A number of Junior Falcons teams headed down to the Peninsula on the weekend to contest the annual Southern Peninsula tournament. All our Falcons teams performed admirably, most notable of these was the Under 14.1 Girls who got amongst the elite teams in A Grade and pushed their way into the big dance. Grant Haffenden stepped up with the following report of the weekend:

The under 14 ones performed superbly at the Southern Peninsula Tournament on the weekend. Competing in the Championship division, the girls were extremely successful making it through to the Grant Final.

Saturday the girls (and parents), trekked down to Frankston, where they were to compete in their first tournament. With two of our “bigs” out injured, and another just back from overseas, it was going to be interesting to see if this newly formed team could measure up against some pretty tough competition. 

The first game the girls came up against Frankston 1.  Our girls are keen to qualify for the Championship division this year, so a first game victory against another “first” team is always important, especially from a self-belief perspective. With no sign of nerves the girls took to their defensive task admirably and played a strong four quarter game. Final scores Waverley 1 defeated Frankston1 26 to14.

The second, and final game of Saturday, brought the girls up against Bulleen 1! Our girls were nervous given that Bulleen have an exceptionally strong girls program (their under 14 team won every tournament last season) and the national champs weren’t going to let our girls off the hook. A really tough unit, the Bulleen team played some aggressive defence that left our girls shell-shocked and a little bruised. You know a team’s pretty good when they sub all their starting 5 at the same time, and their performance doesn’t diminish. This year’s benchmark team came out winners 33-10. Our girls had played against one, if not the best team in the land, and they did ok.

Sunday saw our girls come with a heap of confidence. Playing their first match against Nunawading 1, our girls showed no nerves, and played very good basketball. Leading from start to finish, our girls knocked off the Spectres, defeating them 24 to 19.

The Second of Sunday’s games saw the girls come up against a Kilsyth 1.  Not having played Kilsyth this season was of no concern to the girls, as their confidence was high. Winning this game would put the Falcons into the Semis. The girls came out from the get-go and defeated the Cobras 31 to 11.

The girls had made the semis and now played the top team of the alternate pool – Bulleen 2.  The girls were eager to make the grand final and out-played another powerful Bulleen unit, winning the game 23-21.

Now for the grand final, and the girls were up against Bulleen 1 who had accounted for Eltham 1 in their semi-final.

Playing their fourth match of the day, the girls were tired. But they played without the nervous trepidation that they had done when they had first played Bulleen 1 they day before. Yes, Bulleen 1 easily defeated our girls 35 to 8. But our girls never gave up, not once! In fact, they played tough, good basketball - impressive really.  They can’t wait to play Bulleen again. That’s a sign of confidence.

The girls have still a way to go, but they played a type of basketball that you would expect of a team in VC.  They haven’t made the Championship Division yet, but they now know what they have to do.

Great job girls.

Season 2015 – Bring it on!

Thanks to coach Brendon Gordon and assistant Kellie Sewell.

Thanks also to Lily Enders for filling in for the injured girls and performing so well, and to our two injured players, who, whilst they couldn’t play, supported their team mates from the sidelines -  please get better!!

Team : Grace Kantanis , Aaliah Dawson, Erin Hunt , Lily Enders (fill-in), Eliza McNamara, Emily Sewell, Sage Phillips-Snowden, Annie Haffenden, Eliza Hastings, Alana Passmore (Inj), Mia Cowan (inj),