ROUND 10 – More Rain Frustrates the Fixture

From the President

Disappointingly the weather God’s impacted our games again. With rain falling heavily on Friday night many grounds were closed around Sydney. Unfortunately, our division 2 Women, division 3 and 5 Men’s games were cancelled. We are working with the other clubs to try and get them rescheduled. The planned wet weather weekend of the 20^th July is already filled so these will need to be played on a week day between now and 20^th July, more to follow.

We have fixed the web site payment issues for merchandise and membership packages. Please now feel free to go on-line and purchase a 2024 membership package and/or merchandise.

Have a look at our Membership Page to find the options available. For payment, go to Athlete Tracker, select your preferred option and record you details. Items can be collected at the ground or shipped to you.

If you have any issues please feel free to reach out to Paul Vink, the clubs commercial manager at commercial@phafl.com.au, Ian Parker, Vice President at vp@phafl.com.au or myself at president@phafl.com.au.

It is very pleasing to see that construction has commenced on the lower floor of the clubrooms and is anticipated to be finished, hopefully, by end of the year. The below plan gives some idea of what is going in underneath. There is plenty of storage, new change sheds and public toilets. The old canteen on lower ground is being closed and moved into underneath. We hope to get old canteen and meeting room for use as a gymnasium.

We look forward to seeing many of you back at Mike Kenny Oval, Greenway Park this weekend for the past players day. It will be a great day to reminisce, catch up with old mates, have fun and watch our teams play. Be sure to reach out to Tom Angel and Tim Wales on the Past Players and Officials group and any planned activities going forward.

Hope to see you around the grounds.

Todd Williams
President

Match Reports:

Premier Division Men's Match Report with thanks to ARA Group
Premier Division Men Vs South West Sydney
(PH 8.13.61 Loss to SWS 10.5.65)

Another wet game in the books for 2024.

This week we would head to Rosedale oval to play the inform SWS Blues who last week beat UNSW by 70 points. We went into the game with a number of forced changes, Boag (inj) Williams (ill) Mudge, Lee (away) which gave some young guys a go, Este, Zywietz from the 19s, Rush back from suspension & Matty Hall playing his first prems game since his debut in 2020.

We started the game well but forgot to bring our kicking boots, kicking 2.6 to 3.1. SWS came out hard in the 2^nd and were able to take a lead into the HT. We made some adjustments and was able to take a 1-point lead into the last qtr. The last qtr would be an interesting one, we had a lead late, but it was clawed back after a chance to seal it. SWS would go down and kick a goal with seconds left after a questionable free kick.

Due to our hard work early, we remain a game clear in the top 3 but have some work to do. There is no bigger challenge that North Shore this week, excited to see how we respond.

Ben Roberts (Head Coach)
Best: Nicholas Eynaud, Stephen Wray, Thomas Edmonds, Nicholas Hey, Lachlan Willey, Riley Hawes
Goal Kickers: H. Pitt 3, M. Blow 1, T. Moraitis 1, J. Rush 1, N. Hey 1, T. Edmonds 1.

Premier Division Women's Match Report with thanks to Ritera Electrical Wholesale

BYE

Under 19.5 Division 1 Men's Match Report with thanks to Tyrepower Dural
Under 19.5’s Division 1 v South West Sydney Blues
(PH 9.8.62 Defeated SWS 3.3.21)

Nice to be back in a winning frame of mind.  Boys were up and about and confident going in with a slight shift in our game plan and hoping for dry weather.  This beautiful ground looked to be in better condition than where we had played in recent weeks, but still a lot of wet patches around and rain forecast.  Pleasing to say we moved the ball better today and were not so bogged down with ground ball battles.  The team who could use the ball better today would have the command and control.

Early in Q1 Luka was marking well and we more often had first use of the ball.  But we were still fumbling and loose with handballs.  At times over using handball seeing us not clear the contest and allow their tackle pressure to have impact.  Dylan got a goal early through relentless forward drive.  Then later we had better ball movement with a mark and goal to Jack D.

We wanted to play better and cleaner going forward but conditions were still wet and slippery.  So the message for Q2 was one handball to clear the pack then kick out of defense.  Cooper Smith was solid from the wing in Q2.  Muz scored a great goal.  We started to move the ball better at times, but at other times we were playing individually rather than working really well together.  A bit of a scrap between players half through the qtr shifted our focus and also slowed our effective ball movement.

Half time 5-2-32 to 0-1-1.  A

Q3 we had the dry end going forward and Jimmy kicked a great snap goal.  We had much better ball movement with Spida to Nathan to Jimmy then to Ryan B for another goal.  Looked much better when we were clean and found loose players.  3Q time 9-5-59 to 0-1-1.

