THE SENIOR PLAYERS FINALLY STAND UP AND PLAY AT A LEVEL THAT IS REQUIRED!
we finally saw sugar "captain " the team, bt far his best game of the year, not just by his decision making and skilllevel, but his leadership
joel bowden playing more accountable and playing more aggressive and direct out of the the backline
tuck, not shanking every kick
richo, playing a team game, not a richo game
tiv, was not fantastic, he was clearly beaten on the night, but he played a role and didnt stuff up his disposal and didnt play scared!
brown just being browny, hi leadership last night was invaluable
so what did we see, we saw a raw young team, take a more fancied opponant to the cleaners, sure we still made mistakes, but the score board flattered the skunks
but............
the most impressive thing to me was not the score....it was
the unity! the team finally played 4 one another, for the first time we saw 22 players looking out 4 one another and playing "happy" and with great emotion. in turn they had more confidence and skills were way up.
this is the only game this year where the team actually looked like they wanted to play and were happy to play. first game this year were every peice of play that deserved a celebration , got one! every good bit of play was acknowledged by teammates with a pat on the head, butt or back!
its the first time we had a coach looked composed and relaxed. maybe terry has been listening to the fans, maybe not , but i find it ironic that he gave total ownership to the players, the senior players took control and designed teh training for teh week, the senior players picked the team for the week, the senior players chose the game plan they wanted and look what happened. some may say , terry had no idea thus told the players to take over, some may say thet terry cant coach so gave responsibility to the team.
i say
terry finally coached well cos he listened to his team and took it on board and didnt act like a know all dictator. terry finally stopped geting all scientific and just let the boys play footy! i hope from now on , this becomes our game plan, just to go out and play one on one footy.
we still need work on getting the ball out of defence more fluently but we are still young
its only one game, but our yr ended by rnd 11, its all about building momentum and belief for next yr.
i mentioned in another post the other day that last nights game is the game that we will turn back in a couple of years and say, thats the game where the tide turned and the rfc got its mojo back.
our yr has been a disaster, but we have beaten the pies!
all we have to do is beat the bombers in rnd 21 and then we can at least salvage something out of this yr and build for next.
ps, all you peoples who said jackson is no good! we must keep this kid because he will be a gun, and he loves the biff! he stands his own ground and he has red hair!
and on a side note, thursty and mguane will become the two best defenders in the afl, with a bit more experience and weight, they will become the dominant defensive duo .
