NUNAWADING TOURNAMENT TEAM REPORTS 2018

BOYS

B12.1

 

The 12-1 boys were in A Reserve (AR) grade for the Nunawading Tournament, finishing 6-1.

Game 1: Craigieburn:

The first game saw us against Craigieburn 1, who we beat by 2 points in a thriller last Friday. Carrying the momentum from the Friday night win over top placed Altona, the boys came out hard early, building a 10-point half-time lead. A Craigieburn run out of the half saw the lead close to 4, but some solid defence and rebounding for the remainder of the game, as well as some aggressive drives by Henry and James saw us finish with a 40-27 win.

Game 2: Dandenong 3

Both teams came out very fired up, with the first half consisting of both teams trading baskets. The Dandenong coach’s aggressive nature rattled us slightly early, but we regrouped and took a 22-21 lead into the half. However, some weak offensive possessions and a bunch of turnovers meant Dandenong grabbed a 35-28 lead with 6:19 remaining. A time-out and a chance for the boys to regroup did wonders, as we scored 14 of the last 16 points, on the back of some great defence from Lachie, to escape with a 42-37 win.

Game 3: Knox 2

A boring and long drive to Casey made us sleepy early, with a scrappy, low-scoring first half at 10 all. We continued to play well below our best for all bar 3 minutes of the game, where we scored 7 unanswered points and proceeded to win by 7. A win is a win, but far from our best this game.

Game 4: Knox 3

This was a crazy one. Having been smashed by this team in grading, and Knox also being undefeated in the tournament so far, we knew we were in for a tough game. However, to the boy’s credit, they stuck together in a gruelling game, doing a great job looking after the ball, and taking good shots. It was a fiery game and a rather unhappy Knox parent saw himself forcefully directed to the exit by the referee. Clinging to a 4-point lead with 42 seconds remaining, we threw two uncharacteristic turnovers in a row, allowing Knox to tie the game with 14 seconds remaining. After 3 shots rolled out, Knox brought the ball down and shot. However, as had been the case the whole game, Harrison used his body effectively and proceeded to pull in a crucial rebound, getting fouled in the process. Being in the bonus, Harrison was awarded two FTs. After missing the first, he kept his composure and made the second, and the trusty Camberwell boys moved to 4-0 with a 25-24 win.

Game 5: South Adelaide

Played below our standard again, being 5 down at half. However, a big step up from Charlie Truscott, with 17 second half points, saw us once again escape with a 1-point win. The boys managed to hold the ball up for the final 57 seconds without a turnover and avoiding the foul!

Game 6: North Sydney Bears 1

After a brunch which involved a multitude of food colouring and sugar, I was nervous about this game. Sydney came out aggressive early, and we did not, granting them a 6-0 lead. Some forceful instruction by myself seemed to kick the boys into action, and we tied the game 10-10 by half. An 18-7 run in the first 5 minutes of the second half granted us a lead Sydney couldn’t crack, and some excellent passing and attacking by Luke gave us extra scoring opportunities.

Semi Final: Craigieburn

All good things come to an end. Craigieburn came fired up, we did not. Craigieburn barely missed a shot, we barely made one. Sometimes it just isn’t meant to be. A 2-16 deficit after 4 minutes was too large from us to recover from, finishing the game with a 31-44 loss. Big props to Russ, Luke and Jordan this game, who battled away the entire game and gave it 100% whenever they were on the court.

Overall, a great weekend, in which, including Friday night, we finished 7-1!

Massive thanks to all the parents for giving up ANOTHER weekend for our 5^th tournament of the season!

A super massive thanks to Sue Truscott, our trusty TM who never fails to organise, coordinate, mediate and do every other possible job necessary.

