Round 1 Match Report : Paddington Colts U10s VS Leichhardt Juniors
Hi Colts Family,
Well, what a fantastic first match for the mighty U10s!!
It was a blustery autumnal day to mark the U10s first game of the season at the home of rugby league, Burrows Park.
The game was only a few minutes old when the boys sent the ball wide to our Captain Angus Peshos, who raced away for the team's first four pointer. Simply no better way to start the season and it looked as though our intense pre-season training was paying dividends. The ref then made his presence felt with a spate of technical penalties leaving the coaching staff scrambling for the complimentary NRL compendium that contained the rules, during which time Leichhardt bounced back with two quick tries. Louis Johns, backing up from the U9’s did a fantastic job steering our boys around the park and selecting our runners, including Lochie Jones who looked dangerous every time he got the ball. Lochie saw an opportunity on the right side & sprinted away to score in the corner taking us into half time all locked up at 10 all.
The second half commenced with both teams looking for answers and fortunately we found ours in our crafty little hooker Max Nearn. Max took it upon himself to ignite the team from dummy half and score not one but two scintillating tries in one of the greatest ever debuts in junior rugby league history. But credit to where credit is due, these scoring opportunities would not have been possible without the hard work of the likes of “The Beast from the East” Alex Vesper who was outstanding on the left edge reminding me of young Paul Sironen, sans the white tape around the melon, and Cy Matkovic, who on debut, ran the ball hard and straight in the mid-field, building valuable momentum for our team. Speaking of momentum, we must mention Jasper Thomas who worked hard all day in attack and defence, at one point making three tackles in a row then forcing a knock-on. This is the type of effort that I’ll be looking for all year because it can turn momentum and win you football games.Tommy Vesper looked threatening every time he ran the ball, and pulled off two try saving tackles that will no doubt feature in the season highlight reel, while our Victorian debutant Finn Gilligan menaced the defence countlessly and showed the potential that has him so highly sought after by all codes, including approaches from the NFL, NBA & even the IPL. I’m so glad his parents Mike and Bec have seen the light and embraced the greatest game of all…. Finally, displaying the type of character that will define our team this year, the boys fought back into try scoring territory before our other U9s player Kaieke Mckinley raced away to score a brilliant try in the final minutes.
There’s a little conjecture with the final score, but according to my calculations it was a 26 all draw. Regardless, I could not have been happier with our teams performance and effort for our first game, bearing in mind we played with one less player! Well done to every boy who played and you should walk away with confidence for our next game.
Thanks to:
- Louis and Kaieke for playing up an age and helping out with numbers.
- Archie Benuska who helped out with the playing gear and the sign on sheet and with Richard, will be our Ronnie Palmers for the season.
- The Jones family for supplying the oranges on Sunday. We’ll set up a weekly orange roster. I’m just going to come out now and ban mandarins from your backyard tree, unless they’re seedless in which case we can discuss.
- The great Achilles for taking a few action shots. Great images
In other developments, Kyrstie Peshos has thankfully agreed to be our Manager for the season. Kyrstie will send out game and training details and look after the game day paperwork. Thanks Kyrst!!! In the meantime, if you haven’t already can you please download the Team App, and then join our team, Paddinton Colts U10s 2018. We will be using this app to update our playing schedule, post match reports and send out messages.
There’s no game this weekend due to school holidays, but it doesn’t mean you should switch off altogether. I recommend you sit down as a family and watch the '89 grand final. I’ll be asking questions at our next training run. Also, here’s the link to the Colts victory song “Who Are We” which I have no doubt we’ll be singing regularly this year.
We’ll send a separate email regarding training details for the season, but there will be no training this week.
Enjoy the holidays.
Jimmy Vesper
0449 262 475
0449 262 475
