Coachy's Corner: Round 4, 2007

Hi everyone,

This week we were faced with the challenge of a 6:30pm meeting with Hampton Magpies. We were coming off two good wins & in recent times, have had some good tussles with Hampton, so we were looking forward to the contest. We saw the return of Elodie for her second appearance this season, with Emma & Carla debuting.

Luke & Elodie started steadily in the middle but it seemed all the action was in our defence, with Rob Hazell, Emma & myself getting quite a few kicks as Hampton started to threaten. Rob took a couple of nice marks & Emma tried hard in her first half with the club, but Hampton was peppering the footy into their forward half. They scored a nine-pointer & two other goals but we weren't done with. Andrew, Dean & Narelle were as lively as ever, Andrew & Dean kicking three between them & Narelle passing off to Dean for his major. At half time we were 18-23, and being only five points down was a good effort against the wind. For the second half, Narelle shifted to the backline & Carla played up forward.

The half started with Hampton bolting away scoring the first two goals & leaving The Bullets in a bit of trouble. We needed to turn it around & fortunately at that point, we started to play some good footy. Rob was a general in defence, his strong marking & effective kicking is great to watch. He's a smart player in the air, the way he positions himself, he can use his bulk to contest the ball or mark it over opponents. Luke was fantastic in the centre playing well & taking very important marks for us. Elodie took two great grabs herself & shared her midfield role with Emma in good displays, while Narelle stuck close to her opponent the whole time again. But Hampton wouldn't go away & kept right at our heels being very competitive around the ground, but errors were surfacing for both sides.

We all know goals win games & Andrew & Dean kicked goals when we needed them. Dean was super competitive kicking one more & Andrew slotted another three, his last one from a classy one-hander. They were the difference in that half. Andrew finished the match with five & Dean two. The Bullets finally ran out winners by six points, which was a great result from very good opposition. That also takes us to three wins in a row in the best start to a season the team has had. We really do look forward to the rest of the season but are mindful there's still a long way to mid-December.

Best Players: Rob.H, Andrew, Luke, Dean, Elodie.