Chin’s up, and so are his mates

THE MORNINGTON Peninsula under 18s defeated Hampden by 56 points in Saturday’s curtain raiser.
The young Sharks had the perfect start after Beaconsfield goalsneak Patrick Chin kicked two early goals.
Two further goals to Hampden’s one established an even four-goal lead at the first change.
At the quarter-time break, second-year coach Mark Douglas told his players they were dominating the centre clearances, but needed to be smarter in the forward line.
The young Sharks maintained dominance, and goals to Marcus Roberts, Brett O’Hanlon, Mitch Wilson and Jacob Barker increased their lead to 47 points at half time.
Only five goals were scored in the second half, with Mornington Peninsula scoring three.
The young Sharks played very impressively, with skill, determination and pressuring consistent throughout.
Rye ruckman Tom Baker was awarded the umpires’ medal. Narre Warren defenders Jordan and Keiran Roberts were named in the best players. They stopped many opposition forward thrusts and help create play. Midfielders Daniel Jones, Hayden Cameron and Jackson Casey played good games.
The Cardinia Casey league had six representatives and they were all key members of the team.
In the pre-match, Douglas noticed the lack of chatter among his players which contrasted sharply to his 2009 team.
“The guys were really quiet, not like the year before when they were up and about, but once the ball bounced, we’d soon find out whether they were on or off,” Douglas said. “And they were on straight away and played some really good footy.”
Douglas and his coaching staff went into the match with a limited knowledge of their opponents.
“You go into the game flying a bit blind,” he said. “You’ve got no idea who their better players are or what they can do.
“At training we said this is what we want to do and this is how we want to go about it. There was no magic game plan or (plans to) zone up; we said this is what we want to achieve and away we went.”
Douglas enjoyed his role and hopes to continue.
“I think the concept is fantastic. I think it’s good going in not knowing the opposition and (these games) sort the men out from the boys.”
He urged all clubs to send their players to training sessions next year so he can pick another quality team.