De La Salle v Glen Eira

Match Report

The Guns were set for another huge challenge, opening proceedings at Waverley Oval with a game against Glen Eira. A couple of outs as well as a debutant playing her first ever game of footy, Amanda.

The opening quarter was a real scrap, with some slippery conditions providing an additional challenge in the opening stages. Glen Eira had the majority of the play, however the Guns were able to defend strongly, led well by Michelle Bourke on the last line of defence. We saw glimpses of the running play that we are continuing to work on. One of our strengths this season will be our ability to run, we have some great runners in our team who are continuing to improve their skills on the outside.

By half time, Glen Eira opened up a lead but we were beginning to become more competitive around the ball in the second half. Our midfield group of Jess Carson, Jules Luth, Poppy Palma, Lucy Papp and others were able to nullify the opposition from being able to burst out of the stoppages, instead, forcing them into bombing the ball forward under pressure. Our defence saw plenty of the ball, but were able to make scoring difficult for Glen Eira, with their incredibly high skill level on display, they were able to kick a number of goals under significant pressure, adding to the scoreboard.

One of many things to love about this team however, is their incredible positivity and resilience. The opening two games have been challenging, against high quality opposition, however the last 10 minutes of this game against Glen Eira was the best football we have played so far in this season. There were some memorable plays in the last quarter, the strong attack on the ball coming out of defence from Izy Catrice, Stevie Hatzis in her second ever game of footy going back with the flight of the ball creating a 2v1 to cause an incredibly strong contest in an act of bravery which summed up the effort of the guns for the entire day.

All 5 of the Guns team values were on display on Saturday despite the scoreboard, the teamwork displayed was brilliant, the grit within this team despite the scoreboard was inspiring. The value of Community was on display for the second week in a row with a number of Guns players manning the canteen post game for the Under 19s game. The respect that the guns show to everyone within our program, our club and the opposition and umpires, is brilliant to see. And our last value of Optimism has been on display right from the beginning. Despite a challenging start, our training numbers are brilliant, the Guns are still desperate to keep improving and are loving playing together. I can confidently say that we are the only team in the competition to have 7 players playing their first season of football and having had 10 new players in their club in the first two games of the season!

This team is improving with every minute of footy that they play and with a young and inexperienced group coming through, the more that they play together, this team will improve very quickly.