GV Suns 

Welcome Danny!

This week young Ed Uniacke has the scoop on our new signing for the Seniors, Daniel Heffernan. Ed managed to finish and file his story ahead of our local papers - well done Ed!

Danny joins us from the Central Coast Mariners. Danny has always wanted to return to the Goulburn Valley after a successful goal scoring stint with Shepparton Soccer Club. He played one season with Shepparton before being offered a contract with Heidelberg in 2013 for 2 seasons.

The beginning of last season saw Danny sign with the Central Coast Mariners in the A League. After impressing in early trial matches Danny played 7 games prior to being released in February this year.

Having someone with Danny's profile at the club will help with national exposure and hopefully generate interest for local football fans. We also look forward to Danny's experience and involvement in helping us develop the terrific youth talent we have in the Goulburn Valley.

Danny will be available to play for the Suns once 30 May transfer window opens. Please make Danny and his partner Sasha feel welcome at the club.

Help! Can you take photos this weekend?

This weekend some of our regular photographers won't be at the games - and even our backup and backup to the backup are unavailable. So we are asking anyone with any sort of camera to take some pics and send them through to operations@gvsuns.com.au by Monday evening.

One on One
Ed Uniacke meets Daniel Heffernan

Player stats
(Ed started with the tough questions!)
Height 188cm    Weight 85kg     Age 28     
Marital status:  partner, Sasha

How did you get started in soccer?
I started playing junior soccer in the under 6 team for Burnage Rangers Football Club in England

Did playing other types of sport help improve your skills as a soccer player?
I have only ever played soccer.

Who is your favourite soccer player? 
Wayne Rooney (Wazza) England legend

What advice would you give to young players who want to play for the GV Suns seniors? 
Work hard on all parts of your soccer game, but most of all enjoy your soccer

What is your favorite pre-game meal?      
Coco Pops
Do you have any pre-game rituals to prep for a game? 
My Coco pops

Favourite movie?
The pursuit of happiness with Will Smith

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned on your Soccer journey?
I have learnt more than anything to love the game, you must love the game.

What type of music do you listen too?            Rhythm and Blues

What is your preferred social media?
Twitter - my twitter handle is dannyheff1987
 
Thanks Ed and Dan.

Reminder - Mid-season break

Another five rounds and we can enjoy a mid-season break that coincides with school holidays. Nice!

2 - 3 July  general bye for all NPL teams
9 - 10 July  GV Suns bye

That's two weekends without soccer!

Do you need pre-game assistance from our Sports Trainer?

Reminder - if you need taping, massage or some other pre-game assistance from the trainer you need to
1. advise your coach so they can then be in the rooms to assist  
2. be at the ground early.  
If you leave pre-game needs until just before game time expect to miss out!

Reno's Wrap

INTENSITY - HOW DOES IT HELP?

Intensity has a number of definitions and implications. In this wrap I relate intensity to one’s conscious effort to increase work capacity in training and games.

In our training sessions our coaches a ‘step-up approach’ to increase intensity. An example of this might be to introduce a 4 second rule to win the ball back once we transition to BPO. I heard the opposition coach in last weekend's under 18 match yell out to his players, “5 seconds to win it back”. He was expecting an increase in intensity. This example would require players to make an increased effort to close the opposition down. This needs to be done as a unit.

It is very important for our players to bring the desire to lift intensity to training. A relevant increase in tempo at training can improve a player’s responses and skill levels to pressure situations. Learned responses to intensity in training can be transferred to game performance.

Demonstrated intensity can contribute to a common high work ethic. One’s example of relevant intensity can rub off on to others in the group. It sends a positive message to everyone associated with the team.

We saw this during the second half of our Under 14 game on the weekend. They brought increased intensity to the table and performed better because of it. After the game the boys also felt better for it. We spoke about intensity during the week at training and they demonstrated it during their positioning game session (playing out from the back).

Our Under 16s and 18s performed a transition/ recapturing session last week at training. This was done with the required intensity to succeed at their level. If this type of effort is continually rehearsed it should be able to be transferred in games. In fact we have seen better team performance from these groups in recent weeks.