And thanks to all the boys, you did a fantastic job all weekend- as I said, I was happy with just the Friday night win, but to win 6 more in a row, I am stoked!  (Conor Mathews – coach)

B12.3

After not getting a win for a few weeks on Friday nights, the whole team needed this tournament to regroup as a team and experiment with some new strategies to improve our play. Our first opponent was a tough Collingwood team who beat us a few weeks prior by 25 points. Putting that behind us, the boys managed to get in front for most of the game, only losing the lead in the last 5 minutes to go down by 5, which was an awesome effort. Our second and third games both started off similarly, coming out hard to compete in the first half, something we had been lacking in the regular season. However, due to many possible factors including some poor reffing decisions getting into the boys’ heads, we lost both games by double digits. Still, we were determined to start the next day off on a new page.

With two games in Sandringham on Sunday, we were determined to get a win under our belt. Unfortunately, we came up against some tough competition, and after starting both games very well, we ran out of energy and conceded both games. Although our win-loss column didn’t look great, we as coaches noticed a multitude of great and not so great intricacies that we can work on at training to hopefully get a few more wins under our belt.

Although our weekend wasn’t a success on the court, it definitely was off the court. The bonding between coaches, players and parents was a great experience which will definitely help our team chemistry grow into the second half of the season. A HUGE thank you to all the parents for all their driving and helping throughout the weekend. You made everything so much easier for us and we really appreciate it! As for the boys, although it wasn’t a fairytale weekend, you should all be super proud of the way you played and represented each other and the club! (Tom Feikema and Luke Lawrence – coaches)

B14.3

On the back of a great win on Friday night (preceding tournament), the 14-3 boys were superb throughout the tournament. After a somewhat disappointing first half of VJBL season (3W-5L-1D), they were determined to play well and particularly to improve defence during the tournament. The boys also wanted a challenge and decided they wanted to be in a higher grade than they usually play in Friday night. They started to tournament with a 4 point win against highly skilful Kingston Academy but lost to Knox 5 (grand finalists of the section they were competing) by 1 point. Although they wern’t able to make to finals, They consistently played very competitive basketball and had lot of fun in the tournament. I am sure they are going to bring tournament experience to remainder of Rep games.

Thank you to the parents and all other supporters that cheered on the boys throughout the weekend! Special thanks to Fraser who played with us. Thanks Sally and Wayne for doing TM duties (Dush Kannangara – Coach).

B14.4

The 14/4s had a really good tournament, we won 2, lost 3 with two of those by only 7 points or less. We lost one game by 20, because of that we tried something in our last game and nearly won against a far better team!  (Happy Coach – Gerard)

B14.5

The 14-5 Boys had an outstanding Nunawading tournament.

We reached the semi finals after a great run through the pool games – winning five and losing just one to a Div 2 Sydney team that were just out of our league.  The parents all took photos of the boys at the tip off so hilarious was the size difference.

Our boys were the only Victorian club out of eleven to make the last four.  The other three would trouble more heralded line ups in VJBL divisions much higher than we’re playing.

Our team easily accounted for a Sherbrooke team playing a division higher than us on Friday nights with fabulous ball sharing and great defensive intensity.  We won against teams we had beaten during our regular season with a bit of a struggle and we showed great skill, spirit and composure to upset a quality Orbost team by five points which sent us in to the finals.  Running an elite squad called “Accelerate Warriors Orange” to 14 points in the semi final doesn’t sound that flash but it was a truly inspirational effort – we took it right up to them and were a joy to watch.

The boys scored 37 points or more in all but one of seven games.  Even more impressive was our defence which we take great pride in.  Our on ball hustle and team defence was mostly impressive and has set an even higher benchmark for the rest of our season.

We don’t talk up individual performances a lot in our team but a special mention to Tom McCarthy who had a sensational tournament treating nearly all our opposition with contempt on the boards and under the ring, putting up huge numbers and being even more valuable when finding teammates in better scoring spots.  Also to Cameron for his great outside shooting, ball carrying and defensive work on key opposition players; to Jensen for his left hand drive, quicker passing and vastly improved defensive attitude and performance; to Jono for his cut through full court dribble, defensive commitment and finishing; to Tino for his improved pass selections and reliable mid range shot and lay up finishes; to Reuben for his fantastic work rate, loose ball gets and wonderful driving in heavy traffic; and to Spencer for his best work for the team so far, improved defence and hitting some nice shots just when we needed them.  All of them come out of the tournament as better players.  Keep it up boys!

