2014 proved to be a challenging year for the 3rds. On the back of the Senior premiership the club was moved into C grade and thus was asked to field a team in the C-Grade Thirds competition which turned out to be a huge jump in class. We now had an 18 game schedule and played the likes of St Kevin’s and Old Ivanhoe who both had senior teams in B grade.
Again we played a large number of players – some coming in for 1 game and others playing the majority of the season even a premiership player from 2013 in Jackson Ward snuck in for a couple of games at the back end of the year. It was again good to have a contingent of players who stuck around through the year and could enjoy the ups and downs together. Guys like Ben Woodland, Vinnie Camera, Chris Ellison, Will Lingard, Steve Tiernan all played 14 games or more with us and despite the results helped created a really good culture among the 3rds.
One of the more pleasing things was the young players coming through the ranks playing a couple of games in the 3rds for fun and ending up playing a good part of the year in the reserves. Matt Broadley, Sam Cougan and Jack Massie all played the first half of the year in the 3rds and finished strongly in the reserves, while Jack Lloyd finished the home and away season in the seniors and just missed out on a spot in the finals.
Due to a lack of numbers and poor scheduling we did have to forfeit 2 games last year and it was pleasing to have put that problem behind us this year and played every game required. In round 7 against Old Ivanhoe we had 27 fit and available players which was very pleasing – it showed that the culture was strong.
Although the results didn’t go our way, particularly with a couple of teams playing down a grade from where they should be, the effort was there week in week out from the players. Just like last year, I really felt it was important for the club to have a 3rds team playing week in week out to ensure all players at the club were getting a game each week.
I would like to thank all the helpers that we had through the year, especially the trainers. Bernie Woodland and Richard Wright were quite instrumental throughout the year as assistant coach and team manager. Bernie did the majority of the coaching duties in the back half of the year in particular. I would also like to thank the other coaches, Guy Martyn in particular who on top of coaching the seniors supported me with players and also arranged a minibus for a couple of away games. Graham Edgar, father of Lachlan assisted with the time keeping for most of the year and even pulled on the boots in a home game, kicking a behind. It really showed the spirit of the team – it didn’t matter who pulled on the Rovers green and gold, once the jumper was on we were all in it together.
I really hope that we can keep the nucleus of this team together for next year, as some performances in the back half of the year suggested we weren’t too far from turning the corner. Next year will present another challenge and I feel the steps we took this year will hold us in good stead to play some finals football in 2015.
