ROUND 1 GPS FOOTY,  09/05/2009.

Nudgee 14 df TGS 6

TSS 61 df IGS 17

ACGS 39 df BGS 7

BSHS 32 df GT 5

I decided to head to Nudgee for round 1 of GPS fixtures in 2009,  for no other reason than there were a few Junior Reds playing for TGS,  and having recently been appointed to an elevated representative coaching role,  wanted to have a look at some of the club playing Under 15's running around in the TGS side.

It was a particularly pleasant day,  bit warm again actually,  but the Nudgee grounds offers plenty of opportunity to find some shade,  and limit the sunburn.

I don't think TGS won a game,  but their 15A's,  2nds and firsts all turned up to play and had a real dig.  In fact all of those matches could have gone the other way,  with the TGS 15A's going down 22 to 7,  the seconds by 15 to 14 and the firsts,  by 14 to 6.  I thought Harry Hawker was TGS's best in the 15's,  has a great ball carry, tremendous strength and good awareness,  he gets some good offloads away on the end of some of his carries.  He also defends quite strongly,  and at 12 yesterday,  looked at home.

TGS always seem to have a strong seconds,  and they took the game right to Nudgee,  and again could have won this one.

I went to the car with about 20 to play in the firsts,  and just stopped by the Nudgee warm up,  as I do,  and I thought they looked very flat,  a real lack of enthusiasm in what they were doing and how they were doing it.  I am a bit of a believer that how you train,  how you warm up,  will be how you play,  and this seemed a far different Nudgee side than the one that destroyed Downlands a couple of weeks earlier.

Of course losing Daniel Tweedy to his troublesome shoulder shifted the balance of the Nudgee backrow alot,  with Setu moving to 7 and Postal to 8.  The new back row did not function effectively at all,  with Setu being heavily penalized for "leaving his feet" (would be my interpretation from afar) and eventually being sin binned for something he didn't do,  a little tackle indiscretion by Cayden Matahaere saw Setu sin binned.

It really was a penalty fest against Nudgee,  and TGS had mountains of possession,  and at one stage,  playing against 13 men,  still could not breach the Nudgee line.  They had their opportunities though,  and one massive break from my pick as TGS best,  Ben Reuter,  probably should have resulted in a try, but, didn't through some scrambling defence and a dropped pill from memory.

TGS were probably more physical than Nudgee for most of the game,  and stung them at the breakdown,  and at the scrum,  and certainly did not allow Nudgee and Postal their way at the lineout.  Coach Bromley added subtleties to the game,  and slowed the Nudgee pill up all day,  making sure they rarely had access to any pill they could play quickly with.  TGS will trouble everyone they play this year,  if they can keep that mentality, and should win more than they lose,  but as a parent said to me yesterday,  we should have won them all so far.  They just seem to be having trouble inflicting the killer blow.  They certainly had enough real estate and enough possession yesterday to win the footy,  they defended really well in their own red zone,  just couldn't deliver any knockout blows.

Nudgee,  well they won't be happy,  they did defend well,  but their decision making in attack left some work to do.  They will take the two points I am sure and move on,  and my feeling always is that to play badly and win is an important mark for a side.  They do need to fix their discipline and get that backrow balance right,  it just wasn't yesterday and it certainly affected the side's momentum and shape.

TGS,  wow,  what a start to the season for them,  the two big guns of GPS rugby,  in the first two weeks,  Nudgee and State High,  and both away in hostile territory.

As usual,  a few photos will eventually appear.