A big thank you to Bianca Ventura for giving up her weekend to help me coach (and sharing the feeling of those occasional defensive lapses) and to Freda for managing everything for us.

Our parents were wonderful.  Thank you for continuing to support your little athletes and giving them some happy life long memories.

This team is undefeated this VJBL season.  We expect a hiccup or two during the run to the finals but these boys are to be commended for their attitude and performances over the past three months. (Scott Parker – coach)

B16.3

The boys had a great tournament, playing with high level of intensity and re-discovering their mojo.

The boys tournament started with a come from behind win against Collingwood 2. Tyus Johnstone nailing a few big three’s to get the boys over the line.

Next match was against Lakes Entrance, a very physical game but a strong team effort saw the boys win comfortably.

The final match on Saturday saw the boys play McKinnon 5, the boys played with a great deal of confidence and fluency and won again.

The wins were more meritorious due to the fact 3 players were unavailable due to injury.

On Sunday, we played our arch rival Nunawading 4. This was an incredibly intense game with the boys great defensive effort getting the boys across the line.

Our final game was against Sherbrooke 2 where the boys delivered a bit of showtime and won by a big margin.

After, going through the minor rounds undefeated the boys faced Dandenong 5 in the semi-final. Luke McConnon playing his best basketball of the season and Will Elliott crashing the boards saw the team win by 7 points.

In the Grand Final, the boys faced an undefeated Sydney team – Inner West Bulls. The match was physical, fast paced and of a very high standard with several, great offensive and defensive efforts. There was high level of crowd involvement and both teams applied plenty of pressure. Unfortunately, down the stretch the boys were unable to keep pace with the physically stronger Sydney team and went down by 7 points.

Overall, a great effort by all involved. (Tim Seletto – TM)

B16.4

 

The 16-4 Boys enjoyed a busy weekend at the Nunawading Tournament after securing an important win on the Friday night. We had some things to work on over the weekend, and with only 7 players playing and slightly undersized, everyone had plenty of court time to continue their improvement for the season. Our first game of the tournament was against Craigieburn Tigers who were very enthusiastic, but we managed to win by 30 points with all players making a contribution on the scoresheet. Jackson De Jong was applying loads of pressure on the ball carriers which set the tone for some good transition basketball. Parents were quickly re-organising their diaries to make sure everyone was free for the Monday morning finals. This turned out to be a little premature, but their early optimism was catching.

Game 2 was a much tougher affair, and all told, we struggled to beat the press of Eltham 7, continually turning the ball over under pressure. While we were always within reach of the win we couldn’t get there in the end and lost by 7. Game 3 was against Forrestville Eagles, and we had done some scouting of unfamiliar opposition, noting that they had 1 player scoring most of their points. We set out to restrict his scoring and figured that the rest of the game would take care of itself. Unfortunately, this didn’t go according to plan and he upped his scoring average for the tournament scoring 23 points and we lost the game by 15. Charlie Quartel and Billy Helder were the standout performers on the Saturday leading the scorers and we all headed home for a night’s rest hoping to get things moving along tomorrow.

Sunday started with a game against Frankston who beat us a couple of weeks ago. While our focus on taking the extra pass in offence was starting to yield some easier baskets we were punished on the boards. While the Frankston coach seemed to have plenty to complain about, we still went down by 14 points. We had some time to fill in Cranbourne so we headed to Le Mans go kart track for a spot of go karting. It was great fun, and while the boys gave it a fair crack, experience won the day and Coach Dirk led the field from start to finish in a commanding performance. We were 1-3 at this stage and heading back to Casey for our final game against St George who had performed strongly in their previous games. They didn’t look too tall during the warm up, but on closer inspection at the starting jump, they were actually quite tall and it was plain to see we would have our hands full. We started the game very strongly and an upset was on the cards as we raced to a 3-0 lead early in the first minute but shortly after the wheels fell off for a long stretch of the game. In trouble at half time, the boys were asked to finish the tournament with all they had, and while the half didn’t start well, the great character of the boys came through with Charlie Maus diving on loose ball, Calvin Lehr getting steals and finishing on the fast break, Gabe Scodellaro hitting team mates with some great passing in transition. The tournament was capped off with Hugh Steer drawing 2 charging fouls in the last minute while the parents were re-instating the Monday plans that they had cancelled the day before.

