Month: September 2014

Well what a year it s been. From the first game to the last I am sure you will all agree the boys improvement has been outstanding.

First of all I d like to thank the great bunch of parents for their no fuss approach to the rostered duties and passionate support from the sidelines. There is nothing better to not only see the enjoyment on the boys faces but hear the roar from the boundary line absolutely brilliant.

I know we are not playing for points but the boys and parents knew the exact score and recall a game at Gairloch Oval where the crowd noise was so tremendous I thought, I was at Patterson s Stadium. Since that game we taught (with the help of Jake Simpson) the boys the club song. There were some heartfelt renditions over the year.

Secondly to my assistant coaches Andrew Kelly & Greg Collins thanks for all your help throughout the year at both training and game day. Running the board and bench at the carnival is a thankless task but was completed without fuss.

To my wife Jade, thanks so much for organising the year. The Team Manager role is critical to the whole Team s success and I am sure you ll agree timely, concise communication is the key.

To the Boys in Year 4 Blue Well Done!! I am so proud our all the boys how they applied themselves to training and on match days. At training this year we focused a lot on handball, kicking, ruck and tackling drills. This paid off in spades as we had many examples of quality ball movements by hand and by no means least we (in my view) were the hardest tackling side around.

What I hoped the boys learned over the course of the year apart from mateship, teamwork and skills was the value of the Bulldogs jumper and jacket. The Booragoon Bulldogs is a fantastic club run by volunteers, without this we wouldn t have experienced such great moments.

Finally on a personal note I wanted the thanks the boys from both Year 4 sides. They are a talented group that bonded so well over the year. It was a privilege to coach them and I welcome the opportunity next year.

Well its the end of another season, thanks to all for your help and to the boys WELL DONE!! Enjoy your summer break and look forward to seeing you and a few mates all next season. Go Bulldogs!!

Richard Mulroney (Coach)

This year, like last year, saw an enrollment of approximately 27 boys, keen on a game of proper footy for the first time since most of them commenced playing Auskick 3 or 4 years ago.

The difficult decision was made once again to split into 2 teams to ensure that all of the boys could have a game every week rather than either having to have boys miss out on a game of football, or run 10 man interchange benches for every game.

I have once again had the honour of coaching the Booragoon White side whilst Richard Mulroney, who with his lovely wife, Jade, handled most of the organisational aspects for both teams, took control of the year 4 Blue side.

As was the case last year, the year 4 White boys were a pleasure to coach and showed amazing development over the course of the year.

On a Wednesday night training, we trained the 2 teams together which helped to continue the camaraderie of all the boys (even though they were split into 2 teams) as players of the Booragoon Bulldogs Junior Football Club Year 4 Age Group.

This year saw the football become much more willing with tackling now being available to the boys. It is fair to say that most of the boys took to the physical aspects of the game like ducks to water and thoroughly enjoyed the fact that they were playing football more like their AFL heroes.

Over the course of the season we were extremely competitive in most games, the only problem being that on most occasions we were only able to field 12 players and therefore had to even up with the other side over the course of the season. This usually saw us borrowing 1 or 2 players from our opposition for every game with mixed results.

At various stages, however, all the boys shone and the most pleasing aspect of any game was when we were able to see genuine teamwork support for each other.

We saw a couple of new players join the Club this year, and without exception, they were welcomed by the old stagers , fitted in extremely well and were a pleasure to coach.

From the first bounce to the culmination of the season there was considerable improvement and development by all players and in their ability to hold their positions, use their teamwork and play disciplined footy.

This was never more apparent than in the performance of the boys at the Lightning Carnival held at East Fremantle Oval on Sunday 31 August 2014. For the carnival, we combined the 2 teams so that every boy who wanted to play in the carnival was able to be involved. This left us with a large interchange bench and the bench rotations were
extremely well handled by Greg Collins and Andrew Kelly while the boys were extremely well coached by Richard Mulroney on the day.

It was an absolute joy to sit back and watch the boys come together and play some wonderful football. They were undefeated after the qualifying rounds of the carnival having won 3 games in a row, but unfortunately narrowly missed out on the final on percentage. We were left in little doubt after watching the first half of the final that we would likely have been very competitive in the final.

The calibre of the boys and their families was even further brought to light when both teams combined to enjoy a lovely sundowner on the Sunday afternoon. It is quite clear that although the boys come from a large range of different backgrounds and schools, some great mateship is developing and we can only hope that they will continue to play their football together for many years to come.

