A busy season for Football
August 19, 2008
The conclusion to the 2008 GPS football season a couple of weeks ago brought to an end another successful season for Nudgee players and coaches.
"Overall I believe that we achieved most of that which we set out to do," Football Coordinator Paul Edwards said.
"We may not have won the premiership but the results are still something the players and their coaches should be very proud of."
Overall season statistics were:
- Total Games played - 89 (Won 38.2%, drew 15.7% and lost 46%)
- Total Goals for and against - 154 for Nudgee, 229 against
In addition to the GPS season matches, Nudgee students also participated in a variety of challenges and development programs for players from Years 5-12.
These included a Futsal tournament, holiday camps, a development program for Years 8 and 9 and a specialist conditioning program for the First XI.
"For the second year running, we also had over 30 Nudgee boys take up the opportunity to train with Neville Burbeary during the June/July school holidays. Neville is a professional UEFA 'A' licensed coach presently with the Sheffield Wednesday Academy as an Assistant Academy Director so he had some very valuable skills to teach the boys," Mr Edwards said.
2008 also saw the introduction of a refereeing course held in partnership with the Brisbane Referees Association, which Mr Edwards said greatly aided the College in offering a well-run home day program.
"The course was well supported with 13 Nudgee students going on to qualify as referees who have since officiated both at the College and in the local leagues. A second course will be run in October in partnership with ACGS who also see the benefits of grooming the next generation of sports officials," he said.
However it wasn't just the players who had plenty to keep them busy during the season.
11 coaches were fortunate enough to attend the International Coaching Conference, which was held at Nudgee College in July.
The conference was designed on the success of similar coaching conference held in the UK, Europe and the USA.
High profile former England National Manager Howard Wilkinson teamed up with fellow reputable names of the world game, Michael Hennigan (former Leeds United Assistant and Malawi National coach) and Michael Beale (Chelsea Youth Academy Coach), who revealed their secrets on how to succeed on the training and playing fields.
There were 19 practical teaching sessions over the three day period covering crossing, finishing, combination play to score, conditioning, goal keeping, warm up, 3 v 3 defending, effective forward combinations, 6 v 6 attacking, shooting drills and exercises, quick play in and around the box and more.
"It was a fantastic couple of days and the skills the coaches learnt will be invaluable in the coming years," Mr Edwards said.