Coach's mid-season report
(delivered at the club night on Sunday June 19)
Good evening to you all, it’s
great to see so many here to support the club. For those of you
who don’t know me my name is Greg Moulding and I coach the U12
Blue team.
The U12 Blues is a new team
with a list of 24 players – approximately half of the list are
new to the club in 2005 and have never played competitive footy
or taken part in Auskick. The other half of the list have played
U11 footy last season. From the onset we faced some interesting
challenges – not the least being that the coach didn’t know the
players’ names, let alone what they were capable of!
We realised early that winning
games would be quite a challenge given our lack of experience,
but decided this was not the only yardstick by which we intended
to measure the success of the season.
It is extremely gratifying to
see in such a relatively short time the way the boys have banded
together and developed a team identity and spirit. There has
been a marked improvement in skills with the majority of the
boys. This comes from knowing their role within the team, what
the coach expects, understanding of team rules, match day
tactics etc. All areas where we started from scratch. I had
several people today comment on how skilful and switched on they
appeared today and that was only in the pre-game drills.
My philosophy on training is
that it need be relevant to the ability of those involved,
varied, interesting, challenging and enjoyable! We are talking
U12 football here not AFL, and whilst the boys need to be
introduced to the fundamentals of the game, rather than get too
technical, I think it necessary to remember that the boys are
there to enjoy themselves. In my pre-match address I generally
stress 3 things – the last of these is always go out and have
fun. Enjoy yourselves!
Now a few brief words of
explanation on some topics people have had queries about. In the
Blues we have a policy of rotating the captaincy. It is awarded
on a weekly basis in recognition of a “special effort” by one of
the team. It may have been for a great training session,
volunteering to play for the opposition, a terrific passage of
play that lifted the whole teams morale etc. To date every
Captain has truly deserved the honour of leading the team.
Each week, post match a
discussion about the game takes place and best players are
decided. Fitzroy awards a Best & Fairest at the end of the
season. To date probably about half the boys have been awarded
votes which says something about the evenness of the team –
basically first and second votes go to players who have
contributed to the team effort for four quarters and third and
sometimes fourth vote go for an individual act (such as
brilliant mark, a goal, an act of desperation that causes a
turnover, a shepherd or second /third effort that is just
fantastic to see) without giving anything away we have quite a
large core all very close in the voting.
We have a policy of giving each
player as much game time as possible. This to me is the most
difficult of tasks of coaching. I readily admit to getting so
caught up in the game, that quarters fly by and I realise “whoa,
I need to do some bench juggling”.
Communication between players
and myself/Alison has been an area of marked improvement. A team
rule set in concrete is that you must contact a team official if
you know you are unable to play. It makes it very difficult to
pick a side / fill positions on the field when people don’t show
up. This communication needs to continue – hopefully with a few
of our players and parents realising its importance.
It has been extremely pleasing
to have opposing coaches and umpires comment on the manner in
which the team plays. This happened again today – the coach of
the opposition team praised the sportsmanlike nature of their
efforts and conceded that the final score was not a true
indication of how close the game had actually been.
Congratulations to the boys for staying focussed/positive – Keep
it up!
At this stage I would like to
acknowledge the much appreciated support of Robin Bowerman
(Assistant Coach) and Alison Wade (Team Manager) who have
together shouldered much of the burden and made my roll less
stressful. All the boys and I thank you sincerely.
I would like to acknowledge
also the input/advice from Terry Hogan and Anthony Gillberg who
went out of their way to show a new coach the ropes. Likewise
members of the committee Steve Turner, Bruce Edwards, David
Ahern and Joan Eddy for providing information/advice on the
Fitzroy JFC way of doing things and providing excellent advice
in some interesting situations.
To the keen core of supporters
who attend each match and assist at training – I thank you.
Michael with the website, Tony as Goal Umpire Extraordinaire and
Alison’s right hand man, Frank trainer/motivator, Tracey keen
participant and valued sounding board… Peter for trainer, water
boy and for his efforts ferrying kids around, Barney helping at
training/goal umpiring. To others I have forgotten, I apologise.
Without your assistance we would not function successfully as a
team. So on behalf of the boys/ and myself I thank you all again
most sincerely.
To the boys of the Under 12
Blues we have come a long way already and I am really proud of
your efforts. I sure we will continue to develop as a team in
the weeks to come and go on to bigger and better things. I am
really looking forward to the next time we hear the Fitzroy
Football Club theme song belted out after a game.
Thank you. |