Coaching a football side has its moments but I have found it to be a wonderfully rewarding experience. There is a lot more to it, however, than just turning up and coaching the boys and a lot of the extra stuff that needs to be handled was done with great aplomb by the Booragoon Whites team.

Firstly, a big thanks to Karen Ganza who took on the job of manager of the White team when the two teams were split at the start of the season. Karen carried out all of the organisation, kept everyone informed as to what was going on by email and made sure we fulfilled our roster obligations, the jumpers were available, that the boys had oranges at half time, the goal umpires were always present and, most importantly, reminded me where to put my name on the match day report sheet
at the end of the game. Thanks to Karen for her fantastic efforts over the course of the season.

Thanks also to our wonderful assistant coaches, Richard Power and Geoff Cooper, who on the 1 or 2 occasions where I was unavailable to coach on match day, took over the coaching of the side and also assisted during mid week training sessions.

Thanks to Emma Walsh who donned the extremely fashionable first aid jacket which she became very fond of over the course of the season. Her efforts to identify the deficiencies in our first aid kit and ensure that this was upgraded were fantastic, and over the course of the season, she was quite busy dealing with a number of life-threatening superficial injuries to our players, all of whom she was inevitably able to return to the paddock a short time later.

Thanks also to Richard and Jade Mulroney for all of their organisation over the course of the year which allowed me to have a more pure coaching role over the course of the season.

To the parents, it was a pleasure to coach your children and to get to know some of you over the course of the season. I think we are blessed to have quality people involved at the football club who were uncomplaining when it was their turn to produce oranges, put on the mad scientist goal umpire s jacket (apart from John Waters who was simply too big for it), keeping time and operating the lame duck siren at Karoonda, and just generally supporting their children throughout the season.

Thanks once again to the Booragoon Junior Football Club for providing the opportunity to coach again this year.

Angus Castley (Coach)

Anthony and I returned this year for another season to coach the mighty Year 5 whites. We embarked (woof!) on an early start to the preseason and the young Doggies were very happy to get off the couch and down to Karoonda to have a run and kick the footy.

Before training even commenced, Assistant Coach Doig and I decided to go on a preseason recruiting campaign. It was wildly successful, with five outstanding young pups welcomed to the Whites kennel. Four new Bulldogs Chris, Jai, Lachlan and Max, with Laken transferring from the Reds. Along with 15 boys returning, this brought our team to 20 enthusiastic young players ready to take on Season 2014.

The step up from year 4 to 5 was hard at first, but the boys soon realised (after a bit of early tough love and a few good old fashioned bakes!!) what was required of them, and quickly took on board what they needed to do. Their endeavour saw great development in our focus areas of moving the ball on quickly, making and honouring leads, finding space or manning up, and all importantly starting to learn the difference. The amount of times our fullbacks remained in the goal square while the opposition flooded the midfield and were able to stop goals on the line was great to see. It was exciting to see a desperate chase, as an opposition player sped away, seemingly unstoppable, before a Bulldog brought them down with a ferocious tackle. The boys found out that if they apply enough pressure, and never give up a chase, they were usually rewarded with the ball. Another pleasing development was the realisation that it takes more than one player to kick a goal the number of coast-to-coast goals were a prime example of a whole team working together to get a score on the board. At such times hearing the cheers from our proud parents on the sidelines was fantastic.

It was good to see that we had more positive than negative draws this season, with only a couple of disappointments all part of the experience, with the boys learning to be humble in victory and gracious in defeat. As the season progressed, the skills, the voracity, the attack on the ball, working to find space and create opportunities all started to gel across the team. By the end of the season, the boy s teamwork, kicking, marking, handballing, and tackling were awesome to watch albeit often scary for their opponents!

The Year Five carnival demonstrated just how far we had come this season a valiant effort by all the boys showed that when we played as a team and were all switched on we were unbeatable. The carnival proved to us that if everyone went hard, a team effort rather than individual effort won matches. We were very unlucky not to make the carnival Grand Final (missing out by one pesky point!), despite a tough draw with 4 games and no breaks. No complaints from the boys just enthusiasm to keep playing. Just like the Dockers we showed we were ready to play anywhere, anyone, anytime no excuses!

Special thanks to Anthony our sensational Assistant Coach the true quite achiever who quite seriously takes on too many tasks to mention. Training, planning and running our bench and team rotations like a well-oiled machine; his exceptional organisational skills contributing so much, not just to our team but to the club as a whole.

Big thanks to Alysia, again taking on the often thankless task of Team Manager, and once again doing a fantastic job she made it all look easy! Their hard work and support throughout the season made my year as coach very enjoyable.

