Saturday feels like a long time ago now and hopefully the aches and pains have started to subside a bit. I wanted to take a moment to give a summary of the day and pass on my thanks to everyone in Vesta who made it such fun.
The conditions were some of the most challenging I have ever played in with even simple passes changing direction 2 or 3 times in the air due to the wind, not to mention the huge puddles of mud that threatened to swallow you whole if you stood in them too long. Despite this, we played some really strong and confident touch and the improvement throughout the day was fantastic. We actually ended up playing stronger and stronger teams as the day went on, some who had been playing together for many years, but the scores in each match got closer and closer and we forced teams to really work hard against us. Our defence throughout the day was really solid with very few scores actually being conceded through the middle and instead, we forced them wide. At this early stage in the year, this is a fantastic platform for us to build upon and will put us in a really strong position come the summer league.
From an attacking view, we were having a lot of success executing moves correctly and working through the progressions of each one. I think everyone who saw it agrees that Domenico's diving score off of a perfectly executed sweep was the score of the tournament. Another standout was Trina's score in the final match after we ran a few normal sweeps then scooped off the third sweep and caught the entire defense on the wrong foot for a lovely wing score. A big congratulations to Simon, Sea, Domenico, Tim and Lucy for not just playing your first competitive touch match but playing in your first tournament as well. Saturday was a big step up but you all handled yourselves extremely well.
Many thanks to JC Kelly for captaining for the day. It's a hard job to do but the team talks are a vital part of focusing everyone and going through what is working well but also what isn't working quite right and how we work together as a team to overcome that.
Our most improved player for the day went to Jenna. Throughout the day you became a strong vocal presence both on and off the pitch, calling gaps in the opposition defence, helping keep touch count, keeping the subbing working by directing where the play needed to go and supporting everyone in the sub box. You were also getting involved in moves and executing some really strong attacking lines.
The Most Valuable Player does to Dan. You took the lead in your set and really drove everyone forward. You worked well with Christian in executing moves and you were really vocal to make sure that everyone knew what moves were being executed, when you were subbing and how you were set up for defence. You kept your head in front of the line and worked through the attacking move progressions, seeing what ones worked against each team and exploiting any gaps that you found.
A further thanks to Jill for coming all the way from Dundee and managing not to forget how to play touch after 5 months away. Though I think Teenan may have a new challenger for 'the player most likely to argue with the ref' award.I
think I've rambled on enough here, this was just supposed to be a short review but I seem to have turned it into an essay. I just want to say again that I had an absolutely fantastic day playing with everyone and I'm really looking forward to building upon everything in the months ahead.