| Round 1 |
Round 2 |
Round 3 |
Round 4 |
Round 5 |
Round 6 |
Round 7 |
Round 8 |
Round 9 |
Round 10 |
Round 11 |
Round 12 |
Round 13 |
Round 14 |
Round 15 |
Round 16 |
Round 17 |
Round 18 |
Qtr Final |
Semi Final |
Grand Final |
Breakaways 7.10.52 Def Wests 4.7.31
“Well, Breakaways’ all I want to be...” We have 1 win under our belts, big thanks and congratulations to all the players who made it for our Grand Final rematch. A special BIG THANKS to all the last minute ring-ins who helped us to our first victory for the season.
With a blazing start, we finished the 1st quarter with a 5 goal: 4-point lead (34 points) which West’s were never able to catch. By the final buzzer, Newtown had a 20point victory, 52:32. It was a great start to the season, but in the words of Darren “Our kicking accuracy has to improve”, so see you all down at training this Wednesday night to commence the improvement!
Unfortunately, Nikki dislocated her shoulder during the game (which was back in the right spot by the end of that quarter) and we wish her a speedy recovery. Hope to see you soon Nikki
Top
Breakaways 13.14.97 Def Shamrocks 1.0.6
Great centre clearances by the mid field plenty of want for the ball, speed and passion. Pushing the ball down to the forwards the Breakaways were able to capitalise with goals which resulted in good goal to point’s ratio.
Great acknowledgement should go to the defensive line who did not let the Shamrocks push into their attack. With only a few forays by the Shamrocks into their forward line our backs weren’t challenged too much but were there when needed
Breakaways effectively shut down the shamrocks play and forced a penetrating rebound of play back into our attacking half. The defence was so strong that it was noted by the whole team at the half time break.
Big mention goes to our newest Breakaways some of whom took the field for the first time on Saturday. Duck, Emma and Shannon played well and are all keen to return and get their next game under their belt.
A very convincing effort last Saturday by everyone we should all work a little harder on our accuracy. Overall a great result.
The support team included Roxy (message runner), Mason & Iyoshi (water runners), Mon & Emma (flags), Tray (for firing up the BBQ).
Tash
Top
Dockers 12.9.81 Def Breakaways 4.4.28
Top
Breakaways 9.13.67 Def Sydney Uni 4.6.30
Sydney Uni were going into this match a formidable unbeaten record so far this year, and some excellent winning form in the
pre-season 7’s tournament. Their form posed a big threat to us and it seemed we were keen to make amends following the solid beating handed to us last week.
The Sydney Uni team had a good line-up, with some ex-shamrocks players lining up in key positions for Uni, including the equal golden boot winner, Marie Keating. They also had their fair share of “talls” around the ground… both in the forwards and backs. So, it was going to be a tough match, but one where we wanted to show that we were still a strong side, and one not to be taken lightly!
We played well, and took the lead, but uni were always very close behind… and a turn of play could have put them ahead. It wasn’t til the last quarter when we raced away, and sealed the win 67:30. At the end of the game, our players were definitely worn out, and certainly felt like we’d played a good hard game, but the pain was balanced with the warm feeling of victory – which always helps.
Tash
From Darren: I am very pleased with the all round effort this week. This is first time this year we’ve put four quarters together against a quality side who kept coming at us. Our centers worked well and the backs held very strong, however with more accurate kicking we need not put ourselves under quite so much pressure.
It was great to see the forwards and on ballers go defensive and lock the play into our forward 50 on so many occasions. Great endeavor and more effective tackling were key. Well done!
|
Top
Breakaways 40.20.260 defeated Wollongong 0.0.0
An awesome display after probably our most erratic training last week. Whilst it was great to get a major result we need to keep our feet on the ground now and continue with the things we do well and continue to improve on the things that need work.
We saw some amazing displays from some unlikely candidates on Saturday and some finding that there are other positions on the ground than those to which they have become accustomed. It is time to take the next challenge and continue the growth. Well done one and all.
Darren
Top
Breakaways Vs Southern Power
Top
Breakaways Vs Shamrocks
Top
Breakaways Vs Mac Uni
Top
Breakaways BYE
Top
Breakaways Vs Woolongong
Top
Breakaways Vs Southern Power
Top
Breakaways Defeat UNSW Stingrays
With stand-in coaches Darren Morrow & assistant Jemma Still at the reigns, the Breakaways took the field for the first time this year against UNSW. Coach Darren, having a lovely time in Vegas, getting married again, had given Darren (#2) strict instructions about how much to beat UNSW by
... actually he wanted us up by 80pts by half time... well we didn’t make it to 80pts by half time, but we did make it to 80+ points by full time. We had some good passages of play, some excellent passages of play, and then a lot of scrappy footy as well.
