Week two of our SUNS U16 trial matches were played on the weekend at the Cavanbah Centre in Byron Bay. This was another opportunity for players involved in the SUNS U16 Development Squad to push themselves forward for selection in the SUNS U16 Academy for 2019. The review process from week 1 was centred around vision and education mainly being contested football and our ball use by foot on offence. These areas were then put into practice at training and we saw an improved performance across the 2 games on Saturday.

Game 1

Gold Coast RED: 10.6.66 Northern Rivers GREY: 1.9.15

BEST GC RED: Will Bella, Seamus Robinson, Josh Smart, Jesse McLeod, Jared Eckersley
BEST NR GREY: Malachi Dumas, Jed Foggo, Kesh Raju, Nick Ratcliff, Connor Foreman-Keenan

Summary: An early downpour of rain meant that both teams were going to have to be ready for a contested style of game with the ball spending most of the game on the deck. The two losing teams from week one started with an improved mindset and intent around winning the contested ball and we saw players from both teams keeping their heads over the ball and wanting to win the ball in a contested situation, tackling on defence was also pointed out during the week and the boys showed they had listened by improving in this area. Gold Coast RED got themselves on top early by being cleaner with the ball in hand and making smarter decisions by hand and foot. This allowed them to open up a 6.1 to 0.0 lead at 1⁄4 time. Northern Rivers fought their way back into the game in the second 1⁄4 by being first to the ball and being more patient with their build up and ball use. A more even contest was on the cards and the NR group had the opportunity to close the gap on the scoreboard with 10 scoring shots to 9 after 1⁄4 time. The game was tightly contested in the second half with only 1 goal scored between the two teams. Gold Coast RED made the most of their early dominance and ran away 51 point winners.

Game 2

Gold Coast WHITE: 9.5.59 Gold Coast BLUE: 5.3.33

BEST GC WHITE: Austin Harris, Cade Gregory, Cody Harrington, Shaun Regan, Lochie Howell
BEST GC BLUE: Jackson Griffiths, Connor Vincent, Luke Coombes, Finn Brown, Leo Trueman

Summary: There was some friendly banter throughout the week between the 2 coaches leading the two winning teams from week one into the final trial game of phase one. Both coaches’ eager to take the crown and go through this trial period undefeated. The teams had each prepared themselves well and players were ready to perform and put their hand up for progression into phase two of the SUNS Academy program.

All players were willing to work on the areas identified as growth areas from week one and it showed with the intent around the contested football being a highlight from both groups. GC WHITE gave themselves an early lead of 9 points but could’ve been further ahead at the first break after outscoring the GC BLUE team with 7 opportunities in front of goal to 3. GC WHITE increased their lead again in the second 1⁄4 and led by 15 points at half time.

GC WHITE again did the damage on the scoreboard in the third 1⁄4 and stretched their lead out to 25 points, with the conditions being quite wet and the ball spending a lot of time on the ground, the lead was too much for GC BLUE to overcome and the difference at the end of the game was 26 points.

A big thank you to all players and parents for their efforts to date and now all eyes will lead to the AFLQ – U16 GC AFLX Carnival this Saturday February 23 to finalise the selection process for the GC SUNS Academy Squad, which will be announced on Monday Feb 25 via email and on our Facebook page.

The following criteria will be taken into account when this squad is announced:

Game performances
Testing performances
Training performances (Including effort and attitude) SUNS Academy values
Academy discretion