and evasiveness leaving her opponents grasping at air and Ella Hackett led strongly, tackled hard and run the wing all game in a very impressive effort. 

Our mids and forwards piled on the goals with Courtney Fitzgerald showing some prowess up front. Chloe and Paige kept the kicks flying in and the double flags were waved as SNC went on to win 77 points to 9. It was a great effort by the whole team, supported students, staff and parents the girls did the College proud. 

SNC V Ursula

It was going to be a struggle from the start…. 13 girls took to the field against a strong looking Ursula Frayne team that arrived with the music playing and a swagger, they ended up leaving with a L.

With five of our basketballers playing a semi-final at Bendat Stadium we were going to have to fight hard until the 'cavalry' arrived with singlets on and tired legs but a determination to beat the rivals from down the road…

It was great to have Zeta Stevens back as you know she will play with heart, go hard and put in her best for any SNC team and that’s what she did, playing in the ruck and winning the taps.  Down to Ella Reilly the ball went but she was tackled as Ursula sensed we were ‘under-womaned’ in this game, they got the ball and moved it to their forward line and scored… a point. And that’s all they got!!!

The SNC girls knew that our help was on the way so they battled and fought once the pressure was put on and they snapped out of their ‘social’ mode and into ‘game’ mode. Ella Reilly was running hard and trying her best to keep the ball moving with her skill and game-play, Summer Pollard slowed the Ursula girls down one-by-one with heavy tackles (fair) that sent a couple of them to the bench. Cass Marciano and Chloe Miller again held the fort in the backline, keeping the ball in front of them and knocking the oppo to the side. Jacinta Barraza was back, taking a great mark and providing the supporters with some comedy as she talked us through her exploits. Ella Hackett again proved to be such a valuable player for us with her leadership and ‘don’t mess with us’ attitude that was going to keep us in the game until our Captain Courageous arrived.

With 5 minutes left in the first half the sound of a car door slamming turned our heads and from 150m away Chloe Reilly sprinted across the oval, took 30 seconds to put on her boots and chucked on her jumper and raced onto the field. Chased, tackled, took possession, ran, dodged, 'sold candy', lent back on it and goaled…. Turning point!!!! The team lifted, Glenda Cornwell and Lauchantae Eades arrived not to long after with a determined-bus-driving Mr Godfrey and our plan had worked!!!

With a full team now available all our players lifted. Myla Norling, playing her first game showed her talent and potential with some great play and a goal. Marion Kipchumba in her first game ever did a great job of applying some tackling pressure and freeing up the likes of Akeelah Mayhew who showed great skill, scoring a goal. Kyla Shepherd scored a goal and was always involved with Courtney Fitzgerald helping out her teammates as she does so well. 

Chloe Reilly just kept on kicking goals (5) to make sure of our win with Lauchantae taking a spectacular mark whilst holding a water bottle and then kicked a goal; there were plenty of highlights to go around. Most of all though, there was a group of SNC students who had fun playing footy together, from different year groups but all doing their best for St Norbert College and doing our community proud. The score finished 64 points to 1 and with a number of players out with injury, work or exams next week is our biggest home and away challenge.

All players must get organised as we play Belmont SHS away on Tuesday 1st June so we need everyone ready to go. Failure to be available will let the team down and cost us a chance to make the finals so players and parents;  let’s get ready to play footy!!!

Mr B McGrath

Coach