Under 13s – by player Alex Bingham. A home-round clash for the Noosa Dolphins U13s v Bothers was no easy game for the Phins. In the first half of the game, Noosa and Brothers struggled to maintain possession for more than 10 phases due to the competitiveness at the breakdowns. Noosa created various opportunities to score but couldn’t manage to cross over the line when the time was needed. However, Noosa gave all their strength in their defence, marking their numbers and making those critical tackles. It was an even match at the break, nil all.
Noosa knew it wasn’t going to be an easy second half and they needed to grab the first points. Unfortunately, they couldn’t after Brothers crossed the line midway through the second half. The Under 13’s kept their heads high in attack and defence, working hard. However, the Dolphins couldn’t manage to conquer the well-structured and very difficult Brothers team. The game ended in a 15-0 win for Brothers who travelled from Kawana.
Noosa’s highlight players from the weekend’s game were Liam Stroem, Flynn Clarke, Alex Nitschmann, and Harrison Perkins.
Under 12s – Noosa Under 12s had a tough back-and-forth game against Brothers at home. Having kept a good structure and making our tackles in the first half, we went into the half time break 7-7.
A couple of run-away tries early in the second half for Brothers meant that the boys had to dig in. A great build-up of play saw the boys nearly score and keep them in the game. Unfortunately the U12s went down 21-7. The boys should keep their heads high as we build across the season.
Under 10s – On a morning better suited to the beach, the mighty Noosa Under 10 Whites warmed up prior to their top-of-the-table clash with arch rivals the Maroochydore Swans. The first minutes looked like the boys would be in for a real struggle with territory and possession split evenly. But with a smart pass to himself, Eric set Miller on the burst up the centre and from the ensuing breakdown, Soccer Tom (with thanks to Emmerson’s Dad for the nicknames) offloaded to Emmerson who worked hard to barge over for the opening try.
From the kick-off we saw some smart work. The slick interchange between the backs and forwards put Zion on track with a huge run down the sideline, trampling the opposition forward pack and gaining nearly 50 metres. Not content with that, a little later Zion was the link between Eric and Hugo for our second try. Score 10-0. Sol was into everything, cleaning out the rucks and generally terrorising the Swans. The pressure got the ball for Mason to go on the charge with a pass out wide to Aussie Rules Tom who was pulled down just short of the line. With relentless attack, the Whites cleared for a well-worked try by Sol. 15-0.
From the kick-off, a flying run by Ben gave us momentum, but some scrappy passing saw Tom slip a hospital pass to Albie who cleverly evaded the defenders pouring down on him to set up the ruck. Through all this Hunter was, as usual, in everything. Some sloppy play saw a turnover with a breakaway try to the Swans,15-5. Eric kicked down field with great chasing from Ben pressuring the opposition, some great defence from Albie enabled Alex to strip the ball and pass it to Eric who scored and converted his own try. 22-5 at half time.
The second half saw Soccer Tom chase down a kick that bounced up into his arms, but he was caught just a few metres from the line. From there, it was a matter of getting the ball to Mason who dotted it over the line, 27-5. We put ourselves under pressure from the kick-off but good work from Jake, who was great in defence all day, got the ball to Emmerson who with speed, hard running and some fancy footwork ran 105m to score under the posts, 32-5. Further tries to Miller and Mason and a late consolation to the Swans gave us a full-time score of 44-10. Well done boys!
Under 9s – It was a beautiful morning for our first home game of the year. The Under-9s kicked off first against a strong-looking Brothers side. The team took a few minutes to get into the groove. From there, it was one-way traffic with Stella leading from the front; we had Malik with some quick thinking; Hunter was assisted with some lovely passing; Zach B was ever-present with some jinking runs; Harry was impressive early, unfortunately in a Brothers jersey, but we were able to slow him down. Zach D showed some quality defence, while Henry and Fin played straight and hard, as did Eden with some thunderous defence. Hugo had some good straight running lines, and CJ finished some great team play showing lightning speed. Mason’s leg tackling was second to none. The Domino’s Pizza Player of the Match was an easy choice with Freddie being outstanding on both defence and attack.
Everyone truly chipped in for a great win, and defence was the standout for the day.
