Sport
14 September, 2023
Under 14s ready to fight for Bendigo glory
Maryborough will have a chance to take premiership glory on Sunday when their under 14s meet South Bendigo in the under 14 division two grand final at Tannery Lane in Strathfieldsaye. The two clubs have enjoyed a thrilling rivalry this year...
Maryborough will have a chance to take premiership glory on Sunday when their under 14s meet South Bendigo in the under 14 division two grand final at Tannery Lane in Strathfieldsaye.
The two clubs have enjoyed a thrilling rivalry this year, splitting their two matches with three-point victories during the home and away season.
However, South Bendigo proved too strong in the second semi-final, winning by 42 points, before Maryborough bounced back the next week, defeating White Hills by 37 points.
That performance pleased coach Marc Cassidy, who is hoping for a similar performance this week.
“The semi-final loss wasn’t a great performance, but we rebounded in the preliminary final to have one of our best performances for the year. So we’re hoping we take that form from last week to take it right up to them,” he said.
“As we’re a young team, a few of the kids might have been overawed in the first final, and hesitating a little bit. But last week, they knew what they were up for, and cracked in. Once they did that, they had the confidence to play well.”
Cassidy played in the club’s 2010 reserves premiership, and will be teaching his charges about what it means to participate in the grand final.
“I’ll be drilling in to the guys what a privilege and an opportunity it is to play in a grand final. A lot of people can go their whole career without having that chance. You can’t take it for granted — when the opportunity presents, you have to take it,” he said.
“I think at the start of the year, if you had told me it’d be our team that would have a chance to win it, I wouldn’t have believed you, but the grading fell our way a bit, and we ended up in a great competition full of close games, and we finished top two, which gave us a chance.”
Cassidy says it can be just the start for this young group, who he says are a delight to coach.
“I’m just privileged to be involved with a great club and just want to play a part of helping these young guys come through,” he said.
“If our kids can have a great experience in playing in a premiership at under 14s level, hopefully it helps keep them around to play under 16s, under 18s and senior footy down the track.
“We can win it if the guys play their role like they did last week. When we play team footy, we play our best footy, and the results have spoken for themselves.”