Intensity must be rehearsed in the mind and displayed in performance. Coaches must expect it, correct it and direct it. Players need to bring it.

Imagine the message you send to the opposition if our warm up drills before games possess the required intensity!

Cheers, Reno. 

Weekend game wraps

Skill Acquisition program (SAP) U10 & U11

Both teams played some entertaining football which displayed the benefit of them participating in the SAP Program. This program is all about developing good habits in our game.

A big thank you to Shaban for training the teams to date, Jillian and Justin Iaria for organising all the equipment for the day and to Matt and James Lelliott for coaching and supporting the teams during their competition. 

We are considering changing the SAP training night to Wednesdays. All parents will be notified as to all the benefits of this change. The next 6 weeks will require an increased training load and by changing the night we can introduce more senior players to the groups.

Reno

PS If you took some photos at the SAP gala day please send them to us to share! operations@gvsuns.com.au.

Under 12s
Tommy Giuliani
This week saw the Suns hit the road to take on Springvale White Eagles who had only tasted defeat once this year.

Facing a long road trip and an early start this would always be a tough fixture in which to perform at our optimum.To come away with a 1-1 draw tells us that we did many things right, most notably our pressurising and disturbing.We can't always "boss" the game,and with our core skills and ball retention not quite at the level of previous weeks we had to be better "off the ball" which requires effort and application.

Being under the pump early in the game,the efforts of the boys to close down and deny Springvale space quickly allowed us to go into the half time break at 0-0. In the second half we were able to create more attacking opportunities through better ball retention and movement and finally we broke through with a good  Nick Mori strike from the edge of the 18 yard box.

We came under severe pressure in the final minutes and finally conceded an equaliser but I couldn't be prouder of their application and effort.The boys showed real grit,something that was missing from their previous away trips.

Well done young Suns!

Under 13s
We could say that our U13s performance on the weekend was beyond words. Unfortunately and for reasons beyond our control we are unable to bring you this week's game wrap. Our apologies to our Under 13 players, parents and supporters.

Under 14s
Nathan Saron & James Lelliot
A long drive this week and a fair bit of dejavu as we played another match where we let our opponents take the game in the first half. The boys tried to knock it around a bit more this week which was good, but our turn overs hurt us  as we were too loose with our boo pressure allowing  Springvale easy balls into the box to score.

4-0 down to start the second half - a harder effort  was needed. The boys looked to become a more confident unit in the second half and it showed as we put better  pressure on in the midfield and around the box. This allowed Marco to swoop in for his first goal and two other chances that went close. 

Springvale hit the post and that was the best chance we gave them. It was good to see Izaak, Jude and Teng find their  feet in the second half in their first 14's game. The final score of 4-1 meant we won the second half, the attitude we had here needs to be replicated at training and for 60mins of all future games.

Under 15s
Shaun Kane and Glen Wilson 
Last week at training we worked on transitioning from BP to BPO and vice versa. One thing that I've noticed over the last few weeks is that our transition has improved dramatically and this is becoming more evident as the game ticks on. This has been helped by the extra skills and fitness training the lads have been doing on a Monday night. 

Our game on the weekend was very even and only a fairly soft penalty awarded to the home team separated us at the end.  We had a very good chance to equalise in the last few minutes that unfortunately wasn't converted. 

Most disappointing thing was the state of the pitch which made it very hard for both teams to keep control of the ball for any great length of time. 

Once again many thanks to Alou in goals and also to Reno for his support.  

Under 16s
Paul Nieuwenhuizen & Shaban Mehmet
After a great result last week, the boys were in high spirits for this week’s game. With a couple of players missing for a range of reasons including a few injuries we again called on a few under 15 players in Bowdie, Jordan, Conor and Fergus.

The team task for the game was to stay compact when defending and to provide support in numbers to the midfield and forwards when attacking. 

The game was an even contest at the start with the defence and midfield of both teams dominating the game and few real goal-scoring chances being created by either team. Unfortunately, we went in at half time 1 nil down due to a lucky goal that hit the back of the head of a Springvale player.

At halftime, I reminded the team that they were still in the game and to stick to the tasks we set at the start. The 2^nd half was a copy of the first with the forwards struggling to create chances at either end.

