Northern Suburbs Junior Men's Hockey Newsletter

2004 #19

Thursday 22^nd of July 2004

Events Calender

Last Weekend Results (16^th and 17^th of July)

Next Games (24^th and 25^th of July)

Junior Mens Presidents Report

I attended the BJHA meeting on Monday night 19^th of July at the SHC. Special mention was given to Peter Willington for his outstanding efforts whilst umpiring at the recent carnivals. Several people expressed their admiration for his ability and commitment to the task.

My thanks go out to all the boys and parents who have helped out at umpiring and at Technical bench duties during the season to date. An off-season umpiring course should be a priority to increase the number of capable and willing umpires for next season. This has been discussed between coaches and committee already this year and is something we should see to.

I raised the issue of the First-Aiders at Shaw Park not having ice readily at hand. They assured everyone that this problem will be dealt with swifty.

Peter Burke.

Match Reports

Norths Under 11 Report Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 July 2004

What an impressive weekend it was for the under 11 team. A double header against Bulimba and Commercial (the two top teams) was always going to be tough, but here’s how we went.

We didn’t start well on Saturday against Bulimba as they scored a very soft goal in the first 30 seconds. We missed a tackle and 3 traps which allowed them to score very easily.

But then we put our hockey brain on and competed very well. We had a couple of chances and a penalty stroke which unfortunately we couldn’t convert. This lead to us being 4 nil down at halftime but this wasn’t a true reflection of the game.

Second half we really had a good game and James converted another penalty stroke. We missed a couple of opportunities and had a number of penalty corners. Our midfield dominated theirs as they put most of their players in our circle, but our positional play was very good and we got in behind their defence on many occasions. I would rate our positional play better than any team that we come up against. This resulted in a 1 – 7 scoreline but it was a much improved effort.

Best on ground on Saturday were:

3 – Luke (had great control with the ball).

2 - Mitchell T (played a very good game at fullback and tackled great).

1 – Alexe (made good pace with the ball).

Sunday saw us up against Commercial where we more than matched it, and in particular our midfield again was stronger. Our pace in attack saw us continually pushing into their half and our instructions in defence were to stop the soft goals. This we did really well, along with improved marking of our opponents. The halftime score was 0 – 2 and the overall result was a loss 0 – 6. We got a bit sloppy second half but this again wasn’t a true reflection of the game. We competed very well and should have scored a couple of goals ourselves.

Best on ground on Sunday were:

3 – Isaac (made good ground with the ball in attack).

2 - Cosmo (played great at fullback and hit the ball well).

1 – Matty (attacked the ball and was very strong when he had the ball).

With only 4 more games this year, we have this weekend off (to practice down the backyard). At training this week we will concentrate on marking our opponents, passing to our team mates and attacking the ball (don’t stand back and wait for the ball to come to you).

Overall we have improved so much this season and Gary and I are very proud when we see the kids practicing those moves and skills we do at training. Next game we will concentrate on our attack staying around halfway and taking on our opposition defence. If we can pass to each other when attacking we will outnumber our opponents (who seem to always have 8 players in our circle). A quick hit out of defence will see us take advantage of that.

Thanks again to the parents for their support. Sometimes it is easy to forget how we started the season and how much we have improved. Gary and I see major improvement in every single player and we look forward to that continuing for the last 4 games. Keep at it kids.

Wayne Tucker

Under 11's Coach

Norths Under 13s Report Saturday 17^th of July

Back at the SHC(2) for the 8:00am game. Nice to have the help of the under 11's again. You blokes (Drew, James and Isaac) are a great help and it is appreciated by all of the team and myself.

This was a difficult game, so far this season against Redcliffe we have lost once and now drawn twice. Thanks to a magnificient defensive effort we kept them out – Aaron playing very well indeed and saving several goals on the line – a job well done! And lets not forget the goal that kept us in the game.

We still turned over possession more than we should with some passing done without looking – this happens when we're under pressure and you expect this but it shouldn't happen too much when we've got the ball – try to take the good option and this means you need to lookup and trust your fellow players. Don't panic in defense, just keep your stick on the ball and look for a way out that involves our players – it's important not to turn it over easily inside our 25.

We're doing okay and with the win from Sunday - again, well done boys and thanks to Greg who not only coached but umpired, and thanks to Corries' familly for doing a great job on the sideline, we've stayed in 4^th place and will probably play Redcliffe in the minor semi in a few weeks time – we can win this if we play well SO.... keep on practising at home and keep off the computer and PS2 etc. (yea right!).

Well done boys

Graeme Higgins

Under 13's Coach

News

Levies

A turf levy for all teams that play and train on artificial turf (Colmslie and Kedron Wavell/ Burringbah) will be imposed this year. The cost of the levy will be finalised and the players in the teams that play on this surface will be required to pay this levy by the commencement of the games.

n.

Norths Website

The website for the club is www.gjames.com.au/norths. Add it to your favourites. The newsletters will be posted on the site each week. Also the club is celebrating it's 30^th year and there is a lot of history and information contained in the site. Feel free to browse. There are also shortcuts to other hockey sites as well as wet weather details etc.Welcome once again to the 2004 hockey season.

Contact graeme_higgins@gjames.com.au by the Tuesday of the next week if you have any information to add to the newsletters – simply email the text or send an attachment.