Super Saturday this weekend 

Putting our best foot forward - part 2

Players' code of conduct

The NPL player conduct requirements are set out in the FFV’s NPL 2017 Rules of Competition which means compliance is part of our licence conditions. The Rules also require players to follow the FFA's National Disciplinary Regulations.

The Players' Code of Behaviour can be summarised as sportsmanship, respect and fair play. The Code applies to all age groups - from Seniors to SAP - and we expect all players to comply. We also expect our older age groups to set the standard. So here are the ten points of the Code in full with a few highlighted for emphasis...

1. Give your best at all times.
2. Participate for your own enjoyment and benefit
3. Play by the Rules.
4. Do not argue with the Match Official. If you disagree, have your captain or coach approach the Match Official during a break in play or after the Match is concluded. 
5. Control your temper. Verbal abuse of officials or other players, deliberately distracting or provoking another person is not acceptable or permitted in any sport.
6. Be a good sport and be prepared to acknowledge good play whether it is from your team or the opposition. 
7. Treat all players as you would like to be treated. Do not interfere with, bully or take unfair advantage of another player.
8. Co-operate with your coach, teammates and opponents. Without them, there would be no competition.
9. Remove all jewelry prior to training and match play, as it is a hazard to you and those around you. 
10. Do not accept or use any banned or unauthorised drug(s), including the consumption of alcohol at any time. 

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If it's a card on the pitch - don't do it off the pitch!

Have a look at the serious (red card) and minor (yellow card) infringements listed in the FFA's National Disciplinary Regulations (and below)- most of them reflect poor sportsmanship.

Red and yellow card infringements are less about how you play and more about how you react - to provocation or to a ref's call.
 

In most cases the behaviours aren't appropriate on or off the pitch and discourage families and supporters from coming to watch you play and support the Club.

If you are serious about training as you mean to play, then make sure you practice the behaviours that minimise unnecessary and foolish infringements on game day. A 'brain fade' costs you, your team and the Club - its up to you to make the effort.

Yellow cards - minor infringements

1. unsporting behaviour
2. dissent by word or action
3. persistently infringes the Laws of the Game
4. delays the restart of play
5. fails to respect the required distance when play is restarted with a corner kick, free kick or throw-in
6. enters or re-enters the field of play without the Referee’s permission
7. deliberately leaves the field of play without the Referee’s permission

Red card - serious infringements

1. serious foul play
2. violent conduct
3. spits at an opponent or any other person
4. denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball (this does not apply to a goalkeeper within his or her own penalty area)
5. denies an obvious goal scoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick
6. uses offensive or insulting or abusive language and/or gestures
7. receives a second caution in the same Match 

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What are the consequences?

The FFV's Grievance, Disciplinary and Tribunal By-law, part 3 (page 38) provides more detail about red card offences and the additional game suspensions and penalties that can apply. 

It's an interesting read! For example, offensive, insulting, abusive or intimidating language and/or gestures in frustration is an automatic red card - directing such language or behaviour at another player adds another 2 weeks and directing it at a Match Official can increase the penalty by as much as 16 weeks.

In addition to your suspension there are also fines and penalties that may apply to the Club. 

We'll keep this one short ... DON'T!

Every moment you focus on a supporter's abuse or comments you are not focusing on your game. There is a reason you are on the pitch and the supporter isn't - so ignore their 'advice' and play the game.

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Players interacting with referees

Another short one ... if you have any concerns during the game - an annoying supporter, a questionable assistant referee or the conduct of players or coaching staff  - talk to your Captain or Coach first. Either or both can then raise the matters with the Referee or Assistant Referee.

There is no upside to arguing with a Ref - the NPL rules are very clear.

5.4. Decisions of the Match Official

5.4.1. The decisions of the Match Officials about any fact connected with play are final and cannot be disputed by any party. 

In fact the entire appeals process cannot overturn a red card - it can only reduce the length of the suspension or level of penalty handed out.

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2017 Annual General Meeting

Our AGM is scheduled for Tuesday 16 April 2017 commencing at 6pm. Venue to be confirmed.

If you have ideas or views on how the Club is travelling and or you want to ask questions of the Board and committee members this is your opportunity. It's an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Club's priorities, our off-field progress and goals for the year ahead.

