Match Report 6th May
Right from the kick off, Marist camped themselves in Gunghalins territory and stayed there for the next 20 minutes. Gunghalin lost the match in the first half when they failed to keep up with a rampaging Marist side, whose intensity and precision was too much for the visitors to handle. Some excellent rucking with strong cleanouts allowed clean ball for the backs to work their magic. Hunter Bailey took the ball up following a penalty to Marist and took 3 Gunghalin boys with him over the line. Further tries to Jacob Knobel and a pair to Joseph Phillips and the boys came in for some well earned oranges at half time.
Gunghalin came out in the second half with more vigour and camped themselves in the Marist territory. The boys defended well, withstanding some strong scrums and spirited running from the large Gunghalin forward pack to keep them scoreless. Two more tries in the second half to Charlie Taylor and a sneaky intercept to Lachlan Smith and the final whistle was blown with a comprehensive 32-0 victory to the boys in blue.
Gunghalin came out in the second half with more vigour and camped themselves in the Marist territory. The boys defended well, withstanding some strong scrums and spirited running from the large Gunghalin forward pack to keep them scoreless. Two more tries in the second half to Charlie Taylor and a sneaky intercept to Lachlan Smith and the final whistle was blown with a comprehensive 32-0 victory to the boys in blue.
Match Report 14th May
It was a great all round effort from the boys against Easts. From the first whistle they all fronted up with some intimidating defence and strong running into contact. After posting early points it seemed to be all one sided but the boys didn't let up. Our clean outs so far have been outstanding and we dominated again to the point where the referee asked us to ease up. He also asked for us to ease up on set play defence. The backs ran the ball well and put together some great hands to see the ball move wide throughout the 2nd half, while the forewards forced Easts to uncontested scrums with some dominant shoves. A great result to keep Easts scoreless and look forward to improving on our great start to the season.
Match Report 20th May
The U10 Royals showed plenty of confidence in their performance on Saturday against a large St Edmunds outfit. The pitch was in surprisingly good condition even after receiving 50ml of rain the previous night and the boys enjoyed practicing slide tries in the wetter edge sections of the field in the pre game warmup. This was to be an omen as right from the opening whistle Marist camped themselves in Eddies territory and after a series of rucks with multiple pick and drives Ben Martino stormed over for the first try of the match. Further tries to Bede Foggarty and a pair to Koen McCann and the boys came in for oranges.
The St. Eddies outfit were not going down without a fight and showed some discipline with a more concerted effort in the second half. It was a slower half dominated by set pieces with Marist showing superior scrumaging techniques to win multiple tight heads. Joseph Phillips scored a try but St Eddies managed to get on the board late in the second half with a try out wide. With a failed conversion attempt the final score was a comprehensive 29-5 victory to Marist.
The St. Eddies outfit were not going down without a fight and showed some discipline with a more concerted effort in the second half. It was a slower half dominated by set pieces with Marist showing superior scrumaging techniques to win multiple tight heads. Joseph Phillips scored a try but St Eddies managed to get on the board late in the second half with a try out wide. With a failed conversion attempt the final score was a comprehensive 29-5 victory to Marist.
Match Report 27th May Marist v Vikings @ Gowrie
Another strong win to Marist against the boys from the valley. The boys attacked with vigour and defended well with Vikings only crossing once late in the second half. Final score Marist 51- Vikings 7
Try scorers:
Hunter Bailey
Ky Cox
Tom Evendon & 1 conversion
Bede Fogarty
Koen McCann
Joseph Philips
Xavier Ryan
Lachlan Smith &1 conversion
Ben Martino
Try scorers:
Hunter Bailey
Ky Cox
Tom Evendon & 1 conversion
Bede Fogarty
Koen McCann
Joseph Philips
Xavier Ryan
Lachlan Smith &1 conversion
Ben Martino
Match Photos 27th May
Match Report 3rd June Marist v Grammar @ Marist
On a cold but sunny morning at Marist, the boys gave Grammar a lesson in fast flowing expansive rugby running out winners 81-0.
Try scorers
Hunter Bailey
Ky Cox
Tom Evendon x2
Bede Fogarty x2
Ben Henry
Joseph Philips x3
Lachlan Smith x2
Conversions
Lachlan Smith
Tom Evendon x2
Try scorers
Hunter Bailey
Ky Cox
Tom Evendon x2
Bede Fogarty x2
Ben Henry
Joseph Philips x3
Lachlan Smith x2
Conversions
Lachlan Smith
Tom Evendon x2
Match Photos 3rd June
Match Report 17th June Marist v Wests @ Wests
Marist traveled to Belconnen and right from the kick off experienced a tough and determined opposition in Wests. The first half was a slow scoring affair with much of the action occurring up front. Both sets of forwards kept it tight and attempted to bust holes through the middle of each other packs. It wasn't until Marist scored their second try late in the first half that the game opened up and the Marist backs could work their magic. Marist ended up running in 7 tries however the scoreline didn't reflect the closeness of the game.
