Gold Coast FC again travels to Melbourne this weekend as Queensland for the first of two Under 18s Championships games. The Queensland side plays in what is probably its toughest match against Vic Metro on Saturday at Casey Fields and then backs up again for Northern Territory at Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
Coach Guy McKenna provides the following thoughts:
Tough conditions last week with the weather and travel, do you think that was a contributing factor for the lacklustre first quarter?
I don’t think it would have helped, that’s for sure. Assembling at Coolangatta at 7am and not arriving in Tassie until 5:30pm certainly didn’t help our preparation but again it was a good test. From a physical point the boys struggled to get going, but mentally they were fantastic, there was no moaning or groaning about how it took so long and then training was compromised and then our recovery was compromised. Their level of professionalism was first rate that was certainly a tick in the box, it just took us a while to get going and after half time with the breeze, if we removed the scores in the first quarter, it was 10 goals to seven. So, we still went down but we certainly held our own for those three quarters.
Tasmania kicked 6 goals in the first term to Qld’s nil, after that the boys stayed in touch with Tasmania. What did you say to the boys at quarter time? Apart from the wind in the first quarter, I think it was more the fact that we didn’t get our hands on the ball. We have done that probably two or three times in the year with Gold Coast/Queensland, so it’s just a matter of us getting in there and winning the ball and when you’re winning the ball you can control the game and execute your game plans. Well, we rarely had a chance to do that in the first quarter and it still took us until half way through that second quarter before we got that ball back on our terms and used it. We scored some goals and so did they, 10 goals to 7, but I thought that was more of a reflection of where our work rate was after quarter time.
Fourteen changes were made last week, this week against Vic Metro, are we likely to see that many changes?
The situation I am in, coach of the Gold Coast Football Club and for five games during the year I am coach of Queensland with the same boys. So in the scheme of the year, the biggest game we were going to play was against Vic Metro, with all due respect to NSW and Tasmania. For the players that have done their work, some boys are coming back after rehab, so we had to make sure the squad was in the best condition to take on Vic Metro hence the changes last week. They were changes forced upon us by the fact we were looking to rest some of the boys before the VIC metro game and travelling to Tasmania took Saturday to Wednesday. They could have certainly played, but we have a heavy workload in the next couple of weeks and this gave us an opportunity to see some of the other boys at the top end, which was a positive. So there will be some changes this week that’s for sure.
Full Squad to choose from this week, will we see the best Queensland team on the park? Again it’s the boys that have shown the desire to work, shown the desire to overcome hurdles if faced with them and the boys who are in form and want to be a part of it. I would think that this would be the best side we can field in the circumstances we have got.
With the development of the squad, can you see any players you are standing up above the rest?
Well, I would hate to put lines through people or a tick against others, but what I can say at this point at this early age of the boys early development is that some will develop in the next month or two months faster than others, but personally I am rapt with all the boys. They have shown development in the gym, in their professionalism, I think it certainly needs to go up a few notches, I can’t really fault anyone in those areas with all that professionalism off the field we have seen some massive rises in some of the boys development and some that are just ticking along and that is a more to do with maturation than football or development thing. In saying that, I am rapt with all of them, they have all stepped forward, some at different rates than others but they are all moving forward.
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