We didn’t want to take our foot off the pedal in the last, but fatigue set in and South West got a few good goals.  But not enough to have impact on us.  Luka Sticks and Cooper D combined well down back at one stage to control handball movement and clear from defence.  In the end we were easy winners but still a bit clunky.  Good to see forwards amongst our best this week.  Big game prep this week as we face North Shore at home.

Best players –

Dylan with his hard work at stoppages, Jack R with his strength around the contest retaining possession of the ball, Cooper Smith off the wing always clean and effectively never beaten, Muz with his forward craft and hard work rewarded with some goal scoring, Jimmy off Half Forward with his ability to get free and always effective with the ball, Bill taking a few marks around the grounds, ruck work and body strength in the contest, Spida with his ground ball courage and tackling pressure.

 Justin Kerley (Coach)
Best: Dylan Bonham, Jack Roberts, Cooper Smith, Kalan Murray, James Georgalis, Bill Kaczmarek
Goal Kickers: K. Murray 3, J. Georgalis 1, D. Bonham 1, J. Dwyer 1, R. Bonham 1, J. Chapple 1.

Division 1 Men's Match Report with thanks to Pennant Hills Toyota

BYE

Division 2 Women’s Match Report
Women’s Division 2 v University of NSW

WASHED OUT

Division 3 Men's Match Report with thanks to Eylex Pty Ltd
Men's Division 3 vs Macquarie University

WASHED OUT

Under 19.5’s Division 2 Match Report
Under 19.5's Division vs Camden Cats
(PH 3.2.20 Loss to CC 19.16.130)

Whilst it was fantastic to get a game in after being unlucky with wet weather and cancellations the last few weeks the boys ran into a very tough match-up against the Camden Cats this past Saturday.

Despite the tough result I couldn’t be prouder of the lads for the way they played. Our messaging was consistent because the boys didn’t play badly, we were just outclassed by a bigger, older and more experienced side. It’ll be a great learning experience and show us the benchmark for a couple of tough games we’ve got coming up. I can’t accuse one boy in this team of giving up, they fought and ran all day, despite having no bench and being down big on the scoreboard. We showed true toughness and displayed the club’s mantra of Club, Team, Self, with Eamon and Jacob playing through broken hands, Jake pushing through an infected toe and numerous others playing crook.

Big shoutout to Alex Bates, first game for the club and looked right at home, keen to have you for the rest of the season mate and Zander Crowden, first game in 18 months and looked very classy on the ball, kicking a nice goal too.

Special mention to Leandre, great chat down the back all day, all the boys realized where he gets his communication skills from too with his dad putting on a BOG performance pre-game.

Key Players:

• Patrick McMurrich: Consistently great this year. Pat was everywhere, played the first half with no rotation in the middle ran all day and was classy with his ball use, making a habit of popping up in the right spots to kick goals. Also backed up for the 1’s after no break – true team player.
• Cohen Denne: Running out of words to describe young Cohen in these match-reports. The biggest compliment I can give him is he’s every players favourite player. Runs all day, super skillful ball user and everyone is a lot happier when we see him on the team list.
• Jake Condon: Another mainstay of these write-ups this year, Jake ‘The Hammer’ Condon is going from strength to strength. Is key in this side coming off half-back and shows a physical toughness well above his size and his age. Jake is the rock that connects our backline and midfield, another fantastic game from him.
• Bradley Pearce: Best game of the year from Brad. On the advice of Deon we moved him into the middle and he was like a bulldog. I hope he liked it because he’s found himself a rotation for the rest of the year if he keeps playing like this. Consistently found the footy in a team that was well beaten and looked good when he did it.
• Harvey Barrett: Great game from Harvey. Was playing against some tough opposition and more than held his own. Consistently won his ruck contests and popped up to kick a very nice goal. Keep it up mate.
• Zander Crowden: As mentioned, first game back in 18 months for Zander. Nice test for him getting smashed after he kicked it out of bounds. Kicked a nice goal and looked classy every time he got the ball. Will be stoked to have Zander as long as he wants to stay with us.

Harry McDiarmid (Coach)
Best: Patrick McMurrich, Cohen Denne, Jake Condon, Bradley Pearce, Harvey Barrett, Zander Crowden
Goal Kickers: P. McMurrich 1, H. Barrett 1, Z. Crowden 1.

Division 5 Men's Match Report with thanks to Conveyancing at Pittwater
Men’s Division 5 v North Shore Bombers

WASHED OUT

What’s on This week

Past Players and Officials Day: Saturday 29^th June
Great Day to relive past memories with old team mates and enjoy high quality football versus North Shore at home.

Breast Cancer Awareness Round: Saturday 13^th July
A cause very close to us all. Come along and enjoy the events of the day, buy a champagne table in the club rooms, help us raise money for this worthy cause through quality raffles and auctions. Our premier Men and Women will play in the Breast Cancer Awareness jumper on the day.

Masters WAGS Day: Saturday 13^th July
Masters Wags annual day, enjoy some champagne and finger food whilst supporting our legends.