Coachy's Corner: Round 1, 2009 Hi everyone, Welcome to Season 2009. We are of course back again at Box Hill for our second year at Elgar Park and looking forward to a competition that will run for seven weeks and hopefully see some good footy played by The Bullets. This year the comp will host four teams, instead of the six last year. Following a strong finish to 2008, with two stirring wins - including our final, The Bullets will field pretty much the same list of players as last season. Margit Tully is the only exception at the moment, as we wish her well being a busy working mum & hope to see her participate for The Bullets again in the near future. The Bullets welcome back Dean Jones from that broken finger and hope he has an exciting season. Round 1 The first five minutes was a tight struggle against AFL Vic, with our opponents kicking the first goal & moving the ball around well. The Bullets, although getting plenty of the footy, were coughing it up a bit through hand & foot, as the side adjusted to a new season together. Simon, Brent & myself played in the backline, Luke & Dani roamed the centre, while Andrew, Dean & Narelle fronted the goal line. Once the team started winning some clean possession & delivered the ball into Andrew's hands, we had our first goal on the board and never really looked back. Andrew finished the half with three goals and Dean two. Brent & Simon were fantastic in defence, desperately jumping at the ball, taking marks & clearing it out of trouble. Once Luke got going, his marking against opponents & kicking to our three forwards was contributing to our growing score line. Andrew was working hard up the field, also finding Dani, Luke & Dean with great passing. And once Narelle found herself on the end of a sensational Luke pass, she lined up, and put through her first goal, virtually on the half time whistle. We were in a good position & playing very well, but we had to keep doing what was working for us & take on the second half. Everyone remained in their positions for the second half, as the side went further ahead. We were getting a lot of ball out of the middle thanks to Luke & Dani dominating the centre. Both players were clearing the footy out, with Luke's hitouts & Dani's quick, slick handballing continuing to set the forwards up. With Narelle slotting her second goal from a Dean pass, she then gave him his fourth major from a neat little short pass, as well as having another shot at goal, for a miss, herself. Simon & Brent were putting an enormous amount of pressure on AFL Vic's forward line, plus setting up play downfield. Dani's second half was fantastic winning the footy over the ground & finding teammates by foot. Andrew finished off the evening with three final half goals to take his match tally to seven, with Dean, whose marking all day was magnificent, ending with six majors. It was a fantastic result for The Bullets, a big first up win 101-49, but with another big game next week. Parts of the game that really impressed me were Brent & Simon's pressure on the opposition, their running & manning up were extremely valuable, Luke's kicking - hitting targets, Dani finding plenty of the ball in the second half, Dean & Andrew's marking and work up the ground, Narelle's two goals from ripper marks and the way we played together for a 52 point victory. Best Players: Andrew, Dean, Luke, Narelle, Dani Massive apologies to Brent and Simon!