Photos (Top to Bottom): Metro keeper Nathan Grandin about to save from Olympia's Nick Meredith; metro's Aaron Marney tries to get past Olympia's Alex Nandan; Metro's Geoff Wicks (left) holds off Olympia's Howell; Metro's Jayden Wiggins tries to clear from the corner flag; Olympia's Warren Wadawu goes for a run; Olympia's Brady Cronk pursued by Metro's Lars Engisch; Olympia's Warren Wadawu on the turn; Olympia midfielder Ben Phillips gets a pass away [PlessPix]
Metro beat Olympia Warriors 2-1 in a practice match on Saturday afternoon at North Chigwell.
Aaron Marney gave Metro the lead in the first half, while Nick Meredith equalised for Olympia before the interval.
Daniel Brown hit Metro’s winner early in the second half.
Michael McKenna produced a brilliant save for Olympia near the end of the match to keep his side in with a chance, but the Metro defence, including goalkeeper Nathan Grandin, were up to any challenge that Olympia threw at them.
Olympia had former South Hobart, University and Nelson defender Craig Stockdale in their side.
Metro coach, Matthew Rhodes, said: “Another good work-out for us.
“It was a good game and nice and open in the second half.
“I thought both keepers played well in the second half.
“I thought we played quite well and our goals were very good.
“We’re building on our main aim for the year, which is to win promotion.”
Olympia seemed to lack a cutting edge and it will be interesting to see how they go in the Steve Hudson Cup, which begins in Launceston next Sunday.
They have been drawn in the weaker Group B of the competition and face Ulverstone at 1pm next Sunday in their opening game.
Coach Chris Hey was quite upbeat yesterday, despite the defeat.
“We asked them to try and maintain possession and knock the ball around and I felt that we did that in good parts of the game today,” said Olympia Warriors coach, Chris Hey.
“Defensively, I thought we were very, very slow. The two goals they scored were from good through-balls.
“Same as last year, we have to look at our back structure.
“I think we’re fine going forward, but I think we are also struggling in the front third as well.
“It’s just that final pass.
“I think there were a lot of positives from our perspective. I thought we didn’t rush the ball unnecessarily like we may have done last year. We did maintain some reasonable possession and controlled the ball well at times. That’s a big positive.
“We’ve still got to find the back of the net. We had some good opportunities, as they did.
“Yeah, we move on. I look forward to the games in the Summer Cup.”
33 comments:
Chris is spot on with his comments. It is good that he is not panicking (as he never does) and knows what needs to be done.
warriors a couple of seasoned players short need to find formation to suit their talented youngsters who still lack the skills to unlock and control games.
If not for a couple of saves by mckenna metro would have embarrassed olympic even more
well done boys keep it up
Ulverstone will flog the Warriors in the SH Cup. They lost 1-3 [the last two goals coming to bad defending/keeping in the last 3 minutes] to the Glenorchy knights this arvo - but looked a much better side at times.
Look out for them to be top 4 this year up north.
yes Nathan Grandin made some excellent crucial saves to keep metro looking good
ulverstone may well beat olympia because they'll use shc to give squad members a run.
the top field at metro is a joke surley fft can not let players play on it some 1 will seriously get injured i was watching knights girls play today and saw a young knights player dislocate her knee
it is the ref's decision whether or not the ground is safe. I'd say its uneven, sloping, hard, short, narrow & poorly marked - but unsafe??
Its not FFT job to decide if a field is safe or not. Its the registered officials role(referee). If there is no registered fft official then its up to the participating clubs.
Its not the worse pitch I have played on, and at least Metro have gone to the effort to make fields available at this time of year. Metro officials even had to go and mark the pitch.
Thank you Metro.
If you are going to make a comment on something make sure that you have some substance.
You guys train and play on worse.
