Coachy's Corner: Finals, 2011 Hi everyone,   Wow - What a second half!!! Our group is AFL9s Premiers for Season 2011, in what was an exceptional effort from our team not only on the day but throughout the 5-game season. Look, I'm not going to spend much time on the first half except to say The Bullets welcomed new player Michaela Hall for her first game in the Grand Final & we were really looking forward to the contest. We were up against The 9 Ninjas, who were undefeated like us (although they had played in a draw) - our scheduled game against them in Rd 1 a washout. Players played in the same positions for the entire match; Ed, Luke & Michaela in the middle; Laura, Rob & Brent in defence, while Dean, Olivia & Andrew played forward. It was a pretty dogged affair - pressure footy, not many goals and physical. Our side stood up well though, a few points up at the change. Dean and Andrew had one each, but we had to keep taking our opportunities in front of goal against this mob. They had made the first half quite physical, crashing into our players a bit; Luke took a full bump while trying to mark, the opposition not taking any notice of the player attempting to mark's drop zone. And I think Andrew copped one too which really isn't good enough. Anyway, I was really pleased with Laura in the back half picking up a few kicks, Rob was using the footy pretty well and Brent was as impressive as ever. Ed worked his way into the game with a couple of marks and Luke & Andrew were terrific.   Come the second half, we were ready to go, and go we did. Three goals to Dean in the half was fantastic to watch, one of them a running gem that snuck home after marking a fair way out. Those 3 goals really helped put The 9 Ninjas to bed, and that's what we needed Dean to do down there. There had to be someone to break the game open a bit and he responded, especially the goal on the run. Olivia was good too, competed for everything and clearly taking The 9 Ninja's best female player to try and cover her. Olivia finished with two goals, both from free kicks (also after being knocked around a bit) - she took her opportunities in the half. Andrew played a great game again, capping off a great season of footy. Two goals in the half for a total of three were extremely handy and the amount of running & marking he provided throughout the match really helped us. Another one in the same boat was Luke, who played a similar role to Andrew, in that he was just everywhere. Running and taking marks were his feature too and I can't recall off the top, but he set up a number of the teams scoring opportunities in a matchwinning  display. Rob, Brent and Laura stood up for us down back, Brent completely running off one of their dangerous forwards for most of that half, using the ball beautifully down the ground - he played a very good game and responded for the team. Rob played a strong game, again taking a couple of saving marks and knowing what to do with the ball. Wasn't pleased to see that he was another one who was felled in that half, another who's drop zone was ignored - didn't worry him though.   I thought Laura's game was terrific in that she got herself to the footy quite a few times and used it well in the process. She's a player who's going to get better at this form of the game the more she plays it. As is Ed, whose play has also been very encouraging week to week. He worked his way into the half again gathering kicks, which is always a very good sign when a player can do that against good opposition. He displayed good hands and covered a lot of ground. Our debutante Michaela tried hard in her first game, also covered a lot of distance, but was playing in a pretty tough position in the midfield first up, where you have to win your own ball. She did, however, keep her opponent to one handball.   So two Grand Final wins in three years is a great result and full credit to the team for making it happen on the ground. You'll hear more from me a little bit later on in my Season Review & Player Report Cards. Merry Christmas everyone!   Best Players: