The boys were put through their first practice match last Friday evening - an internal trial at Coopers Stadium.
Although the teams were initially split into Probable’s v Possible there were many swapping of jumpers & changes made as the game wore on.
We had a number of players who are currently injured and unable to play – Campbell, Jackman, Pfitzner, Fuller, Massie, Donohue, Muster, Schild, Douglas, Hughes, Phillips, Zorzi, Jenkin, O’Malley, Borlace, Marshall, Aish, Holm & Duigan all sat the game out. Of this group only Borlace & Marshall (both midyear) are unlikely to be available Round 1 with the rest likely to show their faces over the trial period in the next four weeks.
Pleasing on the night was the performance of new recruits Terlich (HFF/Mid) – used the ball well & got plenty of it, Lee (FP/CHF/FF) – took some good marks, lead well and always looked dangerous, Dawe (Ruck) – very light in build but jumped high at the centre bounce & did well around the ground & Gunning (Midfield) – Won plenty of 50/50 ball & his kicking was excellent. You can then throw in the performances of Doyle (Ruck), Jericho (W/HFF), Puopolo (BP), Skinner (FF) & Hanna (Mid) with whom all showed patches of what they will bring to the table in 2009.
Also extremely encouraging was the performance of Kieran McGuinness who has not played for 12 months and who has had aninterrupted pre-season with illness. To once again see Kieran control the defense as though he never left the game put a smile on the faces of a number of people on the night.
Friday night’s game was followed with a recovery session at 8.30am on Saturday morning and then a player information day. The day was designed to go through our 2009 game plans, style of play, communication, administration matters, team bonding & select our leadership group.
I am pleased to announce that James Gallagher was clearly favored to continue in his role as Captain of the Norwood Football Club whilst Brett Zorzi, David Trotter, Kris Massie, Bryce Campbell Nick Duigan & Stephen Doyle were all selected by the playing group to support James as leaders in the upcoming season.
Our Saturday ended with a couple of very exiting if not different at times games of 20/20 cricket. As supporters you will be happy to hear that we won’t be losing any of our boys to the hard ball game although Weatherald, Terlich, Lee, Puopolo, Trotter, Zorzi, Arbon & Stopp (to name a few) all believe they showed enough to have a few of the Australian team watching their backs.
We received no serious injuries, only a couple of bruises from our internal so all looks good for our trial match this coming Friday against last year’s Grand Finalists Glenelg at Coopers Stadium.
Due to the expected weather conditions (41 degrees) the Reserves game will now commence at 6.00pm (2 x 20 min quarters in the first half) with the League starting as close to 7.45pm as possible. Please come along and show your support to the boys as they build towards Round one & our clash with arch enemy Port Adelaide.
Mark Ross
Football Operations Manager
