I am in my 33rd year of football this year and am currently in somewhat of a learning stage.
From about 2014 - 2017 I played reserves football exclusively.
I started at the club as a backman in 2011 as the designated kickerouttera (that's a word) but the reserves moved me forward after a couple of reserves games thinking my giant arse and hips could do some damage forward.
During that tie I topped our goal kicking table 3 years in a row and lost by 1 solitary goal in the 4th year (playing finals each year) so I suppose it worked.
I was pretty much full forward or deep forward depending on who else we had down there with free reign to do what I wanted as far as positioning was concerned.
I had changed my game a full 180 degrees I suppose.
Early last season I was brought back up into the seniors, 1750 days after my last senior match where I thought my senior playing days were long over.
I'm not sure why I couldn't get a look in during that time but we had a decent senior team part of the time there and probably wasn't an ongoing spot for me there plus I have a hard time training with my work hours being 6 - 8 morning and evening.
I wasn't grumpy about it or anything but never the less I stayed ready just in case.
We were a basketcase last year with more injuries than any team in history (32 unavailable on 1 particular weekend!), we didn't really recruit much from the season prior and the top end of our league (div 3) went through the roof where the premiers are sitting on top of the ladder in their new division (div 2) as we speak.
We were originally still be in div 3 ended up back in div 4 to eliminate the bye in div 3 while giving our own club a chance to regenerate.
In the end we've probably got as good a team as we did last year in a lesser division so I was unsure where I'd be placed for this season - 1's or 2's.
I did most of the pre-season team sessions as well my own training doing 5 - 6 sessions per week from September to March as I normally do so I was as ready I normally was.
The biggest difference though has been my role within the team.
In the 2's I was 1 of if not, the main target up forward which sounds odd coming a 168cm near 41 year old but I'm strong with a solid build (78 - 80kgs) and I'm still pretty quick so I can out body a similar sized defender and out run a bigger defender.
In the 1's though it's completely different.
This season we have 6'6" and 6'4" targets in there and another mid sized forward who's very strong in the air so there's no marks for me - I think I've taken 1 in the forward 50 this season.
We also play 2 deep and 4 up for the most part to give our talls 1on1's so I'm not playing as close to goal as I have recently either.
As a result my game has to (re) expand to have any influence on the game.
My tackling pressure has to be there constantly, chasing pressure too.
Ground balls in traffic have been a theme this year, at a higher level with bigger faster players.
Most of my possessions in years gone by were shots on goal pretty much but that's dried up with our playing style - I've had 10 scoring shots this season for 5:5 - but only 1 set shot where in years gone by I would have 3 - 5 set shots per game.
As far as the 4 co-actives of performance is concerned - physical, tactical, psychological, technical - everything has been turned upside down and I'm still trying to nail all those things above and more to be as effective as I can each and every Saturday.
By staying ready physically, I can meet the demands of the game as far as speed is concerned.
By staying ready tactically and knowing our team structure/s, I can easily be inserted and trusted by the coaches to perform at my position thus my very late interchange onto the ground last weekend.
By staying psychologically ready between games and within games, I have been able to do most things when they needed to be done this season, even with spasmodic playing time.
By staying ready technically which I have gotten back through training more season then I have for years, all of the 3 other co-actives are enhanced.
The point of my earlier post was not to pump up my tyres or that I won the game for us (jeez far from it - there were blokes who 100 x more things I did last weekend) but it was about staying ready and also how what I have to do for the team right now to help them win is 180 degrees different then what I had to do 18 months ago.
The last 5 minutes of Saturday's game showed me personally that all of that is slowly coming together for me displaying that you should be analysing and learning from every single game you play.
Will I stay in the seniors when we get our full strength team on the park which we haven't really been close to yet?
Right now I'm still not sure as I place myself somewhere in the 20 - 24th man area depending on what the team needs for balance that particular week but if I do get dropped back to the 2's then my game will be turned upside down again but I'll stay ready for the call up if it comes.
If any of you would like to post a little half season assessment of your season so far, or would like PM it to me feel free.
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