GV Suns 

Junior player trials begin 10 October

With the end of the 2016 season in sight, we are turning out thoughts to 2017 and how we can attract and retain youth talent from across the Goulburn Valley. 

The GV Suns offer the unique opportunity for talented local players to train locally but compete at the highest level of Victorian soccer. For this reason our squads are determined through an annual  competitive selection process and our 2017 trials will commence in October. Further details will be provided closer to the start of the trials.

 

Age groups	Dates
Under 9, 12, 13 & 14	Monday October 10, 17 & 24
Under 15, 16 & 18	Wednesday October 12, 19 & 25

Existing players are required to trial but its worth noting that our existing players are in the best position for selection because

• for the past 28-plus weeks their coaches have been working with them to develop their understanding of the FFV curriculum and
• everyone of our players has been challenging him and herself every week playing the best in the state. 

New players welcome
As we mentioned last week, next year's draft fixture will see two out of three rounds played at home.  So if ever there is a year to encourage talented players from across the GV to take on the challenge of playing NPL standard football,  2017 is it. Next year we would like to see full squads in each age group.

To register your interest in trialling for our 2017 squads email your details to secretarygvsuns@gmail.com.
 

---

Farewell Danny!

The Goulburn Valley Suns wish Danny Heffernan all the best for his Bali adventure. Danny's quality finishing will be missed. Time for more youngsters to try their luck up front. Good luck Danny!

---

2017 coaching positions 

 As we flagged last week, ads are appearing in local papers across the GV inviting applications from potential 2017 youth coaches. 

Paul Uniacke in partnership with our Technical Directors is overseeing the process. Further information about the positions, including experience and accreditation requirements, is available from the www.gvsuns.com.au, by emailing secretarygvsuns@gmail.com or by calling Jenna during office hours on 03 5831 6952.  

Expressions of interest should be forwarded to secretarygvsuns@gmail.com by 22 September 2015.  

---

4 September - no games for U12 to U15 squads

Our under 12, 13, 14 and 15 squads will enjoy a weekend without soccer while our U16 & U18 squads play catch up round against Heidelberg - so that's Heidelberg two weekends in a row! 

Training will continue as normal.

---

Are you on duty this weekend?

 

Heidelberg U16 & U18  matches rescheduled to 4 September  

 Under 12s
 Tommy Giuliani
Disappointing performance by the 12s after a really solid 6 weeks.Top opposition and an early away start meant if we weren't at our best we were going to get hurt.Our warm up was sub-par and this carried on into the game.
South Melbourne were just to slick with their great core skills, willingness AND ability to play fast two touch football.  

When you don't have the ball you need to be able to defend the ground properly by effective pressing and delaying,instead too many of the boys " ball chased " and dived in to challenges they didn't need to make.We were also slow to close down those spaces.

When were were on the ball were were sloppy and were unable to retain possesion.The first 15 minutes  rattled us and you could really see their body language change.This is for a coach a great opportunity in the week following to focus on what we need to do better and provide the players with the habits and tools to stay in a game when things aren't going well.We can turn this into a positive experience if we can learn something from the game!

This week we'll continue working hard on our SAPs with a sharp focus on defensive shape and pressuring/delaying etc.

On a final note,Brodie Wooster is reaping the rewards for his great attitude and hard work at training.This kids is a great listener,never gives excuses and is the shining example of coachable players developing much quicker than those who rely on natural talent but don't train with the right intensity or attitude.Great game on the weekend against quality opposition.!!??⚽️⚽️

Under 13s
Matthew Lelliot

The long trip away to South Melbourne led to a slow first half from the team, yet we arguably should have opened the scoring thanks to wonderful build up play which was set up by a through ball to Marcus Thomas who just couldn't finish off his good work.

Down 2-0 at the half we dug deep and grabbed 2 back quickly, with our second and arguably our best goal of the season and one where the opposition coach said was just "too good".

We controlled the tempo in the second half but we were caught on the break just before the final whistle - a brilliant performance from both sides who played some scintillating football.

Very unlucky not to get a result but the performance was superb against a very strong outfit 

 Under 14s
 Nathan Saron & James Lelliot

Round 22 Vs South Melbourne FC We played the top team this week and it was a decent 1st half, 1-0 down at the break. The boys were able to show some positive signs with their BPO pressure and force the opposition into mistakes and turn overs which they weren't enjoying.

It was a good position to start the next half in. Unfortunately we didn't step up to the challenge and it was all one way as we were unable to shield the ball and pass with confidence, we dropped off on competing for 50/50 balls and tackling.