Special thanks goes to Cathie Maus our team manager and to all of the parents that gave up their weekend to get their kids to games. While we didn’t get the results we were hoping for we are well set up for a successful finish to the VJBL season. (Dirk Quartel – coach)

B18.1

B18.3

The 18.3 boys got off to a tough start in our first game of the tournament, going up against a strong Dimond Valley team we were outmatched in more ways then one going down 23-45.

Looking to bounce back after a shaky start the boys looked like their normal selves with a strong competitive close game against North Adelaide coming down close towards the end of the game we were able to pull away and seal our first win.

We faced Keysborough next in a match that came down to the wire, neck and neck the whole game but we unfortunately came up short going down by 3 points.

As we approached our last game of the day we knew we had to come out strong in our next game and that we did, with a team effort we had our best game of the tournament taking down Werribee in a blowout win.

The next morning, we faced Waverly in a must win game to secure a top four spot and move on to the finals with in an early start in Sandringham the boys came out strong with great team basketball and ultimately coming away with the win.

Finally for our final game in our pool we went up against a tough Adelaide team in a hard-fought game, with it going down the wire we fell short going down by 2 but an overall great effort by the boys in a great overall game.

Finishing third on the ladder we faced up once again against the same Adelaide team, only having played them a few hours before we knew it would be an interesting game but playing 8 games in a span of two days took a toll on us and we just didn’t have enough in us to battle it out, we unfortunately we down hard in a tough loss.

Despite the disappointing finish we played some incredible basketball over the weekend that we look to carry over to the rest of the season.   (Jarrod Whelan – coach).

GIRLS

G11.1 – Development Teams

G12 – Development Team

The U12 Girls Development Team first met each other 10 minutes before their first game on Saturday morning. The group were from a range of domestic clubs and three of our own Super dragons balancing the team.
The girls all came together quickly to form a fantastic little team, full of potential! They worked together and showed many rep teams how to win games Dragons style!

The girls won their first four games in style, getting better and better with each game:
Chelsea 2: 23-12

Diamond Valley 6: 30-4

Hills Hornets 3: 26-12

Little Worriorettes: 65-1

Losing only one game to a very rough Southern Tigers 1 15-25.

With this amazing effort the girls advanced into the semi finals showing Chelsea just how much they improved over the tournament winning 40-8. GRAND FINAL HERE WE COME!!!!

The grand final was a fantastic game going goal-to-goal until the last few minutes. The girls working so hard as a team, transitioning up the floor, taking on anyone in their way and giving it everything they had. Unfortunately, the girls lost 25-35 but showed so much determination and improvement. We look forward to seeing these girls play for Dragons in the future. The Club is in good hands and we are very proud of you!

A special mention goes to Lexi, Nati and Katie (12.4) for being great role models and leaders to the other girls, helping to provide a fantastic experience to your new team mates and showing everyone what Dragons is all about! Go Dragons! (Coach – Prue Ainsworth)

G12.1

This is the report from the 12 1 girls about the Nunawading tournament on Saturday Sunday and Monday, on the behalf of all my team mates by Issy Godfrey.

We started our tournament with 6 players. Grace, Millie and Alannah all had sore ankles and were not able to play but they still came to watch us which was great.

First, we played the Bearcats, they were big but slow and we are small and fast. We passed really well and were able to score with our drives to the basket. The team ended up winning that game. Prue was very happy with us as well as our awesome assistant coach Daisy.

