Kynan McKenzie with daughter Dakota, who played fourths wearing the same number as her dad, 46.
Blighty’s senior footballers hit the park with a few new faces on Saturday, and entered the first round keen to get a good start.
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Unfortunately we let ourselves down a bit with costly turnovers and some skill errors.
Once we gel a bit more over the next few weeks, we will come together better, as we can see some really good signs.
Best on ground went to Andrew Simpson, who was good all day especially in the ruck in the second half.
This gave us a bit more run out of the middle.
The next best went to new recruits Kevin Thompson, who played well all day down back intercepting, and Carl Wenke who was great through the middle and back flank.
Travis Tambling was good in the middle, giving us an option up forward.
Final score: Rennie 26.20 (176) def Blighty 5.3 (33).
Reserves
After a couple bad years of hardship through COVID, the boys rolled out the first half poorly.
After some re-structure, the Redeyes did fire after the second half siren.
A few words to the boys at half time opened the last couple quarters up to play our style of play.
The younger fellas finding their feet made the game an easier playing style for the old blokes, which set us up for a nice set up game play we’ve trained for.
Unfortunately losing the game wasn’t a great thing, but the boys really bonded in the second half.
We believe that this is a settled style of game play, and we need to create some wins this season.
The next game is going to be one to watch.
It was always going to be a slow start with a couple of rough years.
Best ons were Reilly Webb, Dillon Taylor and Josh Sharp.
Final score: Rennie 22.12 (144) def Blighty 2.6 (18).
Fourths coach Tim Brown addresses his side.
Fourths
The young Redeyes were keen to start it off the right way.
They worked really hard during the pre-season, fine tuning and trying to get their game plan right.
In the first quarter, Rennie came out and hit us hard. But to the young Redeyes’ credit, they fought hard to regain the lead and come away with a four point win.
It will be exciting to see what they can do this year.
Better players for the day were: Ash Hines who had the ball on a string; Xander Strong with his impressive running and endurance and gathering possessions all day.
Captain Jeremy Doolan lead his troops with his link up plays looking very impressive, and Bella Gordon showed dominance in the forward line.
She was unlucky not to kick a couple of goals herself, but help set up a few.
Will Frost went back to the backline and helped hold things up down there and played a brilliant game.
Mitch Bain, coming off the wing, showed how much he has matured as a player over the pre-season, getting in and having a real crack even kicking himself a goal.
Final score: Rennie 4.8 (32) lost to Blighty 5.6 (36).
Fifths
The youngest Redeyes had their first hit out against a big Rennie side, and played very well.
All players had a great game.
We love seeing the support from parents and encourage other supporters to come and have a look how these little Redeyes go.
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