On many occasions we had too many people around the ball, too many people blocking space that was supposed to be open to lead into, and too many floating kicks where teammates had to wait underneath to mark the ball. So, plenty to work on at training this week... with heaps of positive feedback for last week’s training, I ask that everyone make an effort to get down to Mahoney pk tomorrow night, so we can start ironing out some of our faults, and it’s much more beneficial to have the whole team there!!!
Special thanks go to Roachie (flags), Fiona’s Fiancée (Phil - water), Jemma (ass coach), Ioyoshi (scorer), Holdzy (organising the Bunnings BBQ), and Darren #2 (coach)!
We have 2 BIG games this week and next, against #1 & #3 ranked teams (Syd Uni & Balmain), and we’ll all need to be performing at our peak to get the best results in the 2 games... and to walk away at the end of those games feeling satisfied with ourselves, knowing we performed our best!.
Top
Breakaways Defeated By Sydney Uni in 1 point nail biter
On a very muddy field of battle, round 13 saw us turn up to play the third placed Sydney University team. As has been discussed at the start of our season everyone wants to beat the premiers and this was certainly the case this match.
Sydney University came out hard playing a very physical brand of football described by some as playing the man rather than the ball. They certainly intimidated us with their desire to be first to the ball, and get possession of the ball more often.
They fought hard to keep us away from contests... the sort of tough play Darren would like to see us play more of. We were fired up but under prepared for the physical onslaught which we encountered.
Despite this and as a result of some inaccurate goal kicking by one of the league’s best (Keates), we managed to stay in close contention.
What we did well was continued to play the ball, and never lost faith in our ability to win, which actually saw us come out firing in the last quarter, quickly kicking goals, and putting us ahead by 5 points with a few minutes to left.
The end result of a one point loss was probably a fair indication of the match, though undeniably bitter, and provides a lesson to be learnt. We cannot afford to leave the result of a game to the last quarter or the unpredictable umpires.
If we are to triumph come the finals series we must seize the game and make it our own from the beginning. We can only do this as a team, and have to be committed as a team, and train the way we play. This means we need to train together as a whole team – this remain up to you, if you don’t come to training, you’re letting the rest of the team down – especially on a game like this, and the upcoming Balmain game!
Top
Breakaways Defeated By Dockers
Top
Breakaways 25.19.169 Defeated UNSW Stingrays 0.0.0
From Darren: The discipline was the best we’ve had all season
The training exercises paid off as we gave ourselves more time to make decisions without blazing into 50/50 contests! This was great to see with such limited training, but now we need to continue to get much better at this.
The centers were very strong with big congratulations to Tobi who really stepped up on Saturday. It was good to have that training opportunity to have a full game practice with the alternate ruck players and centres working well around Tobi.
We need to focus a little harder on having numbers at the fall of the ball, We need to implement this at training this week.
Backs were very good and will have their work cut out over the coming weeks as the intensity picks up and the finals draws closer.
Well done to all now the serious work begins.
Congratulations to Bianca for her first game, and welcome back to Selene whoi played an important role as one of our 2 "blondes" in the forwards!
Thanks to our helpers on the day: Ang – scorer; Penny – flags; Mason – runner; Stella & Karen & Kat – water (did I miss anyone?)
PLAYER’S PLAYER: Tobi!!!!!! Congratulations Tobi – Great game!
Top
Breakaways 78 Defeated Wests 23
From Darren: I was really impressed that we stood the first quarter’s physicality on Saturday and then got on with the business of playing our game. Last Wednesday’s training work paid off as did our reinforcement of giving ourselves time to choose the best way fwd.
Some great defensive work from our backline was continued by the midfielders and forwards as we worked for all four quarters. We showed that great things can happen when you have a plan….and follow it. Well done all.
Thanks to our helpers: Penny on flags (who came out especially to do flags for our early morning game in Balcktown), Kat/Verna on water, Mason
Player’s Player: Roxy!!! Congratulations to Roxy for a great game
Top
Breakaways Vs BYE
Top
Breakaways 37.21.243 Defeated Mac Uni 0.0.0
An awesome display in very windy conditions and great discipline where it counted. We need to be mindful going in to this week to stay physical, and stay close to our players defensively and if the windy conditions persist we will need to be more conscious of the direction forward using the fat side to our advantage. We will talk more of the defensive structure on Wednesday. Great job girls you’ve earned your place two more wins to put together to cap off the season!
