Playing without a coach on the pitch for the first time.

By Paul Arnison

A great defensive performance coupled with self-organisation in attack leaves the species with a sweet taste.

Culcheth Eagles home 2nd Sept
Squad- Ali, Dan, Isaac, Joe, Josh A, Josh Y, Reg, Robbie, Sam
Q1 0-0
Q2 2-0 Ali, Josh
Q3 4-0 Josh 2
Q4 7-1 Regan, Josh 2.
After the gorgeous weather yesterday, the boys came home to Hood Lane in the drizzle (it appears the sun always shines in Dallas). Could they take up the Baton from their excellent exploits yesterday? You Betcha... The tendency in Jnr sports, as with life can be to give as much direction to the little darlings as possible, however today the guys played the entire match with no coach on the pitch, forcing them to self-organise and recover their play between attack and defence. With a customary slow start and no coach, the Soap didn't manage to score in the first qtr, but they kept out Culcheth for the full qtr too, so they were doing something right! In fact, the self-organised defence was awesome until the very last play, probably the best D in 3 years! In fact, it was the R+R show for huge amounts today! They may be the smallest but what a double act! In fact, the amount of work in D put the great attacking play in the shade, it was telling that Basher scored 5 but it was Parko's stint in D with 22 tackles that won him PMOM and Oppo MOM.

Coach G probably took a few different things from today than us parents, but that's to be expected. For me, it was tremendous to see the boys organise themselves, put mistakes behind them quickly, create chances and keep up their momentum, and against a team that ran them close earlier this year too.

So on that note, I will leave you with some words from the great Vince Lombardy (google him, girls).......

"Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind – you could call it ‘character in action.’”