AFL Report

AFL Exhibition Round — Saturday 20 August 2022

Team	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score
Shore Seniors 2	Scots	Northbridge A	Shore LOST by 17	Shore 41 (6.5) def. by TSC 58 (8.10)

MIC of AFL Report

It was memorable day for our Senior Team to farewell the season. The School kindly offered the Senior Team a chance to farewell the Year 12s by playing an exhibition match on Northbridge A. Now into Athletics and summer season, it was going to be a difficult task to find an opponent. Fortunately, we were able to get Scots to put together a team. This was also a day in history for them, as it was the first time ever the College has put together an AFL team to play a match. With over 160 players registered at Scots who play AFL outside the College, there is a strong push to have them included in the Independent Schools Cup for 2023. It was an important day for both teams, so the match had plenty to play for. Although the Shore Team have played together all season, Scots was compiled of club AFL players. They had plenty of depth across the field. The match was played in front of a strong turnout, mainly thanks to boisterous support of the Year 12 Rugby and Boarders. The match ended up being a very tight contest with both teams sharing the lead. Unfortunately, Scots were able to come away with the win in the final quarter. Hopefully, this encourages Scots so that they are more than capable to compete at this level, and we see more GPS Schools in the competition.

The match was followed by a morning tea that the parents generously provided for all players and supporters. It was a great event both on and off the field. A huge thank you to Mr Ticehurst and Dr Gilmour for putting this day together.

Thank you to whole AFL community for their ongoing support, passion and enthusiasm to see AFL thrive at the School. It has been a very enjoyable season and I am looking forward to 2023.

Mr G Tesoriero
MIC, AFL

First XVIII Match Report

The Senior boys were very excited to be able to play their final game at Northbridge A. Playing against Scots for the first time made the day a big occasion, and after such a successful season, we looked forward to the challenge. The Scots team was made up of mostly Year 12 boys, and so they were big, fast and physical. The game started well for us, with our press defence making it difficult for Scots to move the ball down the field. We were flushing out well, and keeping the ball locked in our forward 50. This gave us a lot of shots on goal. Unfortunately, we only converted a couple of these attempts. Meanwhile, Scots were able to break through our press to get some easy shots at the other end. The first quarter ended up relatively even, despite our dominance in possession and territory. The message to the players at quarter time was about ensuring that we competed in the air, as Scots looked to move the ball by foot.

The second quarter started well for us, with the ball again locked in our forward 50, but we did not capitalise on our opportunities, making too many soft or ineffective handballs within kicking distance of goals. Scots then started to move the ball better, and our defence did not adapt quickly enough, allowing multiple scores to the opposition. When we were forced to defend, the Scots pressure made us make bad decisions, jamming the ball on the boot rather than moving the ball through the hands. This enabled Scots to intercept these random blind kicks with their superior aerial skill. We went into half-time trailing, but the instructions were simple, get back to our game plan, move the ball by hands and compete hard for the ground ball.

We started the third quarter well, doing exactly as we wanted, which resulted in us retaking the lead with a few quick goals. Unfortunately, when Scots again applied pressure, we obliged by blindly kicking out of defence and not competing in the air. This was exacerbated by our aggressive defence structure, which actually worked the way we wanted, giving us uncontested marks when Scots rushed the ball onto the boot. Unfortunately, we dropped the uncontested marks, which then allowed Scots to rebound out of halfback and score uncontested goals.

With our team down at third quarter time, we knew we would have to lift for the last quarter of the year in order to compete and possibly snatch a victory. However, the lack of training during the week showed, as we again overran the ground ball, slipped off tackles and dropped uncontested marks. Scots pressure also forced us into kicking errors, allowing them to walk away comfortable as three goal winners. Despite the disappointment felt by our players, the Scots team were deserved winners, and having a competitive game to finish the season was a great way to finish.

Roberts-Thomson Report: https://bit.ly/aflreportw5. Access the Roberts-Thomson Report on the Lampada AFL page.

Mr M Jones
Coach

Top Image Credit: Shore vs Scots