At our second game on Saturday at 6:00pm we played Waverly we won that game even though we didn’t shoot as well as we should of. It was a nail biter, our team work was what won us the game.

On Sunday morning at 8:00 am we played McKinnon they were very organised like our team and all though we lost we tried very hard, we have beaten them before twice, but we were cold and I think Prue was tired too.

After some hot chips for breakfast, we all cheered on the girls in the Development Squad. At half time we played on the court. Then we all went to play Knox 2 at Rowville.

We won a really close game by 3 points to make the semi-final. Well done Liv who won the chocolate rebounding challenge. Liv shared it with Ani.

On Sunday night we played Knox 2 again at Rowville. Our team was very nervous, Prue kept her cool, Daisy was encouraging. And our whole team was on the bench cheering. It was very close and then Liv got fouled off. Ani was on 4 fouls and we and we had no subs. We won because of our shooting and in the last minute with our defence and our rebounding. Everyone played really well, we were all very excited.

Lastly we played in the grand final against McKinnon again. They started really well and Prue had to call a time out. We tried really hard to catch up and we all ran a lot. We nearly got there but just missed out. Great support from the younger sisters with their banners.

Thank you to our coaches “Pruesy” and “Daisy Do” for putting up with us for the whole weekend and always teaching us lots.

Thank you to the parents for driving everywhere and supporting us heaps.

Well done to the 12/1 girls! Hope you guys had a heap of fun and enjoyed your weekend. #Awesometeamwork12/1dragons

(By Issy Godfrey  – player)

G12.2

 

The U12.2 Girl’s had a very challenging tournament after ending up in A grade and facing up against VC Reserve teams!

Unfortunately, there were no W’s but what the score sheet doesn’t show is the true grit, determination and resilience of this fantastic group of girls.

Whilst facing much bigger and experienced opponents, the girls were fully committed (Ibby a great example!!), never gave in and improved with every game – a true testament to their character.

The main difference was the other team’s ability to finish off in the paint and unfortunately this led to some large scores.

Our last game against Werribee was a fast paced game that suited our style of play and we managed to keep in the game up until the end and was a great way to finish the tournament.

Thanks to our awesome TM Connie for keeping us organised and, to our fantastic group of parents, you can be very proud of your daughter’s achievements over the weekend!

They all had plenty of fun and still had smiles on their faces (could have been lolly related!!) at the end of the games.

Looking forward to a great back end of the season from our fabulous 12.2 girls! (Paul Martin – coach)

G12.3

Firstly, a big thank you to our fantastic team manager – Helena, who got the team entered and ensured everyone was organised before the start of each game.  Getting the players and parents together for a team breakfast and walk through the Casey shopping centre was an experience we will all treasure!

Our dynamic coaching duet, Brit & Ruby continue to use tournaments like this to experiment and try out some new things during the games.  Their focus during this tournament was: running the lanes in offence, straight arms when defending in the paint & passing thru the defensive press.  Well done Brit & Ruby, balancing your studies with coaching.  We hope you go well in your upcoming exams!!

Our first two games against Dandenong and Central Districts were not to our normal standard of play, possibly driven by the fact we played in Bellarine on the Friday night before our 8am Saturday morning game.  A hard fought draw against Ivanhoe Darebin (thank you to Sarah for coaching the girls during this game) gave the girls the confidence to believe a win is not too far away.  Back to Casey at 7:30pm and a well drilled Knox came away with a 27 – 16 win.

