Back: Jerry Kovac, Meegan Bourne (Team Manager), Cameron Santaromita, Lindsay Marley (Asst. Coach), Harrison Cormack, Lewis Thom, Riley Downey, Zane Minotti, Callum Green, Blair Marley, Kade Burns, Digby Marshall, Darcy Cronin, Thomas Schmidt-Wilkes, Matthew Logothetis, Mark Downey (Coach)
Front: Jai Thomas, Riley Bourne, Hamish Thomson, Jethro James, Julian Amara, Daniel Schmidt (C), Josh Harris-Walker, Samuel Ryan, Kai Katnich, Keldon Wain
Absent: Joshua Morisey (inset), Patrick Fox (inset), Michael Raphael (inset)
It only seemed like yesterday when pre-season training started! A great healthy turnout over the first hot weeks of late February saw the Boys put through their paces.
With a couple of retirees off to pursue other sports, we were enormously lucky to welcome Harrison Cormack and Cameron Santaromita to our squad. It was even better to have Kia Katnich back from his 2015 round ball exploits, as we settled into Round 1 with a squad of 26.
With a mantra of Fitter, Stronger, Harder, Longer during pre-season, the training sessions were run at a fairly intense pace. Training was designed to match our playing style of hard-running with high skill execution under pressure.
This year the Players voted in a Leadership Group and it was with much pleasure on Jumper Presentation Night that we announced that Julian Amara, Jethro James, Joshua Harris Walker were joint Vice Captains and the Team Captain of the year was unanimously Daniel Schmidt.
Our first eight games saw us collect 6 wins and 2 losses having us sitting 3rd on the ladder.
The last eight games of the Home and Away season saw our record extend to 13 wins and 3 losses. Finishing the year in 3rd position.
A couple of highlights during the regular season was Harry’s 80m goal after the siren. And Sam Ryan’s absolute screamer of a mark.
Onto the 2016 Premiership Finals.
The 1st Semi Final saw us play against a challenging Rossmoyne Team; who were certainly on the improve during the season. Fortunately, the Boys turned up with a great mindset and literally blew Rossmoyne away with a dominant hard running game to come out winners by 84 points.
The next week saw us face our historical rivals, Applecross. In a form reversal, we struggled against a formidable opposition. They came out full of run and vigour and we found ourselves on the back foot after the first quarter. From then on the games was more even as we settled into matchups and structure. Unfortunately, it was too little too late and our run of consecutive Grand Final appearances had come to an end.
I did say to the Boys at the end of the 2015 season that they were all on a 5 year football journey before they enter senior football. There would be lots of bumps and bruises and ups and downs. Sometimes you will win and sometimes you will lose and as hard as the losses are to swallow they will learn more about themselves. Which can only be positive!
Huge “Thank you” to Meegan Bourne our fantastic TEAM MANAGER.
Organising two Teams (Year 7’s) as well as the Year 9’s, with the many game day demands and Bylaws is never easy. So we are all truly indebted to Meegan for keeping us on the right path.
Thank you to Layton Bourne for his tireless efforts as a Runner, Boundary Umpire and Water carrier during the season. You did a fantastic job, Layton!
To all the parents and “volunteers” Meegan and I THANK YOU. We appreciated all of your assistance as I’m sure your boys did.
Special thanks to Lisa Kovac, Kim Thomas, Mitch Thomas and Layton Bourne for running the Boundary.
Eddie Kovac and Ian Minotti for acting as Runners relaying messages out to the onfield players.
Huge thanks also to Graham and Leanne Cormack for organising the water for the Team. They were there for every training session and every game. Also thanks to Graham, Lou and Adrian for running water on gameday.
We are all truly indebted to the great Coaching of Lindsay Marley. Thank you also to Kingsley Morisey for his assistance at training over the season and for Running on game days.
As the game gets quicker and the players get bigger the role of the First Aiders becomes more important. So I would like to sincerely thank Kate Fox and Marie Schmidt for all of their professionalism and diligence rendering aide over the season. It is always a good sign when they have a quiet day.
Thank you also to Paul Logothetis. Week in week out Paul “ran” the Interchange for the Team. With a full squad of Players available on most Game days and the requirement to manage game time, this is a very important role. We tended to average around 80-90 interchanges per game. That is never easy! Thanks heaps Paul.
Congratulations to all the players who tried out for the respective District Development Squads. Well done to Daniel Schmidt, Joshua Harris-Walker, Kia Katnich, Samuel Ryan and Thomas Wilkes-Schmidt on making it through to the East Fremantle District WAFL Development Squad.
I remain very proud of all the player’s achievements over the season. A very rewarding year in skill development and game understanding. Well done to everyone involved.
Mark Downey (Coach)