Blight... Malcolm Blight

Hey Guys

Last Sunday we didn’t play our best football, we were rough in patches and full credit to North Ballarat because they played better football for longer periods and deserved the win. This Sunday will be a good opportunity back home for the boys to rectify that against Sandringham. They might be on the bottom with three wins, but if we don’t get our hands on the football then they will certainly sort us out regardless of ladder positions. Being a North Melbourne supporter as youngster, the appointment of Malcolm Blight to the Gold Coast Football Club board was a very popular decision amongst the coaching and playing groups. I really enjoyed watching the North Melbourne grand final wins in the late 70's and he was a favourite player of mine. The fact that he has spent 10 years coaching and winning two premierships with Adelaide, being a premiership player, Brownlow medallist and Coleman medallist speaks volumes about his success at AFL level. The experience and knowledge that he can bring to this football club is going to be massive and I have already said to him that my door is open and would love him to pass on any ideas and learning’s he has from football.

Bluey
 

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Top Four Calling

Hey Guys,

Last week against the Northern Knights we started off fairly well and the boys were competitive for the first quarter pinching a couple of goals against the wind. We addressed a few midfield issues in that first quarter and I was really proud of the way the boys composed themselves. By kicking 11 goals to 3 after that first quarter, we showed the Gold Coast performance we know we can deliver. Looking to this week against the Western Jets, both teams have changed at least one third of their players since our last meeting in round 2. Even though we had a good win against them, they beat Gippsland and Gippsland beat us. So we understand that we need to go about our business, we need to play our style of football and to do that we need to get first hands on the football. The boys are doing everything we are asking of them at the moment and combining that with the beautiful weather we have up here, it’s certainly makes life much more comfortable.

Cheers Bluey

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Defend Our Turf

Hey Guys,

We have had a busy month and the boys held their own playing for Qld in the National Championships and combining Gold Coast duties. Our boys suffered a bit of a hangover as far as the National U18 Championships are concerned and everything seemed to come crashing down on Saturday. Making 7 or 8 changes and trying to balance the players as best we can, we knew the heavy workload would come back and bite us at some stage. The second half wreck of the weekend created a positive for us that everyone had a flat one on the same day so we can spin that into a positive from a conditioning point of view. Most boys played 2 out of 3 games in a week and the final travel home probably affected their output on Saturday. To their credit, 10 minutes into the second quarter we were four goals each and thereabouts, but certainly after half time the boys went to sleep, literally. Their fadeout is good for us (coaching staff) this week as it allows us to prod the boys and stick it to them on the training track and test their resilience. We are looking to bounce back this week against the Denis Pagan coached Northern Knights and get back on to Carrara this Saturday to defend our turf.

Bluey
 

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Back In Gold Coast Colours

Hey Guys,

This past week has been very hectic, leading into VIC Metro, then staying down with most of the squad and staff in Melbourne. Harty came back up to the Gold Coast to train some of the boys. We sent some boys home after the VIC metro game and some squad members who didn't play on Saturday came down to Melbourne for the NT game.  We only had two days to prepare those players and we played our game against the NT on Wednesday, so 8 of the boys are going to have to back up this weekend again. 3 games in the space of a week has been a fairly unique situation and challenging at the same time. Andrew Weller, our conditioning coach has become our chairman of selectors this week and has advised the coaching staff who is available through workrate or injury. I'm sure that any AFL club would be utilising the same rotations of players as much as we are,  considering we are playing three games in a week. Hopefully we can have another thriller, up here on the Gold Coast, the boys are looking forward to that, The National championships are out of the way and out of 5 games we had two poor quarters which shows how well we can match it with the rest of the country. Hopefully we can have another thriller up here on the Gold Coast. Look forward to seeing you there!

Bluey

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