Copies of the agenda and reports will be available at the meeting including our financial statements. 

Match Reports 

Under 13s

Stuart Bethell
Our second away game of the season saw us travelling to play Nunawading for a 10am start. Knowing they are good quality passing outfit, we had to be on our toes. We chose to concentrate on keeping our team shape under pressure and making an early decision to move the ball on when in possession (not taking too many unnecessary touches with the ball which gives the opposition a chance to close you down).

Nunawading started with plenty of possession as expected without really threatening our goal. It was us who were creating the best chances which eventually led to us taking a deserved lead.  With Nunawading continuing to keep the ball for long periods, it was imperative that we kept our shape, which we did. Each time we took possession we looked very dangerous on the counter attack and it wasn’t long before we scored again. At this point a few errors started to creep into our game which saw our rivals cut our lead back to 2-1, then again to 3-2 before half time after we had scored again.
The half time team talk was positive with more of the same required. I was sure we had the ammunition to keep going and get a good result. We were always going to create the better chances but we had to start converting them more frequently.

The second half didn’t start as planned with a cracking strike from outside the area seeing Nunawading draw level at 3-3. This is where the game changed for the better. We pushed forward time after time, making it difficult for them to play out from the back while giving us chance after chance to score. We became unstoppable from here on in, scoring 5 unanswered goals which could have easily been more. With a final score of 8-3, we had put together a very good all round performance.

Under 14s

Tommy Giuliani
The Suns 14s once again proved a tough nut to crack away from home - with a clean sheet on Sunday against Nunawading. A huge focus has been a better defensive shape this year. After 5 rounds the boys gave conceded 7 goals thus far. After 5 rounds last year this group had conceded 24 goals! Well done boys!

Pre game our focus in the rooms was to "high press" and really be aggressive, go forward quickly  and to hit our attackers early with killer passes. The boys executed this plan really well, snapped into challenges and circulated the ball very well. Out of possesion we were all over them, we closed them down quickly,picked up loose blue shirts when they were trying to build out from their back half and we stayed really compact in these moments. Our defensive line was neither too deep nor too high.

in contrast, my thoughts are changing on Nunawading's philosophy. Their defending was woeful, their back 4 were far too high and they were miles apart. Our thru balls sliced them up far too easily.  We deserved to be 3-0 up at 1/2 time. We continuously played in behind them.

During the half time  break the boys suggested sitting a little deeper and not to press as high and protect their lead. I love that their thinking about their football and am happy with this input. We agreed as a group to go this way in the second half but we did continue with two holding mids and a 10 behind the front three.

In the second half we added another goal  and the first 10  to 15 was still ok. In the last  15 minutes I nearly lost my voice telling them to push up. I think we unintentionally "parked the bus". It was an orange wall. We were far too deep and allowed Nuna to play in front of us. We left so much space. It was a great defensive effort still. Very tight and we left no holes,the only space was in wide areas and the shots came from oustside 18, low percentage at best. They just couldn't play through us or get in behind.

I think our higher press of the first 1/2 was better and is something we can talk about on Wednesday. We'll also discuss the role of communication from the GK pushing his back 4 up a little higher, the back 4 pushing their mids  on etc - essentially communicating with the line in front of them. This will help us when we drop to deep or get too high even..

Which brings me to my next point on Nuna's  philosophy.That last 10 minutes we allowed them to have lots of the ball.It was very  pretty,their core skills were nice but what was the end product?I thought it was sterile football-they went around in circles,there was no killer passes to create scoring opportunities inside the 18YB.There was no cutting edge,no penetration with their  passing or creativity.

We want to defend well, go forward quickly and be sharp in transition. We don't want robots who can't break down defences. There needs to be some creative license. In our attacking third I want the boys to take on their opponents 1v1, express themselves and try the jinks and step overs

On a final note, training attendance for a variety of reasons has been very poor. I don't think we dropped below 11/12 last year in the 12s for the whole season. I don't think we've had even these numbers too often....

Under 15s

Paul Nieuwenhuizen
I would like to start by wishing Ryan Coburn a speedy recovery after suffering a broken arm on the weekend. He remained in Melbourne after the game and last night the surgeon (who did Gary Ablett's shoulder) inserted plates in his arm. Not a good way to start the holidays and we hope he recovers well and quickly!

