By TRACI HOZIER
NOOSA JUNIOR PIRATES
UNDER 7 WHITE
THE boys travelled to Shark territory in round eight and put in another superb defensive display this week. For the second week in a row our opposition could only cross the try line once. Every single player tackled their hearts out. Tries were scored by Cooper Drinnan, Lukas Byers and Sam Proctor, with Bailey Drinnan scoring a double. Rhy North, Cooper Ward, Jai Bruggy and Will Macrae set up our attack with barnstorming runs all day. Coach Troy appears to be more secure with a measured display of coaching today but cannot afford to relax.
UNDER 7 YELLOW
The weather was perfect and the fields primed for a gutsy game of footy. Our under-7 Yellow Pirates did it tough today as they met with the Sharks at Caloundra. Hayden was able to gather a loose ball and sail through the jaws of our opposition and score a magnificent try. We don’t know what Jaxon has been eating, but the mighty Pirate once again led the way with some inspirational tackling and hit ups. Cooper, Jacko, Riley and Beau never gave up as they continued up the field to get close to the try line. Brandon and Lachlan gave it their best as they also persisted tackling, and chased throughout the game. Our boys – who dug deep and with some great teamwork and a never-give-up attitude – played with big hearts. Well done to them and Tim.
UNDER 8 YELLOW
Beautiful weather greeted the players at the home ground of the Caloundra Sharks. With the team decimated by injuries once again, a mash up of some experienced under-7 boys with the usual suspects made for an exciting game. A free-flowing game with much open play, allowed the speed men to run rings around the bigger but less mobile Caloundra pack. Joe Tolano aka ‘lightning legs’ even ran so fast he tripped over himself with not a player in sight. Tries awarded to Rhy North, Lachlan Ward and Bailey Drinnan. Defensively Zahn, Lincoln and Zeke as always were solid with some high impact tackles low and hard. For outstanding and much improved defense Lachlan Ward was awarded man of the match. A big thank you to stand-in coach, strapper, technical consultant and water boy Glen Tolano and the under-7 boys who stepped up to help out the older boys.
UNDER 9 BLUE
Under-9 Blue had a tough day down at Caloundra against some stong competition. The boys’ defence was very good with some great tackling from Stoan Condon, Benny Graf, Joshy Palmer, Roy Crozier and Dylan Alchin. The boys were much improved in their attack with some great ball running from Declan, Cohyn North, Taj Egea, Jett Cannon and Cody Reid. All in all, a great solid game from all our team. Man-of-the-match went to Benny Graf and encouragement award went to Cohyn North.
Looking forward to next week’s Women in League round at home.
UNDER 10 YELLOW
This week we travelled down the coast to play against a very strong Caloundra team. With our side short from injury and illness we only had nine fit players this week. A big thanks to the players from the Noosa Pirates Blue team that helped us out. The opposition defence was very strong and physical, making scoring difficult. Jed Bullman worked hard at half back, Dylan was busy, Charlie Cook made some hard tackles, Riley Coster and Jackson Smith ran hard with the ball and tackled well. Charlie Bond made some ground running up the middle and both Ryans played well out on their wing. This week Jordan was named man-of-the-match.
UNDER 11 BLUE
A fantastic team effort in both attack and defence saw a significant win for under-11 Blue v Beachmere Black on home turf. Highlights for the coach were the slick backline movements, fantastic offloads and tireless defence. Cooper was our deserved player-of-the-match with a hat-trick of tries.
UNDER 11 GOLD
It was an early home game for under-11 Gold this week. The boys played well against Caboolture on a greasy track, seeing very little ball go to ground. Caboolture were right into the game from the very start, making plenty of early metres. Solid and at times flimsy defence managed to keep the Snakes from penetrating the Noosa try line all but once. The Noosa boys have been training to keep themselves in a line and keep playing to that structure. With time, this set structure should take place and the boys will be ready for any opposition. They are an awesome group of players who continue to communicate and have positive attitudes on and off the field. Our MVP this week went to Kanga Dean. Well done on steely defence against players three times bigger than you and springy attack across the park.
UNDER 12 GOLD
Well the boys played a great game in the terrible heat to play out a 10-all draw against Maroochydore with only three reserves. I couldn’t have been any prouder with the boys’ efforts, which were made a bit harder due to the man with the whistle. Awesome effort from Ryan Mcleary to claim our best-on-ground with some stinging defence and good go forward in attack, also good efforts from Kaiden Collins, Lachlan Flett and an all-round pat on the back. Well done boys great effort and commitment all round, keep up the good training and in a couple more weeks with a full squad there’s no team we can’t beat.
