By Cooper Burns & Nicholas Myyrylainen.
On the 22nd of May, the under 14A shield team had arrived at their first game at the snake pit for Altona. The under 14s had their usual team talk, talking about the game, searching for the win we needed.
It wasn’t long until the game started so coach, Jacob, sent us out for our pre-game warm up. Unfortunately, our other coach, Pat, was not able to be there but still gave us all his support to get us through the game.
Once we were all warmed up, we then did a summary of our game plan and prepared to go onto the ground. We flounder along the sideline to the dugout, then out onto the pitch for our warm up, where we got into pairs and hit up with a stick and a ball. Next up, was our aggravated assault, warming up our star keeper Lachie.
Just before the game began, we gathered together and let our Captain, Jamie give us his loyal speech. Just before we were ready to run to the middle of the ground to say good luck the opposition, we did what we needed to do… ‘’A’s ON THREE… ONE, TWO, THREE’’ Jamie shouts. “A’s!” we all reply.
We all ran into the centre of the pitch and the game was just finger tips away. Hawthorn won the toss but let Altona have the ball. The game had begun as Connar knocked the ball back to Cooper – it was game on!
Early on in the first half, it was an even match, both teams fighting for the ball but couldn’t convert into the back of the net. Hawthorn also had some early chances but with Rhino, Matthew, Caelan, Nye, Will, Alex, Harvey, Maxim, Brock & Nicko all playing strongly they couldn’t convert.
The Altona crowd cheered for the under 14 boys nonstop as the team walked back on the pitch for the second half. It wasn’t long in the second half until Cooper gave Altona a 1-0 lead. A great team goal leading the ball up to Connar with his excellent run through the middle with pace and skill passing to Cooper to dribble around the keeper to score! The crowd cheering on loud and proud.
Hawthorn didn’t give up and tried their hardest to even the score. Altona had made Another great team goal as Cooper ran along the base line to give it to Connar on the spot to score a goal! – Score was now 2-0. Altona were holding on but then Hawthorn then just found the goals and made it 2-1 with 2 minutes to go. Altona just needed to milk the clock and so they did. Altona took full possession of the ball and took the final ball on the sideline to hear the final siren for the under 14s first win. It was a great game by both teams and made even better that we had our first win at home!