Mike McKenna
Anon 5:27pm
you clearly havnt seen prince of wales then..
anyone who thinks ulverstone outplayed knights and will finish top 4 in the north has got to be kidding? they lost to knights with 6 first team plyers missing
holmes
dawes
sherman
roberts
garth
but agreed olympia are terrible and will lose the youngsters when they wake up
huigsloot
Anonymous at 5.27. She wasn't moving too bad after the game for a person that dislocated her knee.
I'm sure Metro would have been happy to play on whatever ground that was available. Only one problem with that, the fund raiser wouldn't have gone ahead today as there was nowhere else available where you could play 2 games at once.
I think we all agree that the ground is not ideal, but since Saturday week ago there have been 8games played on that top ground and everyone has got by with no serious injuries.
Maybe good luck but...
Get over it and start coming up with some suggestions as to where the games can be played instead of being so bloody negative and a whinger.
I'm sure the football players and people in Qld who today was for would be happy to play on whatever would have been available.
I've seen people get seriously injured on the best surfaces. Stop being so precious and maybe go over to Victoria and have a look at some of the grounds they have to play on.
Huigsloot
Your not good enough to make comments like that mate.
lol Huigsloot you are taking the piss
Holmes, yes he is a decent player.
But unless you are talking about James Sherman the rest are still learning the game and arent anywhere near first grade
huigsloot didn't play today and was not at the game so i would guess that he is not the one commenting
Olympia had no Fielding, there your difference between the teams
Anon 5.27 metro done a great job to host that tourament today how many grounds does your club have?
The clubrooms we provided and the goals with nets and corner flags yep the top ground is not the same surface as the bottom .
But my question to you is what other club in the south could have provide two playable grounds in such short notice for such a good cause.
If you want to bag metro out thats up to you but not for what we did today i think 3100 was raised and rob corr organize all he food etc bad had nowhere to play the games metro help out !
So well done to the committee and senior players at metro for all there help today .
So the girls want to do it nextyear for the fredhollows fountaion great idea so anon 5.27
your club can host it nextyear you need two grounds clubrooms change the grounds with a top surface goals with nets and corner flags
oh and in the middle of jan when no grounds or around let only two in one place! some people god give me strength
As a neutral at the Metro V Olympia game, i thought it was a decent game. Olympia controlled a lot of possession and the 2 goals against were from costly midfield turnovers, probably not assisted by the condition of the pitch. I dont think Hey has to much to worry about. Metro sat 10 behind the ball and broke with pace, it seems something Rhodes has instilled this year is the ability to change game plans to beat the opposition, whereas as last year the only avenue to goal was Dawes so maybe a good thing he has moved on. Rhodes set his team up definsively knowing Olympia were probably going to be techinically better, used the pace on the wings and much Metro put 2 in the back of the ne from probably 3 chances for the game. Olympia couldnt break down the cluster of players and ran out of ideas. However they probably wont be faced with 10 behind the ball week in and out, what team in the SPL would fear Olympics attack that much? No one, so that should help their midfield out a lot, which at times looked out muscled. Metro look the goods for Div 1, and as a Div 1 follower can see them setting the pace early. If they keep their first 12/13 healthy, and make the most of the German, they should be able to wrap up promotion with games to spare.
Huigsloot
A couple of things
1. Can you tell me if Ulverstone were missing players and name them if you know?
2. You are a bit negative towards the players who did play for you. Are you slagging of those players by saying that they shouldn't have been good enough to beat us. Must be good for club morale.
3. It was our first game for the season. We were mostly happy with how things went even though the goals didn't go in for us today. I think we hit the post 2 or 3 times in the first 20 minutes. had they gone in and we got on a role you might be saying we are title contenders.
It's probably a bit of a stretch to right us off this early but hey, you're entitled to your opinion. I mean, you have seen us play one practice match if that. You may have only heard the result for all I know.
I was happy with the boys today and it was an invaluable hit out for them.
I must thank the Knights for today. Their generous hospitality was greatly appreciated.
