Under 16s Coaches Report – Round 6

Round 6 vs Central Districts, City Mazda Stadium, Saturday April 13^th

Having secured top position on the ladder, there would always be a concern that our team might lose focus and be complacent, especially since Centrals had not won a game. We were also keen to offer opportunity to players within the squad that had worked hard and demonstrated significant improvement throughout the program. We entered this match making 12 changes and giving 6 players their first game and 2 players their 2nd game.
The game began evenly with Centrals showing that they didn’t deserve to be winless for the year. We fought hard and lead at the first change by a couple of goals.

The 2^nd quarter found us struggling with system and allowed Centrals to win the quarter. They out played us being first to the ball and using their taller side to significant advantage. They closed the margin to be within a goal at half time and probably deserved to be in front.
We were firm with our address of the players at half time and making a few positional and rotational changes saw us lift in the 3rd quarter kicking 4.1 to 2.1 to wrestle back momentum and to go into the last change leading 9.5 to 6.6.
Mitch Hahn went forward and impacted immediately and under age player Charbel Oueiss displayed moments of real brilliance to take a wonderful mark and kick his 4th goal and 2^nd for the quarter, all in his first game.
The final quarter was solid with us kicking a further 4 goals to 1 and see us running out comfortable 31 point winners in the end.

We now play the Eagles on Thursday night (5 day turn around) so player management and opportunity for boys to push for a finals position will be our focus. A further win will see us undefeated for the season so far and end the Eagles finals hopes.

Final Score: West 13.5-83 to Centrals 7.10-52

Goal kickers: C.Oueiss 4, Hahn 2, Kennedy 2, Blackwell, Jones, Chrysostomou, Simpson, Teague 1

Best: Hahn, McArdle, Thackeray, Kennedy, C.Oueiss, Burbridge