Thanks to our helpers: Ang (& friend) on Scoring; Groubes/Karen/Kat on water, Penny on flags and Mason as runner
Great to see the supporters on the side-lines – warming up for the finals: Becks, Mon, Bella, Pam & Max – thanks for the cheering
Player’s Player: Duck!! Congratulation to Duck who always seemed to be in the right place sweeping, cleaning up the ball and moving it forwards – with some beautiful kicking! Congratulations!
Although the ladder hasn’t been officially updated, it is assumed that we arrived 2nd based on “for & against” scores (so those big scores at the beginning of the season were SO important in getting us to that 2nd position)! We now have the opportunity to make it straight into the GF, with a win this Saturday, on our home ground!!!. This weekend’s game is vs Balmain and is at 1pm. Gather together all your supporters, and get them down to the game!
Darren
Top
Breakaways (2nd) 10.8.68 Defeated Balmain (1st) 9.4.58
Congratulations on a great overall performance. I thought our pre match vibe was very good on Saturday on the back of a really good training session Wednesday night.
Our discipline was very evident in the backs with some close checking and having a true sweeper helped there.
Congratulations go to the whole group of back line who kept Balmain absolutely scoreless in the 2nd quarter, a record this year! On Ballers and Centers were very good and continued to mix the attacks with great effect, with the positioning of the wings working in our favour.
We were tested for match fitness like no other game this year and the last five minutes was to be the test we ultimately passed. From a second place finish in the home and away we can be in no better position as the first qualifying team for the 2010 Grand Final!! Well done to all!!
Having spoken to the majority of the team after the game – there’s definitely a common theme – we all know we haven’t yet peaked, and that we still have another gear & level that we can play to… we only have 1 game left to prove this though, so now is the time to focus (for 2 weeks only) and put in everything we have together as a group to get to that next level – We Can do it!
Players Player: Selene! Congratulations to Selene who played so well – taking flying marks from the centre of the packs, kicking goals, being in the right place and recovering from a hit to the head, ready to do it all again! – Selene went to hospital to get her head checked at the end of the game, and following the all clear from the Dr, made it back to the pub to celebrate with the team (priorities!)!
Supporters: Thanks to Karen, Stella & Groubes who ran water for us, Mason for message running, Ang & Kat for helping out & all the supporters on the sidelines for cheering & yelling for us! It’s great to see you all back in the red & white!
Darren
Top
SEMI FINAL: 04/09/2010
Balmain (1st Vs Sydney Uni (3rd)
The Mighty Breakaways have secured a week off after their win against the previously undefeated Balmain team. The winner of this game will play the Breakaways in the 2010 Grand Final
Top
Newtown Breakaways 6.7.43 Defeated Balmain Dockers 3.5.23
On a beautiful Saturday in September, with the sun shining and a light breeze, the Newtown Breakaways turned up to Mahoney Park to play the 2010 SWAFL Grand Final against the undefeated minor premiers of the league… Balmain Dockers. With Balmain having lost only 1 game in the year, being the first semi-final against Newtown, they were definitely the favorites for the premiership. All that stood in the way of the Dockers winning their first flag, and the 2010 season being played out according to script, was the NEWTOWN BREAKAWAYS…who had a little trick up their sleeve… "knowing how to play finals footy!"
Balmain won the toss and elected to kick with the wind in the first quarter. This meant NEWTOWN would be kicking with the wind in the final quarter… reminiscent of the semi-final where Newtown stormed home with the wind in the final quarter…
proceedings for the 2010 Grand Final got underway…
1st quarter: Newtown 0.0 0 to 1.3 9 Balmain.
Balmain scored a goal early from a 50m penalty which put the kicker right in front of goals. After that, and despite Balmain keeping the ball down in their attacking 50m for a lot of the quarter, they were only able to follow up with 3 behinds. Their normally potent attack was shut down by an awesome defense which smothered, tackled and spoilt Balmain’s increasingly desperate efforts.
In the quarter time break Newtown were well aware that Balmain had come to play and had come out firing, scoring first and keeping the ball in their attack for the majority of the quarter…. But Darren confidently summed up the situation declaring that “if 1 goal 3 is all they’ve got WITH the wind… we’ve got this game in the bag… this is a 4 goal wind… so go out there and score your 4 goals this quarter WITH the wind”…. So out we ran feeling re-focused and determined to make the most of the wind’s advantage…
2nd quarter: Newtown 3.3 21 to 2.3 15 Balmain
So it seemed that after giving Balmain a decent lead in the first quarter, and being held to a zero score, we woke up and decided to start playing a Grand Final,
The First Newtown Goal of the Grand Final was at the hands of Cassie "Shack Attack" Lees who fumbled a mark, regathered, split the defence and kicked a left footer on the run. The breakaways fuelled by Shacks Fist pumps and "Come Ons" pumped up and showed the Dockers what Grand Final footy was about
Almost as Darren had instructed, Newtown went out, took advantage of the wind and kicked 3 goals 3 behinds, and in the process held Balmain to only a single scoring shot.