Nick Owen
Huigie wasn't there against ulvie. One of his mates takin the piss obviously. In fairness though knights had several players out, few of them being key players. Still more quality to come in. Ulvie were good in patches have lots of youth which is postive for the club
Walter, this comment Is clearly not huigsloot, people have established that. If onenof his mates all well and good, but when Nick Owen doesn't know any of the huigsloot family, he will assume this comment is serious. When knights morale and such starts to get mentioned, this joke has gone a little too far. I love this blog, but people cannot put their name to someone they are not, do you agree?
Nick Owen the comment wasn't actually huigsloot, just someone taking the piss. They are only trying to cause trouble. He is in the leadership group at knights he wouldn't post anything of the sort on this blog.
Nick,
Thanks for coming down and great to play teams we don't normally play. Also good to see young players like Brayden and Stoney coming along as well as they are. You should have a successful year.
Thanks again.
P.S- Huigy is not the type of bloke to write something like that so I certainly would not take it on face value. Someone obviously taking the piss.
Cheers
Just like to thank George K & Chris H and their players for their hard fought practice games.
for some ppl out there who always complain about the top oval at metro well im sorry that it only gave us 2 weeks to get semi ready as the gcc would not allow any of the grounds at the time to be used.
For this metro and other clubs wanted games so rhodsey, myself along with players had to mow the pitch ourselfs and get it ready, as you know we are not groundsmen but we atleast we had a crack to get a 50/50 soccer pitch to play on.
In my time i have played on alot worse then this and no one complained back then when there were grounds to be used anytime.
Metro has done alot of work over the past few 4-6 months in gaing 13-15 new players all under 24.
We have 35-40 players turn up to training 2-3 times per week.
These games we playes against Eagles-Olympia are practice games only the score line did not matter, at the end of the day it was to give new and young players a run.
There are good sides in div 1 and anyone of them can finish top, i don't believe there is a stand out side that will gain promotion but will be tight.
Also well done to the ladies metro team on a outstanding job in finishing 3rd
Jaydan w
Anonymous 10.18am, I agree with you entirely, but I don't have a solution, other than to close off all comments. Can you suggest something, please?
Knights and Mets should be a good tight game on sat coming at north chigwell
shit Mike you were moaning big time about that pitch at the game
The pitch wasn't the best I have ever played on but none the less it was a pitch to play on.
I was actually complaining about our coaching staff having to fetch all the balls. The first half was only about 35 minutes of playing time. The rest was spent fetching match balls.
Good idea to listen in the future.
Mike McKenna
Looks to me like whoever wrote that comment didnt actually mean to say they were Huigsloot, looks like they meant to add him to the list of players above and then mistakenly added further comments above his name which caused it to look like it was a sign off from the player making the comments.
I may be wrong but it would certainly make sense.
Well said jayden metro looked good should be a good year for your boys . Glad to see you have them training so well , not one of your favorite things during your dosa days . How many grandmothers did you bury 8 or 9 ? Good luck mate
Mouse
Perhaps try and determine whether the person who has given their name would say something like that. But you're right, its difficult to determine this.
I was impressed with Jayden on Saturday. He handled a couple of potentially explosive situations with restraint.A great acquisition for the Mets.
My comments were directed at the individual who wrote it whether that be a huigsloot, Thompson, Owen, whoever. If I have offended anyone apart from the person who wrote it I do apologise.
This comment certainly didn't change my opinion of the Knights.
Don't change anything Walter. I get stuck in if I disagree with something and will also add positive comments when I can. I know that we can't all agree so I don't lose too much sleep over things said.
It would be boring if we all agreed!
Nick Owen
Yeah agreed, huigsloot was meant to be in the list but the writer made a mistake and accidentally put a sentance in between huigsloot and the other missing players, which of course makes it look like huigsloot wrote it. The SIX players that were missing, including huigsloot, were missing. Mistakes easily made guys, lets move on.
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