Try scorers
Bede Fogarty x2
Jacob Knobel
Lachlan Smith x2
Charlie Taylor x2
Conversions
Lachlan Smith x3
Try scorers
Bede Fogarty x2
Jacob Knobel
Lachlan Smith x2
Charlie Taylor x2
Conversions
Lachlan Smith x3
Match Photos 17th June
Match Report 24th June Marist v Queanbeyan @ Marist
Marist continued their winning streak against a fast Queanbeyan whites outfit. The boys defended well keeping their opposition try less. The boys had trained well and concentrated on an expansive game with both forwards and backs sharing in the spoils of meat pie addiction! A satisfying 71-0 end result keeping their for and against record in the stratosphere.
Try scorers
Hunter Bailey x2
Ky Cox
Bede Fogarty
Koen Mccann x2
Lachlan Smith x2
Ben Martino x3
Conversions
Xavier Ryan x3
Lachlan Smith x5
Try scorers
Hunter Bailey x2
Ky Cox
Bede Fogarty
Koen Mccann x2
Lachlan Smith x2
Ben Martino x3
Conversions
Xavier Ryan x3
Lachlan Smith x5
Match Photos 24th June
Match Report 22nd July Marist v Wests @ Marist
Wests traveled to Marist to see if they could avenge their Rd 6 loss and played a predominantly pick and drive based game. It was a low scoring affair with both teams keeping the ball in tight. Wests were penalised on multiple occasions allowing Marist to camp themselves inside Wests half. Continued forward pressure allowed Charlie Taylor to smash over for the first try of the match. Two more ties in the second half and Marist ground out a deserved 15-0 win.
Try scorers
Lachlan Smith
Charlie Taylor
Ben Martino
Try scorers
Lachlan Smith
Charlie Taylor
Ben Martino
Match Photos 22nd July
Match Photos 29th July
Match Photos 5th August
Match Report 12th August Round 11 U10 Royal v Vikings
An unusually warm and sunny morning greeted the U10 Royals boys and supporters for their second clash of the season against a large Vikings team. The boys have been brimming with confidence lately and were looking at making it 11 wins from 11 to keep the unbeaten streak going, despite querying why such professional athletes and gifted entertainers as themselves had been relegated to the Marist No 2 oval and not allocated centre stage to showcase their skills!
At 840 proceedings were underway with Vikings electing to kick deep into Marist territory. The coaches have been working on the team’s structure between backs and forwards and the boys executed it perfectly for a couple of phases up the field to send Joey at inside centre on a 40m inside run to the line after 2 minutes for the opening try. This would be the first of three tries for Joey and it was a great centre’s game from him with some dazzling footwork, slick passing and hard running into gaps.
The lads were starting to find space all over the field off the Vikings restarts with many good direct runs from the forwards setting up excellent attacking field position for the backs to cross the line regularly. Ky found himself hemmed in against the sideline on the right wing by Vikings defenders but coolly threaded a grubber kick ahead and pounced on the ball to score a memorable try.
Benny M, as usual was having a strong game in defence putting lots of pressure on the Vikings ball carriers and his effort was rewarded with a strong 20m run to score. Lachy S was getting lots of dropkick conversion practice and after a shaky first effort from in front didn’t miss another 8! Awesome kicking Lachy! Lachy then popped up from outside centre in the second half to run onto a nicely weighted kick pass from fly-half Tommy inside the Vikings 22 to score a sweet try for the highlight package. Take that Baudy Barrett!
Marist elected to kick possession back to Vikings in the second half after scoring quite a few tries and some committed tackling all across the field and good rucking by the forwards kept the pressure on the boys in red. Char, Benny H, Lachy H, Hunter and Sam in the tight 5 were tackling low, rucking hard and running straight. Tommy and Xavier in the halves were finding holes close to the Vikings ruck and Elijah was making lots of metres but the final passes close to the line either didn’t come or were rushed, leading to intercepts and we left at least 4 tries out there which is something we’ll work on for the final round next week.
A very good team performance to get up 69-0, so stick at it boys for one more game to make it 12/12 and let’s take some great momentum into the finals.
Match Photos 19th August
Match Report Marist Royal v Easts 19th August
Marist hadn’t played Easts since Round 2 of the season when they won 27-0 at home so the boys weren’t sure what to expect on a cloudy and cool morning at North Curtin. At 930 Marist kicked off into the breeze and immediately put some good defensive pressure on Easts, earning a turnover in the forwards who got close to the Easts line after a series of pick and go’s. Hilly and Char picked up a try each running from the base of the ruck and barging through the ruck defence. The backs were itching to get some ball but weren’t helping their cause with some poor catching of the restarts gifting possession straight back to Easts.