The second quarter proved to be an important quarter for the Breakaways, mentally confirming that we were able to use the wind to significant advantage and making it clear that if we were able to restrict Balmain’s scoring in the third quarter that we would be in a strong position heading into the fourth.
3rd quarter: Newtown 4.4 28 to 2.5 17 Balmain
In the “Premiership” quarter, the 3rd quarter, Newtown Breakaways came out strongly. Determined to restrict Balmain’s scoring, the strong defence held together to allow only 2 points to be registered on behalf of Balmain (a performance only matched this season by our own previous efforts in the first semi-final where we held Balmain to their only scoreless quarter all year).
Although a portion of our focus was on limiting Balmain’s scoring in this quarter, we were not satisfied with ourselves being held to a low scoring quarter, and through continued pressure in our attacking 50m, and a little hand-pass from Burridge to Nikki who was in a better position facing the goals, Nikki kicked only her 2nd goal for the season, and contributed towards Newtown’s scoreline with another 6 points!
4th quarter:
Heading into the last quarter with just an 11 point lead (less than 2 goals), the result was far from being certain, and the Breakaways were all too aware of Balmain’s ability to score quick goals, as they had in the semi-final, putting 2 quick goals away in the 4th quarter to give us a good scare and get right back into the game.
But again in the last quarter, Newtown were kicking with the wind, which gave us confidence and we continued to dominate possession and put away 5 scoring shots, resulting in 2 goals 3 behinds.
In response Balmain had a few running drives forward towards their attacking 50m, but every time the solid back line formed a calm and impenetrable barrier which repelled their attack and delivered the ball back through the midfield and towards the Newtown forwards.
The first goal in this quarter came from Selene "The Seagull" Thornton taking incredible marks despite preferring the scraps off the floor. The final nail in the balmain coffin coming from the ball sailing in from the 50m. Kicked high towards the red zone where a marauding pack of both friendly and enemy players jostled for position to mark the ball, with at least 10 sets of hands all flapping in the air searching for the ball. The ball landed, taken strongly by just one set of hands from the crowd… and as the group dissipated… the marking player, who had been wedged in the middle of the throng of players just 10m in front of goal, was revealed… Newtown’s very own… Verna! It was like the Leo Barry mark of the 2005 Swans Grand Final. Verna lined up the kick… took her time, and slotted it through for another major score to add to Newtown’s scorline. And that was it… final result… Newtown 6.7 43 to 3.5 23 Balmain.
Goals: Selene 2, Cassie 1, Mel Daley 1, Nikki 1, Verna 1
Points: Roxy, Selene, Mel & ? (a couple of rushed behinds)
Player’s Player: Cass! Who ran all day, from the deepest of defence, running the ball through the midfield, and then deciding to put a goal away herself. Congratulations Cass… you’re our GF Best On Ground!
Special Mention: Tobi & Brooke who shut down the league’s most prolific scorer and allowed her just 1 goal in the biggest game of the year!! JUST AWESOME!
Special Congratulations: to Jemma for hitting her 150th game… an amazing effort! There are very few players to have achieved this milestone
Special Thanks: Darren! Thanks for all your skills, training drill, playing tactics, playing structures, and nutritional and motivational directions! But a big congratulations goes to your strategic player set-ups in games where you showed how important this element is when we beat the previously undefeated Balmain in both the semi-final and the grand final. By all accounts, you out-coached and out-foxed the opposition’s coach, which led us to the victory. Congratulations and Thanks!
THANKS TO OUR HELPERS ON THE DAY: Groubes, Kat, Karen, Scarlett, Bianca & Haley. Mason on message running and “red hat”. David Burridge & Robert who orchestrated a marvelous helium balloon installation. Ang - who made the BEST and BIGGEST run-through banner & also made the most professional looking cake to celebrate Jemma’s 150th game.
CONGRATUALTIONS TO THE WHOLE TEAM! THIS WAS AN ABSOLUTE TEAM EFFORT WHERE EVERY PLAYER COMBINED TO MAKE A STRONGER WHOLE!
JUST FOR THE RECORD:
·This Victory makes our team only the second team in SWAFL history to win a back-2-back premiership. The only other back-2-back winning team was the Newtown Breakaway’s team of 2002-2005 (2 x back-2-back premierships – actually 4 in a row!).
This is Newtown Breakaway’s 6TH premiership in the 9 years since it was established
This is Newtown’s 8th Grand Final appearance in its 9 year history
| 