The girls appeared to have had a good night’s sleep and turned up to another 8am start with lots of energy, enthusiasm and smiles.  A 20 – 16 win against the Northern Suburbs Bears was great for the girl’s confidence.  Coffee, croissants, pancakes & shakes over breakfast and the girls and parents were all looking forward to our last tournament game.  A nail biting 25 – 23 win against Manly Warringah and the girls were jumping for joy!  A great learning the girls will take away from the final game is ‘ball retention’ when in the lead during the final minutes. Off The Bench (Parent)

G14.3

What a great tournament. We have been working hard building a war chest of offensive plays, press breakers and quick passing moves; reinforcing the importance of accountability in defence and trust in your team mates. After a late Korrumburra game on Friday night, our team arrived fresh on Saturday morning in their pre-arranged novelty slippers looking a fearsome outfit and ready to play ball. Our first game was our first win of the tournament and team was bumped. Accurate shooting and strong passing were a feature of a good game and our work in defence played dividends.  Unfortunately this was our last win for the weekend BUT more importantly our team game was getting better and better with every half played. Parents and coach agreed we were witnessing a team coming together; building trust in their skills and finding their voices. Everyone played a role – the lightening ball stealing hands of Bailey; Arina’s strength under the basket and precision of her outlet passes; Mackie’s movement into space and awesome three pointer on the buzzer in game four; Megan’s defensive pressure and goal sneaks; Lauren’s quarterback calls and leadership on court,  Bella’s bravery driving through the tall timber of the key and often ending up on the timber; and Ella’s powerful ball movement and work through the paint setting up many of the scoring opportunities.

A big thank you to our team manager Beth O’Hara and all the parents for co-ordinating but also cheering and giving up their weekend to support these talented young ladies.

Well done all. 3-2-1 Dragons!! (Peter Stephens – coach)

G14.5

The girls put in a great effort but at the last buzzer, they only just lost the GF!!

Thanks to parent Tony for stepping up to coach the girls in this tournament and new coach Zoe for coming along to some of the games. Parent Linda also did a great job doing pre-match warm ups with the girls.

After 6 wins and 1 loss, the girls had a fantastic weekend. Go Dragons! (Katherine Jackson – parent)

G16.2

GU16-2 had a successful Nunawading tournament. Despite absences and injuries leaving us with effectively 5 players, the late addition of Maiya and Leah from GU14-1 gave us an agile group that saw us win through to the grand final before coming up short. In a very even B3 comp, our Saturday was a little patchy with a strong win, a draw and a narrow loss we could have avoided. Our Sunday was excellent with two good wins followed by a tough 1 point win in the semi. In the grand final against Altona 3, we struggled against a team overly result-driven (2-3 zone all game, tempo killing 40-60 second offensive possessions) and we had difficulty adjusting to the way the referees were calling the game. However, the girls stayed on task and tried their hardest all game. Beating two teams from our Friday grade and losing the GF to a team one Friday grade above us was a great result. (Paul Collins – coach).

G16.3

With the addition of 3 fill ins, Suzie D, her sister Amy D and Rebeka V ( U14 Wattle Park Saints domestic player) the 5 team members, Maddie E, Alice C, Alex Mc, Mia I and Kaity G who were well and available to play had a very strong and satisfying developmental experience in this years 2018 Nunawading Tournament.

The players competed against teams in higher VJBL pools and with one good win in the last game and close finishes in the games preceding the girls did not disappoint themselves, the team, the coach and their parents.

The focus for the tournament was to be more physically effective on the court and the girls demonstrated this in each game. They were strong and a held tight contests in defense particularly against physically bigger and stronger sides. They didnt buckle under pressure and held themselves and the team well to execute open opportunities for scoring and win more turnovers in defense.

Over the 5 games they put up more shots than most of their opponents but didn’t seal the victories they were so searching for. It was very reassuring to see each player putting themselves forward more with a broader range of shot selection. They backed each other up repeatedly with strong rebounding at both ends of the court.  I was very pleased with their more thoughtful passes and better calling for the ball.They were learning to spread the ball more over the court, with longer and stronger passes which lead to easy baskets.

A great result for these girls as they kept their heads and kept the pressure on throughout each game which will encourage them to keep their strong position on the ladder to the end of the season.

Well done girls, you were awesome….. and a big thank you to our fill ins, our team manager, Anna E and of course our amazing dedicated parents for without you the valuable experiences wouldn’t have been possible. (Dana BP – coach)

 

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