Easts showed that they had some good pace in their outside backs and their big half back ran the ball well so they were asking some searching questions of our backline defence, which at times lacked accuracy. A number of dangerous breaks were shut down by some fantastic scrambling defence from Sam, Lachy H, Joey and Char. Marist started to spread the ball more in the last 10 minutes of the second half and Joey, Ky and Koey all found the tryline through some excellent passing and catching out wide. We put down another deep restart but Lachy S managed to get a good clearing kick away with Marist under pressure on their line and a very good chase from Ky put us back on attack. The boys built up the phases well through the forwards but unfortunately as the ball moved wide the last pass went to ground on the wing and it was time for oranges.
The second half saw quite a few handling errors from both teams in a scrappy stanza of footy where both teams struggled to find any continuity. Nonethless Joey scored what has to be contender for the try of the season running the ball from his own half and stepping and zigzagging through just about every lad in the Easts team to score an incredible individual try. Lachy S was having a powerful game in attack with some uncompromising straight running and had a big gallop on the outside of the Easts defence to score down the left side, he then snatched his usual sneaky intercept try and backed up Xavier who made a great dart on the blindside to set up Lachy for his hat trick. Great play boys!
The rest of the second half descended into a lot of scrummaging with the forwards putting good pressure on the Easts scrum to earn a couple of tight heads. Unfortunately we gave away a few penalties for offside play when in good field position to let the pressure off. The boys defended and cleaned out very well all match to run out eventual winners 44-0. This was the last round of the competition before Finals and the boys remained undefeated, averaging 9 tries or 45 points a game and only conceding 4 all season. A brilliant effort by every single member of this team and an indication of how determined the boys are, well done!
The boys will face off against the same Easts team this weekend for the Semi-Final and with a place in the Grand final on the line. GO MARIST!!
Match Photos Semi Final Marist v Easts @ Marist 26 August 2017
Match Report Semi-Final: Marist Royal v Easts 26 August 2017
The boys have been pretty lucky all year with weather on game days and half an hour before kick-off for our semi-final the sun shone down brilliantly on the picturesque Marist main oval. The boys seemed to respond well to the sunshine, looking very sharp and confident during the team run before the game.
That certainly proved to be the case as Marist received the kick-off from Easts and went straight into business, playing with some excellent structure and intent. The running was direct and the forwards cleaning out on our ball was extremely effective which gave the backs plenty of fast ball to exploit. And exploit it they did with Koey and Ky on the wings both finishing some good backline passing movements with tries in the corners. The first half was all Marist, dominating the rucks, possession and territory with Xavier having a standout game at half back. The tries also came steadily with Benny M, Xavier, Joey, Tommy and Hunter all scoring. Having built up 50+ points in their first half blitz the boys then began each restart by kicking to Easts just before half time, and some very good low tackling kept Easts scoreless until oranges. The coaches agreed this was the best 20 minutes of rugby in all aspects that the boys have produced so far this year.
Bede Fogarty slotted into fly-half for the second half and Tommy moved to inside centre while Hilly moved to hooker. Easts managed to get more ball in the second half, and incredibly we had our first scrum of the match from a knock-on despite all that possession - so good had been the boys passing and catching between backs and forwards. Bede cut through the Easts backline to score as did Koey to make his hat-trick, but then a few errors and penalties against Marist crept in the last 10 minutes which gradually forced us back towards our own line where some great individual play by the Easts No 12 finally breached our defence for a deserved try.
Marist managed to score one last try before fulltime to seal an emphatic 70-5 win and secure a spot in the Grand Final against Wests next Saturday at Vikings Park. Fantastic team effort boys and 1 more game to go!
Match Report - Grand Final Marist v Wests @ Vikings Park 2nd September 2017
The boys run of luck with fantastic weather continued for the big match at Vikings Park against a tough Wests outfit who improved enormously during the course of the season and fully deserved their place in the Grand Final. There was no evidence of nerves and the boys appeared to be quite confident and relaxed as the 0930 start time came around. The game plan for the GF was pretty simple: tackle hard, contest the rucks, run straight and move the ball into any space around the edges on the open or blind sides.
Marist elected to kick-off to Wests to get the last match of 2017 started and straight away some good defensive pressure led to a flow of early penalties to Marist in the Wests 22. Unfortunately the boys couldn’t make the most of these opportunities coming away with no points to show for that possession and territory. Wests then got some possession of their own, showing very good ball retention by rolling up-field for phase after phase with their forwards running well off the rucks. Another pick and go by a big prop and they were in for the first try of the match and for the first time in 2017 Marist found themselves behind on the score board! Wests missed the conversion and a lot of nervous Marist supporters (and coaches!) were holding their breath that the boys could rebound from an anxious start.