Our parents are second to none. Their loud, proud support of our team always fired the boys up to do their best. Their willingness to take on the game day jobs helped everything run smoothly. Many of our parents not only contributed to our team but were involved at a club level.

Last but not least, thanks as always to the coaches and players of the year 5 Reds and Blues, our great training mates all year. Our clashes in the year 5 Derbies give us a lot of hope for the future of our awesome club as the combined year 5 teams come up through the ranks in the years ahead.

Can t wait for next year! GO BULLDOGS. Woof Woof!
Heath Schmidt (Coach)

Coming in to the new season, the 2013 Year 4 Reds lost a number of players for various reasons. To ensure we could still field a team we drafted in a number of 2014 Year 4 s who were either part of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Auskick program in 2013 or who were keen to play Friday nights. Once again, the Year 5 Reds played all their games at Karoonda Oval on a Friday night. This is great for the players who are given an opportunity to play where they may not have otherwise been able to play on Sunday mornings and also great for the club to be able to have a third Year 5 team. It does, however, present a challenge for parents and volunteers, who are required to set up and pack up the grounds, staff the canteen and be responsible for Goal Umpiring, Timekeeping and First Aid every single week. The parents of the Year 5 Reds team should be commended for their willingness to support the team and the club in these activities.

We had a new Team Manager this year in Janine van der Kooy who did a fantastic job in keeping parents informed and updated, together with ensuring the paperwork always got completed, the referees paid and the volunteers organised. Frank van der Kooy also stepped up into an Assistant Coach role this year which was really helpful at both training and at games to assist in all of the player s development, but also helpful in managing a group of 17 ten year old boys.

Once again it took some time for the team to gel together as they had not played as a team before. Even when the team started to work toger, we often got off to a slow start. We were also set back by the loss of 3 players, Robert Lewis, Lachlan Speijers and Cooper Stewart, throughout the season for long stretches due to broken bones. However our thanks must go to the Year 5 Whites team, especially Heath Schmidt, who helped us out when we were short of players due to injuries, sickness and holidays.

Thanks must go to Cas Pearson who was our First-Aid officer for most games and had her share of injuries to deal with. Thanks also to Thomas Vickridge who helped out in the canteen on most Friday nights.

The Year 4 boys who played with us this year (Ethan Douglas, Angus Duff, Jentezen Lee, Robert Lewis, Roy Pearson and Edward Woolfenden) must be congratulated for their efforts and their improving skills. Without mentioning every boy in the team, there were several who put their heads over the ball week in and week out and worked really hard in almost every single game. They should be commended for their performance and their commitment. Congratulations go to Joel Baverstock, Connor Matthys and Jeremy Clarke for their performance this year.

It has been another rewarding season and hopefully with improved skills and another year of maturity, 2015 will bring further opportunities and improvement for a great bunch of boys.

Michael Vickridge (Coach)

The 2014 season delivered another fantastic season of football, resulting in the further development of a most formidable team that will bode well for the club s future success.

It was extremely pleasing to witness not only the individual improvement of the skills of the players, but more importantly the team-based strategies and plays that are critical for a team to advance to the next level.

Particularly impressive was the mature attitude, enthusiasm and willingness to learn at training and the way they executed these lessons in game day competition. Our exciting run and carry style of play was injected with ferocious tackling and a level of shepherding that has not been seen since biblical times.

The boys responded very well to the old school coaching demands of disciplined punt kicking (no screw kicks), sharing the ball and protecting their teammates. We generated many large scores, but at the same time adhering fully to the rotation and other policies which bring fairness and enjoyment to the entire group.

The team is served extremely well with such dedicated and knowledgeable coaches as Peter Collins and Craig Flowers. It is no coincidence that we had a remarkable administrative team of managers led by the ever-giving Andrew Spinks, supported by Jenny Duffield and Shaun Yeo. Together with the flag wavers, medics, canteen servers, parents and supporters I thank everyone for their genuine and most valued contributions throughout the year.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time as coaches over the past several years with the satisfaction of retaining so many wonderful young men into this great game and witnessing the enjoyment it brings them and their families, while at the same time providing them with a solid skills base for the future.

As always, it has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to work with, have fun, share success, teach and learn from this wonderful bunch of boys.

Next year will provide us all with even greater opportunities and challenges as we move to playing on a larger ground, with 18 players, split divisions, for premiership points and finals. I would expect deep September action for the players of the Mighty Blues!!

Mike Webb (Coach)