Sunday 1st November brought Fleetwood u9's their third fixture of the season, inviting Tarleton to Melbourne Avenue. The morning started with both teams shuffling across the road to Cardinal Allen school fields. The game started at 11 o' clock with Tarleton kicking things off. From the first whistle it was plain for everybody to see that Tarleton were a well drilled side with great passing and spacial awareness throughout the squad. After a couple of early scores from the away side, Fleetwood seemed to wake up and scored a few themselves with Luca, Matthew, Zephyr, Ryan and Ben standing out with a variety of powerful and mazy runs. Great tackling from Declan, Matthew, Luca and a couple of others kept Fleetwood within reach of Tarleton. The Second and third quarters were both very even, with each team going tit for tat with tries. The running improved in these quarters with the boys starting to run onto the ball at pace, causing devastation to the Tarleton defence, including Sam P scoring his first try for the green and gold and Ben putting in a great shift. These quarters included a lot of defending for Fleet too with some great hits being put in, especially by Matthew and Luca. A highlight of the third quarter for myself was when the Tarleton 13, who had caused carnage all game, ran up the middle of the pitch but was met by Andrew who put in a great tackle to stop him in his tracks. Going in to the fourth quarter, the team really wanted to do well and finish on a high, which they achieved tremendously. It was filled with huge hits and great running from the whole squad and just proved what these boys are capable of. After the game, myself and Steve had a chat regarding man of the match and both decided we would award it to Matthew as he showed grit and determination all game with his powerful ball carrying and his trademark hits in defence. All in all this was a great runout for the boys who should all be proud of the effort they put in. The boys will sharpen up on certain areas in training and I am sure will do great things this season. Special thanks to Jason for refereeing the game brilliantly and also to Roshon for coaching the newer boys of the group who seemed to have a great time.
By
Marc Maher