Mackie P6 vs Ellon P6 Friendly

Well done to the boys today for the 8-5 win against Mackie. I believe that Mackie rotated in most (if not all) of their 20+ players so it was a good stamina test. 15 min halves is a significant step up from last year.

Rucking was generally very good and not too many turnovers. We are doing well here and just need to concentrate and switch off from the old P5 rules! Mackie were very slow to roll away for large parts of the game which disrupted our rhythm, but during the phases of play that we rucked quickly and got the ball out, our opposition were all over the place in defence and we looked very slick.

Coaches are very pleased with our attacking shape and the lines were nice and organised. We look comfortable on the ball and are happy to move it quickly away from rucks. Our main frustration today was that we easily left 5 (maybe 7!) try’s out there ?‍♂. We wanted to get the ball out to the wings but our link up play wasn’t as good as it normally is and we shot ourselves in the foot and messed up a number of overlaps from either a slippy ball or poor timing! The stats gurus tell me we had zero try’s from the wingers today which must be the first time ever ?.

Decision making on when to kick in open play was good and the catches in back field were outstanding. Defending near our line was an almost universal push up, with lots of chat and aggressive driving. Further up the pitch was a mixed bag, it got a bit passive at times, but we were knocking them back for large chucks of the game. ?

Most Improved
Mac - for reasons mentioned above the wingers weren’t given enough chances today and didn’t get the ball as much as they normally do. So it was impressive how vocal Mac was in calling for passes and how he went looking for the ball. His running was strong and aggressive and his awareness of the sideline was great. He seems to be very difficult to bring down and rarely (if ever) gets pushed into touch.

Player of the day
Cameron M - great strong aggressive running in the middle of the pitch absorbing tacklers and defenders. Good hands and distribution of the ball. Lots of dominant tackles knocking players backwards. Played the entire 30mins.