5/17 Takapuna AFC Welcomes Papakura City Lotto NRFL Div 2 6 May 2017 Club History Sponsors Welcome/President’s Report On behalf of the Takapuna Committee welcome to Taharoto Park for round nine of the NRFL division two season. I would like to extend a warm welcome to the management team, players and supporters from Papakura City. The last time the two teams met was during the 2015 season in the Chatham Cup draw played at McLennan with the home team winning convincingly 5 – 0. I would like to extend our congratulations to Brendan Kavanagh and his partner Meg on the birth of their first child, a daughter named Mia Penny Kavanagh born on the 27th April at 1.45am. Good luck over the weekend to all Takapuna teams, hopefully your 2017 campaigns will have you league winners in 16 weeks time. Please enjoy today’s game and I sincerely hope that you will experience the hospitality on offer during the day and then join with members from both clubs in the clubhouse after the game for the post match player awards and socially relax in the excellent facilities we have to offer Wayne Hallford President 1st Team Report View from the Dugout I would like to start by welcoming Papakura's coaching staff Jill and Mike, players and fans to Taharoto park for this NRFL fixture. The 5-1 loss at Mangere Utd last week was not a great performance from us and what was most disappointing apart from the result, was the way the goals were coincided. We played badly with and without the ball and we have been working hard to improve that this week. I will hold my hand up and say that a change of system with only one training session under our belt was setting up the players for a fail and I take full responsibility for this. The result was a smack in the mouth for us as a squad but it’s a big compliment to this group of players that they have listened and worked extremely hard to put right our wrongs and this week in training we have moved the ball much quicker than we did in the past few weeks. All of the coaches in the world want their teams to create chances, score goals and to concede few – of course that’s what we all want. Despite that every game in the NRFL is not a given we cannot take anything for granted. I saw many good things about the spirit of the team this week and I said we had to build something from that and bring this from the training ground to the game on Saturday and I really hope we do. This is not a day to let our concentration slip. We must approach this game the same as every other. The preparation has been identical to the way we would get ready for any game but we must show the same intensity, the same desire, the same pride in our performance as we do on Tuesday and Thursdays. As a coach you learn something from every game you take part in and today I am sure I will discover more about my players again today. If we do our jobs properly today for 90 mins then we will be in for a great game. I really hope you enjoy the game today and I hope we can put a smile on our fans faces with a performance they deserve Enjoy the game, UP THE TAKA BOYS! Joe Daw Reserve Team Report Last week away at Mangere Utd was another disappointing result for the Ressies and thus far this season we have really struggled to gain any kind of traction or momentum in these first 8 games. Mangere Utd pitch was probably the best away pitch we have seen this season and even with a lot of rain we were able to start the first half very positivity, moving the ball around nicely and creating a few half chances early on. Although having the majority of possession we struggled to find that final ball to create a clear chance. Mangere were playing very tight at the back absorbing our pressure and looking to hit us on the break with a route 1 ball over the top. This is exactly what happened at around the 25 minute mark and unfortunately a clumsy tackle took down their striker just outside the box, which the referee deemed a penalty. Although frustrating sometimes the official’s decisions go your way and other times against you and usually over a season this variance will balance out. Their player stuck the penalty in corner and we were 1-0 down. This is where our frustration began to boil over and one of our players performed a reckless challenge, receiving a straight red. In the closing stages of the first half Mangere scored a header from a set piece making it 2-0 at the half. The second half was much of the same with us playing some good football in patches but struggling to create many clear cut chances. We did manage to get a consolation goal with a great header from a corner in the last few seconds of the game. Although there were some positives to take from the game as a whole this was definitely another sub-par performance on our part. I feel that on paper we were the better footballing team but full credit to Mangere they remained organised as a defensive unit and took their chances well. All in all I think we have just been guilty of going through the motions so far this season in and teams at this level are punishing us for it. We have the squad though, I feel we just need to put a bit more effort in and work harder during our training sessions and we will get there. Up the ‘Puna!! Lewis The Corner Flag The modern game has many complex facets, none more so complex than that of the relationship between players and managers. When the team is doing well, the players are brilliant and infallible, but when the team performs poorly the manager or coach is to blame…is that necessarily right? Looking at great managers one thing seems to be constant, and that is the ability to effectively “man-manage” players. I see this as one of the most important parts of the job, sure you can have certificates and bits of paper saying you can coach, but I know that some of the best coaches and managers I have had, had none of that, but what they did have was excellent man management skills. The ability to get the most out of a player or players is critical. How many times have you seen coaches/managers fall out with players? This normally involves both parties literally ignoring each other, because that whole “does he fancy us as a player” gets played out in some weird Mexican stand-off. What is achieved? Very little in most cases, normally the player spends the majority of the time sitting on the bench getting splinters up his date, and moaning about everything the manager or team does…all the while thinking “just give me a chance Gaffer, I can make a difference!! The coach/manager essentially loses faith or trust in a player…maybe the player doesn’t do what is asked of him…. take Luke Shaw at Man Utd…. a year ago, he was the toast of fullbacks up and down England, and was a hot prospect…and now he seems to be Jose Mourinho’s whipping boy…why? Maybe it is because Jose has someone else in mind, and in some childish way, by giving the poor lad a hard time, he will eventually get the hump and put in a transfer request. Or is it a case of when a new manager comes in, he somehow manages to re-install a player out of favour and form and all of a sudden, the player is now a world beater…. I believe it is down to one simple concept…confidence. They say that when a manager loses the dressing room it is down to a player coup or revolt, and that can be the case a lot of the time, some- times it is simply a case of the manager just not having the experience or ability to take things to the next level. I recall one coach I had when I was 15. He tried to teach us at our first training session how to kick the ball with the outside of your foot…he couldn’t do it, so in my mind I lost any respect for him because he could not The same coach also thought it would be a tactical revelation to bench his starting left mid- fielder and replace him with the reserve goalkeeper, expecting great delivery in to the ar- ea…. hmmm how do you think that went? My point is if the players have no respect in the gaffer, then the proverbial is going to be pushed slowly up hill. 60% of the preparation before a game comes down to the coaching staff, when the whistle blows their influence is less than 10%, and the difference often between winning and losing is the top 2% mental strength of a player, which leaves 28% technical ability of the player. The bottom line is as a player you have to take ownership for your contribution, and as a manager the honesty to know when you have got it wrong, and admit that.