Marist restarted and from a knock-on a few phases later put pressure on the Wests tryline. A short but powerful pick and go from Lachy H got the first points to make it 5-5 with the missed conversion. Marist received the following kick-off but were turned over and had to tackle well to force handling errors from Wests in mid-field. Xavier sniffed a bit of room from the ruck on the blindside and with a nice little dummy shot through a small hole and ran 50m to score under the posts, he then converted his own try for good measure. The supporters started to breathe a little easier as the boys held out the Wests forwards on the Marist tryline with some fantastic and physical defence led by Char just before half time was called. 12-5 as the boys came in for oranges and the game still in the balance.
The half-time message was keep the tackles low, react a bit faster at the ruck and move the ball to the edges. Marist took the kick off and ran the ball back well with some good breaks being made by Koey, Xavier and Benny M but the Wests No 13 was having an outstanding game and kept running down our backs. Marist worked their way in close to Wests tryline with some good rucking by the forwards and Bede darted in for a try from the base of the ruck to make it 17-5. Bede captained the team extremely well all match and led from the front by making 2 crucial try saving cover tackles to catch the very fast Wests No 13, great effort! Benny M and Joey ran the kick off back strongly and Marist were again camped on the Wests tryline before Lachy H made it a double in the Grand Final with another dart from the ruck, way to go Lachy H, great reward for one of the hardest workers in the forward pack.
Marist were growing in confidence and the ball moved wide for Benny M to execute a lovely draw and pass to send Koey untouched into the left corner. Benny M then followed up with a try of his own in the same corner to seal the game as he ran around the last defender out wide and celebrated with a huge swan dive to make the final scoreline 32-5.
Congratulation boys, 2017 undefeated Premier Champions! Well done to Charlie T for his Player of the Final performance too! It has been a pleasure coaching all the lads this year, their determination and motivation are second to none in this age group - and thank you to all the parents and supporters who helped out in so many different ways in 2017. Have a great summer boys and we’ll see you next season!
Marist elected to kick-off to Wests to get the last match of 2017 started and straight away some good defensive pressure led to a flow of early penalties to Marist in the Wests 22. Unfortunately the boys couldn’t make the most of these opportunities coming away with no points to show for that possession and territory. Wests then got some possession of their own, showing very good ball retention by rolling up-field for phase after phase with their forwards running well off the rucks. Another pick and go by a big prop and they were in for the first try of the match and for the first time in 2017 Marist found themselves behind on the score board! Wests missed the conversion and a lot of nervous Marist supporters (and coaches!) were holding their breath that the boys could rebound from an anxious start.
Marist restarted and from a knock-on a few phases later put pressure on the Wests tryline. A short but powerful pick and go from Lachy H got the first points to make it 5-5 with the missed conversion. Marist received the following kick-off but were turned over and had to tackle well to force handling errors from Wests in mid-field. Xavier sniffed a bit of room from the ruck on the blindside and with a nice little dummy shot through a small hole and ran 50m to score under the posts, he then converted his own try for good measure. The supporters started to breathe a little easier as the boys held out the Wests forwards on the Marist tryline with some fantastic and physical defence led by Char just before half time was called. 12-5 as the boys came in for oranges and the game still in the balance.
The half-time message was keep the tackles low, react a bit faster at the ruck and move the ball to the edges. Marist took the kick off and ran the ball back well with some good breaks being made by Koey, Xavier and Benny M but the Wests No 13 was having an outstanding game and kept running down our backs. Marist worked their way in close to Wests tryline with some good rucking by the forwards and Bede darted in for a try from the base of the ruck to make it 17-5. Bede captained the team extremely well all match and led from the front by making 2 crucial try saving cover tackles to catch the very fast Wests No 13, great effort! Benny M and Joey ran the kick off back strongly and Marist were again camped on the Wests tryline before Lachy H made it a double in the Grand Final with another dart from the ruck, way to go Lachy H, great reward for one of the hardest workers in the forward pack.
Marist were growing in confidence and the ball moved wide for Benny M to execute a lovely draw and pass to send Koey untouched into the left corner. Benny M then followed up with a try of his own in the same corner to seal the game as he ran around the last defender out wide and celebrated with a huge swan dive to make the final scoreline 32-5.
Congratulation boys, 2017 undefeated Premier Champions! Well done to Charlie T for his Player of the Final performance too! It has been a pleasure coaching all the lads this year, their determination and motivation are second to none in this age group - and thank you to all the parents and supporters who helped out in so many different ways in 2017. Have a great summer boys and we’ll see you next season!