Sth Melb kept pressing and we found it hard to clear the backline from corners and goal kicks resulting in a 4-0 score line. We need to work and improve on our physical strength and not let our opposition overpower us. 

Under 15s
Glen Wilson 

s expected, our opposition who sit very near the top of the table, were a very well drilled outfit.

We were bare on numbers with Vinnie being sick, the unavailability of Alou and Liam due to the different venues being used, as well as the Red Card handed to Stefan in the 14's.  Luckily, we had both Fergus and Moses to give us a bench to enable substitutions throughout.  Thanks lads your efforts are well applauded.

The game started with South Melbourne well in control of the ball, pushing us back deeper and deeper.  Whenever we managed to get hold of the ball - we seemed to turn it straight back over and put our defence under more and more pressure.  This is something we will continue to work on = as we must learn to retain the ball, rather than just hand it to our opposition.

Our defence was holding quite strong and repelling their attacks time and time again......after about 15 minutes, we started to look threatening on the counter attack by smart use of some quicker, wide balls to Callan and Hakan down both wings ...... this is something we have been working on (attacking from the wide areas).  Unfortunately for us, we weren’t quite retaining the ball for long enough up forward to get enough quality crosses into the danger areas in the box.

This change in our good play going forward happened to result in our Backs getting caught out a bit high and unfortunately the "missed" offside call by the linesman resulted in a simple one on one with keeper with plenty of time to slide it into the corner. I wouldn’t normally complain about any referee or linesman decisions, but it is fair to say 10 yards offside should never be missed.  Anyway, that’s football!

We continued to play a good brand of football as we tended to get more and more of the ball in the middle third pushing forward, even almost scoring from a free-kick set play.

A few minutes later, a wonderful cross was put into the box in a very dangerous spot and Fergus managed to get a toe on it and put it into the top corner for an "absolute cracker of a goal".....sadly, this was at the wrong end of the ground and put us down 2 goals to nil.  A very unlucky own-goal, but certainly highlights the benefit of getting balls into dangerous positions and possible outcomes!
The lads continued to battle through to half-time, but they were definitely a left a bit deflated by the score-line.

Our half-time discussion centred on how well we were playing, what we were doing well and reminding them that "it's not about the score, but it's about how we play".........and we were playing well and getting chances.  

The second half was scoreless from both teams as play went from end to end - from this we had several chances to score, as did our opposition.  A comment was heard several times from the opposition camp about how good this keeper is, as he had made several remarkable saves!  Well done Lucas, keep up the excellent work.

Also, massive credit to both Conor and Hakan who were both full of the flu and played manfully in trying conditions.

Next week, we are up against another strong club in Heidelberg United, and as we do every week - we will go out and EARN the RESPECT we deserve! 

Under 16s
Paul Nieuwenhuizen

We focused our training during the week on the mid press, where we would control our pressing of the ball to the middle 3rd. This would allow the opposition team to play the ball out from the back under no pressure while we are setup in the middle 3rd to restrict their passing lanes and build up.

We had a very good first half where we restricted South Melb to long shots and a few corners. All the boys were sticking to the structures in place. We also created 3 or 4 opportunities for ourselves. We misplaced one pass which lead to the only goal of the half, other than that one error the boys were working as a team trying to break down the South Melb Midfield & Defence.

The half time discussion centred around not becoming complacent and keeping mentally focused on the next 40min. We came out in the second half and continued our performance from the first half for the first 10min, but in the end we couldn’t keep our composure or keep mentally focused to finish out the game and the resulting score line was a true indication of the half.

Losing 6-0 does not come down to the skill of the group, we have a very strong group of boys who show us what they can do in halves of games. What needs to improve with our boys is their mental / psychological focus on the game.

Keep up the work u16 group there is so much promise there.

Under 18s
Pat Kielty & Shaban Mehmet

We went to this game with a depleted squad due to sickness, injury and other commitments. Despite that, as I have mentioned before and regardless of results the team spirit and morale is excellent. This however was severely  tested when SMFC were awarded two absolutely blatant offside goals.

The referee then spoke to the SMFC linesman and ask him to do his job properly. However a SMFC spectator couldn’t take it anymore and approached the linesman. She told him that both SMFC goals were offside and then she took the flag of him and did the role herself. She was obviously both a player and an official and did an excellent job. She was thanked by myself and the team at the conclusion of the game.

