GAVIN Lloyd doesn’t care about the scoreboard when he coaches Balranald’s under 14s.
“I don’t really care if they win or lose as long as they keep playing with the same enthusiasm and intensity [shown on Saturday] and keep playing their hearts out,” he said yesterday.
The Roos downed Tyntynder 6.4 (40) to 1.5 (11) in an emotional game on Saturday morning. Not far from the players’ thoughts was teammate Kobe Lloyd who suffered a compound fracture to his lower leg in an accident on the farm before Easter.
The youngster faces a lengthy recovery process and won’t play again this season, while Edward Pout will likely join him on the sidelines for a few weeks after sustaining a suspected broken foot in the game against the Bulldogs.
And with several players returning to school at Assumption College there are likely to be a few headaches for the team’s managers in coming weeks.
The Roos therefore made the call to promote four under 12s — Drew Lloyd, Nicholas Hodgson, Brandon Soraggi and Jack Connellan — to the under 14s, where they will likely play exclusively this season.
“We don’t want to double up the kids. They’re under 14s now,” Lloyd said.
Logan Fitzgerald, Josh Hodgson, Jack Gervasi, Nash Fitzgerald and Ryan Bruton were named the Roos’ better players, but the coach said he was again impressed by the spirit with which the whole team played.
“They just play and they play for each other, as a coach you love that,” he said.
They just play and they play for each other, as a coach you love that.
Lloyd said the youngsters were encouraged to strive to play with intensity, urgency and enthusiasm.
And he said they all fulfilled their roles to the best of their ability and had surprised him by progressing to the under 13s grand final last season.
“We have so many different types of footballers and they know each other’s capabilities and they play to it,” Lloyd said. “It doesn’t matter if someone’s the best player or not as talented, they use each other.”
With the boys returning to Assumption, Lloyd said the Roos would find themselves down to the bare minimum of numbers.
But he said his motivation for coaching the side was to help the players develop into the best footballers they can be.
“The reason I have taken on that age group is to try and create senior players down the track,” he said.
“You want to put your stamp on things and try to get them to have a good work ethic so when the kids go up they don’t let themselves down — they go out there and work hard.”