A sub-standard playing surface hindered our ability to play good football, so with nothing to lose we changed to a 4 man attack has we continued to create goal-scoring chances, through Jayden, Willie, Alou, Charlie and Hammad. However, the ball did not bounce our way when it came to the final touch.
Once again the team showed that it not far off the standard set by the metro clubs and that with luck going our way the wins will come.

Under 18s
Pat Kielty & Shaban Mehmet
This game was billed as a potential six pointer as SWE were one place above us and sitting on three points. A win would have lifted us off the bottom of the table. Going into the game we genuinely believed that we could achieve our first win. We welcomed back our second long term injury player in two weeks Tom Kielty.

Our game plan was the same as last week, play counter attacking football and use our speedy wingers to get the ball into the penalty box where hopefully we could score. When the game started we were hopeful that we could score a quick goal but it soon became evident that for some unknown reason we were playing very badly.

Our midfield went missing in action, we were struggling to pass to feet, we kept losing possession of the ball and we quickly conceded a goal. SWE were definitely the better team in the the first half but we were doing our very best to make them look good. It's always a worry when your goalkeeper is the best player on the field and but for Sam Varley we would have been down by three goals at the halfway mark.

We addressed these issues at half time and made a couple of positional changes for the second half.

What a transformation, we started to play football, we were the dominant team, we hit the bar, we hit the post, we had two cleared off the line and eventually Elia put one in the back of the net to level the score. SWE didn't give up and they then came back at us. They played the same style as us which resulted in counter attack after counter attack from both teams. We had chances and so did they, Alou cleared two off the line to keep the scores level at full time. 

We viewed this as an opportunity missed and it reiterates the importance of attending regular training. We had players on the park who haven't been coming to training and it was obvious that they were out of sync with the rest of the team, this needs to change if they want to continue playing.

Once again thanks to Willie, Alou, TC, Kaine and Elia for playing a second game and giving us a bench

Under 20s
David Davkovski & Matt Maiorano

An unusual game today as we started strong and maintained momentum for most of the half. A silly turnover which resulted in a goal was our only sore point. The boys controlled the game well and we created 5 strong goal scoring opportunities but we simply couldn't convert. I think we as a team understand now that at this level we must be clinical in front of the net.

On the flip side of this, we also must be smarter at the back and middle third during these games when things just won't go our way. The second half involved more goals for Eastern Lions only created by our mistakes. Again we showed that we can play by continuing to penetrate their defensive lines. Overall our attitude against the top team wasn't good enough. We will be better next time. We go again!! 

Seniors
Nick Kalafatis & Serkan Aktas
It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how many games we have played, watched, talked about this great sport will never be mastered by any one. We have played so many good games this year but we have nothing (no points) to show for them.

On Sunday we played one of our worst games. We started the game very flat, we couldn't put three passes together yet we achieved possibly the most important win (and three points) of the year so far.

For the second week running we wanted to go out and press high and with high intensity try to keep the ball and create problems for our opposition. Once again we did the opposite, we defended very deep and when we got on to the ball we turned it over too easily. We were lucky not to go down first because we gave them too much space and time on the ball.

I could say that we were 1-0 up against the run of play, but we also gifted a goal just before half time to make it 1-1. At the break we had to refocus on what we want to do, how we want to play, how we want to attack and that we can only play better than that first half.
In the second half we asked our boys to play simple - we really wanted the three points. It was a much better performance in the second half from our boys, we didn't give much away. As the game went on we got better at keeping the ball, we got higher with more numbers and started to create some very good chances. Finally we got the goal that we deserved late in the second half (around 78minute) and we looked comfortable to the end. 

It was a big win that takes us to 5th spot on the ladder but we definitely need to turn it around and start games with a lot more hunger and energy. For this result to really have its tally we have to play well and get the three points against Springvale Eagles on Saturday night - a team that is travelling very well at the moment. 

It's going to be a cracker we can't wait. Hopefully we can all support our boys on Saturday night - they really deserve it. 

Well done to everyone and to the parents for getting everyone to Springvale last weekend on time and with some really outstanding performances.