The team went into the weekend’s game on positive note and was tasked with staying compact when defending and passing the ball to our forwards quickly to catch Nunawading on the counter attack. The team worked as one to restrict our opponent's ability to create any real clear goal scoring chances during the first half, while managing to provide a number of counter attacking opportunities.

A well-taken goal on the counter attack saw us take the lead midway thru the first half. However, a lapse in concentration lead to Nunawading scoring a well worked goal. Despite the setback, the boys did not drop their heads and were rewarded soon after with another goal just before halftime. 

The second half was much a reflection of the first with the team working hard to ensure Nunawading had limited goal chances. While at the same time managing to keep the pressure on Nunawading by creating a number of chances. Again, Nunawading drew level with a well-worked goal that came about due to players being dragged out of position because of the quick ball movement. However, with the team staying positive they continued to push forward on the counter attack without any luck, before a wonderful counter-attacking move saw us score the match winner. 

The team managed to hold on for a much deserved win despite a number of players running on the spot in the last 10 minutes due to lack of fitness.

Thanks to Diesel for stepping up once again. His effort once again rewarded with a goal.
The positive growth of the team continues each week and is great to see.

Under 16s

Always a great day playing Nunawading, with a strong philosophy you have always got a challenge.

The game is always easy on the eye from Nuna and we went out to upset that. With a strong focus on our defensive structure and counter attack play we went out to be very hard to play through by restricting passes in between the lines.

Plan executed very well early when at the 15 min mark we won the ball back in the midfield and quickly countered with Elijah scoring the goal. There were multiple times in the first half where we countered and created scoring opportunities. 1-0 at the half.

We went out in the 2nd half with the same mentality to be compact and hard to play through and for 95% of the game we executed this plan well, we conceded a late free kick outside the box which somehow become a penalty??

Nuna converted the subsequent penalty the full time score line became 1-1.

Performances of note - Tom and Conor each had an awsome game in the middle of defense.

Under 18s

Stefo Radevski & Glen Wilson

Last week at training we focused on our defensive structure and playing compact to try and make it hard for Nunawadding.  From all reports, the opposition play a very strong pass and move possession style of game which meant we needed to be committed to work for each other and the system.  We encouraged the boys to flood back, take shape and fill space as soon as we lost possession and not to high press.  We also focused on the quick counter attack if we were able to gain possession from this style of defensive play - during the game we only got a few opportunities as our defence was under immense pressure throughout.

Our pre-match discussion was about keeping a tight compact defence.  They were able to score an absolute cracker from the edge of the box within the first few minutes and the game could’ve gone anywhere from there.....thankfully our lads stuck to the task and repelled attack after attack until conceding a fairly soft goal in the final seconds of the half - 2-0 down at the half.

The second half was very much like the first, with us stuck deep in defence shuffling from side to side trying to keep things as tight as possible......about mid-way during the half we gave up a free kick just outside the box which was cleverly converted with a direct strike, their 4th came with a few minutes to go by way of an unfortunate "own goal" and their 5th and final goal was the final kick of the game.

The boys need to understand that they did quite well, it is quite a hard shift when you are stuck deep in defence and have your backs to the wall as we did. We defended very well and stuck to the plan. In the same game last year we were soundly beaten 14-0.

Many thanks to the U16s who also stepped up to play a 2nd game - Vinnie, Conor, Tom, Kaine & Cal.

Codes of Conduct for everyone

And in other soccer news...

MiniRoos Certificate coaching course

This course is compulsory for all game leaders who are new to SJSA and have not refereed before.
Date: Tuesday 11 April (During school holidays)
Time: 10am-1pm
Venue: McEwen Reserve, Shepparton
To register: click here  
Further information - please call Jodie on 0439974944

Shepparton hosts Neymar Jr's 5 Qualifier

Shepparton will host one of 38 Neymar Jr’s Five qualifier events across Australia that will decide the Australian national champions who will join 53 countries competing for the global title in Brazil.

The 2017 tournament is open to teams of five to seven players aged 16 to 25, with two over-aged players allowed as part of each squad.

Date: Sunday, 21 May 2:00 pm (GV Suns juniors have a bye)
Venue: John McEwen Reserve

For more information visit Greater Shepparton City Council website or register your squad online.