The game itself was excellent and very entertaining. Once the linesman situation was sorted we began to get our confidence back and to got back into the game, confident that the AR1 would call infringements. SMFC then scored a third offside goal from a corner but the AR1 flagged it and despite their protests she informed them that four SMFC players were in an offside position.They were not happy. At half time we were back to 2-1 thanks to a goal from Alou Kuol.

The second half began and like the first and it was end to end from both teams. SMFC are a big physical team but our boys more than matched them in that department. Alou then got the equaliser thanks to a very long ball  which hit the bar and fell to Alou inside the eighteen yard box. It was about at this point that the SMFC coach got sent off as did a very vocal SMFC spectator. We were by now on top of this game and going for the win and but for some poor finishing we should have been two goals in front. Eventually we did score another, Alou again, with his hat trick with three minutes to go.

In the last minute they got a free kick on the edge of the eighteen yard box and despite our best efforts it went in and then the full time whistle sounded. Final score three all.

This definitely felt like two points lost rather than one point won but I couldn’t have been prouder of the boys, everyone of them gave it their best and but for the poor officiating at the beginning we would have been singing the club song.

A big thanks to Alou, Willie, TC, Hamud and Jayden for playing another game and well done to Alou on getting his hat trick in an NPL competition.

Under 20s
David Davkovski & Matt Maiorano

Our game was played at a level that we are not really trying to promote or develop players to. We played against Brunswick city before and it was much the same then, we just put our chances away on that occasion.  

Brunswick pressed us quite high and forced the long ball which was well played to them. Our boys just couldn't settle at all into any kind of rhythm. We made some adjustments during the first half but we were simply to rushed in BP. 

Half time we gave the boys some ideas on movement during BC's pressing game but it just wasn't our day for forward thinking. Second half was much the same, we pushed and created some chances which was a positive but still no real playing style which is something I'm passionate about.

Regardless of the score we want it to see our football game, this is the only way to develop our players, so scrappy game with a win is a dangerous result as it gives the boys a false sense of security. Especially when your pushing for a top 3 finish. 

3 away games coming up!!

Seniors
Nick Kalafatis & Serkan Aktas

Suns end on vexing note
Shepparton News | 23 August

GOULBURN VALLEY COACH SAYS 3-0 LOSS TO BRUNSWICK DESPITE STELLAR STRIKES SUMS UP THE SEASON

There was no perfect end to the Goulburn Valley Suns’ final home match of the season.

Playing against third placed Brunswick City, the Suns could have been two-nil up against their opponents in the early minutes at McEwen Reserve.

Instead, the GV side went goalless in a 3-0 loss on Sunday in a match that coach Nick Kalafatis said summed up his side’s season.

Five minutes into the encounter, Anthony Gaillard sent a powerful strike forward but the Frenchman’s ball rebounded off the crossbar.

The Suns pressed forward again and another international in Daniel Heffernan found himself in goalscoring distance.

It was a stellar shot from the Englishman in his final game with the Suns, but his kick was well read by Brunswick keeper Gregory Lascaris.

After some early scares, the visitors kicked into gear and halted the home side’s run.

Cody Sellwood was substituted from the game minutes before half-time feeling tightness in his troublesome hamstring.

The match should have entered the break at nil-all, but a lack of communication between goal keeper Monty Al Gazaly and Jordan Montagner had detrimental consequences.

Hesitant about who was best placed to defend, the shot stopper made a last ditch effort that resulted in a yellow card, and Brunswick’s prolific scorer Adam Wright nailed the penalty.

Minor slips were prevalent in the second half, with Kalafatis disappointed a goal stemmed from another error.

‘‘We pushed a little bit higher and made a mistake and there was a free kick outside the box; they scored their second goal from that free kick,’’ he said.

‘‘I think that second goal sort of killed the game off.’’

Although the sting may have left the game, Kalafatis sent his men on the attack but it left the defence compromised.

On the counterattack in the 84th minute, it was the problematic Wright that scored his 13th goal of the Tight tussle: My ball: season to bring the scoreline to 3-0.

Heffernan had another chance to put his team on Last stand: the scoreboard but he hit the post again, as Kalafatis said he wished they could have given the Englishman a better send off.

‘‘ It was very disappointing to finish the way we did, it sums up the year, us making Leading from the front: Out of reach: mistakes, other teams getting scores that way,’’ he said.

‘‘I think we’re tired of conceding goals the way we have, we’ve got to fix that because it’s a big issue at this level of competition.’’