THE NEWSLETTER OF WAIUKU AFC
MARCH 15, 2007
Strip night –Coming Events and ‘Ask Robbie’
Welcome to this week’s newsletter; lots going on as always and the introduction of our Ask Robbie column, by popular request.
This Sunday – sponsor’s function at the Kentish!
Final preparations are being made for this Sunday’s New World Waiuku AFC sponsor’s function at the Kentish Hotel’s Garden Bar. All senior mens and women players, club officials and partners are invited to attend, kids are ok, and premier players are expected to be in attendance. It’s a great chance to meet the other teams in the club and kick back a little before the formal start to the season – speaking of which, there’s now just 31 days to go until we start chasing titles!
The function starts at 11am, but those of you who have offered to help on the barbecue and with set-up etc are cordially demanded to arrive at 10am.
There’ll be spot prizes for players, a sneak preview of this year’s marketing campaign, hopefully a raffle if I can find enough time to organise that as well, and of course a few speeches, which I promise will be short, especially mine!
Matchday news – looking good so far!
Last Saturday saw the Kentish Hotel Premiers in action in their third pre-season clash, with a tough match-up against Western Springs at the George Street ground. Normally, we wouldn’t look for pre-season games against Northern League opposition, but with a couple of derby days coming up, we thought we might as well test out our new line-up and formation against some top teams.
You might remember that last year Springs was the only side we didn’t beat in the league, although we should have claimed a home victory but for a referee who forgot to look at his watch!
Saturday’s match was truly a game of two halves. The first half saw the Blues play probably the best half of football since our demolition of Pukekohe pre-season last year. Springs had no answers and the 1-0 lead we took to the break could easily have been 3-0.
Northern League experience and a tougher pre-season schedule showed out in the end though, as Springs exploited some tired Waiuku legs in the second half to equalise and then take a one-goal lead. We still had chances and created some scoring opportunities, with Davy Johnson, Mitch Lee and the perpetual-motion machine Cody Ralph having shots. Cody was desperately unlucky with a couple of strikes late in the half, but in the end we had to settle for a 2-1 loss.
The Springs coach gave us a lot of credit for the first half and we all realized there’s more work to be done on fitness (despite a January start to training!). There were positive’s aplenty though. Dale Oliver showed deep midfield is his position, and although the final squad is yet to be named it’s hard to see anyone displacing him on the strength of his last two performances. Logan Drain was superb in midfield and the passing and running off the ball was as good as a Waiuku side has put together for a long time.
Special mention too, has to be made of Robbie Thornton, who ended up in goal after we discovered almost every goalkeeper in the club was carrying some form of injury!
Coach Jim and I are more than happy with progress so far, and one would suspect that if we can push Northern League sides to the extent we have Manurewa and Springs, we should put some real pressure on Super Division sides in the championship chase.
The Derby Days against Pukekohe and Mt Albert-Ponsonby will give us a better indication of relative strengths, but as we pointed out to the players at training last night, we are benchmarking our performances at a higher level than Super Division, so the training intensity will keep stepping up.
Overall – looking good, but needs work. Keep it up lads.
Derby Days ahead!
March 24: Mt-Albert Ponsonby v Waiuku. All day at George Street.
March 31: Pukekohe v Waiuku. All day at Pukekohe.
Mark them in your diaries and be available. All teams should get a run, although we are unsure whether Mt Albert are fielding one or two womens sides. Talk to your coaches or managers.
Strip Night for the Guys!
Yes, tomorrow (Thursday) night is a strip night for the lads.
There are no women involved (sorry), it just means you have to bring any remnants of last year’s strips to training on Thursday night. We are trying to collate the gear and based on what I’ve got so far, there’s at least 15 first-team shirts and shorts still with the players. Just because we have a new strip doesn’t mean you get to keep the old one! Bring it back or else I’ll think up something horrible at training for anyone I think is responsible. And because you’re all supposed to work together as a team, the horrible things will apply to everyone.
Personal – Man seeks other Men
Middle-aged Waiuku man with size five balls
seeks similar for sweaty Saturday fun.
Apply in relative confidence to:
Waiuku.editorial@xtra.co.nz
Yes, the Over-35s STILL need more players. If you’re a bloke who fits the above description, get in contact and have a great season with the lads.
I think there might be a special subs offer for those broken-down former stars who keep defying the sands of time to bring further glory to Waiuku.
At this rate, I’ll end up playing and believe me, that’s the last thing Waiuku wants or needs!
Subs and registrations – yet again!
As always, keep the subs coming in, and have a word to any mates you have about having a run for Waiuku this year. The mens third team and the Over-35s always need more players.
The mens prems and reserves train Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6.30pm at George Street, but we’ve had a few from other teams join us and all are welcome.
Ask Robbie!
Question: Does putting your shinpads on the wrong legs help your performance or is it just a superstition. If so do you do it at training also or just save it for the game?
-Just curious (by email)
Dear Robbie; My wife says I spend too much time at Waiuku soccer and says she’ll divorce me, take the house and kids and my car if I don’t spend more time with her. My question is: In wet conditions, should you play a 4-4-2 formation or go with 3-5-2 but compress the midfield?
-Blues fan
Answers in next week’s issue.
Jokes of the week
The referee has just made yet another call against a Waiuku player.
Player: If I called you names would I get in trouble?
Referee: I’d send you off.
Player: What if I just thought you were a one-eyed, shortsighted, petty little b.#@#* who had no understanding of the game and who shouldn’t be allowed near a football match of any description?
Referee: Well, if you only thought it, I couldn’t do anything.
Player: Ok, I’ll keep it to myself then.
Referee arrives in heaven (yeah – right!) and is met by St Peter, who says: “What’s your biggest achievement in life?”
Ref: I gave a last-minute penalty against Rangers over Celtic in the Cup final.
St Peter: When was that?
Ref: About two minutes ago!
Seeya on Sunday at the Kentish, and as always, Go the Blues!