By Joanne Westgate

Under 8s Last Sunday the Crocs travelled to the leagues premier ground Cazalys where they took on a very slick & determined Cairns Hawks Gold to their credit the boys & girls never wavered in their determination against some very stiff and courageous opposition who were very hungry for the ball.

Team work was high on the agenda and everyone battled hard for 4 quarters. Pocket Rocket Cameron Nyko was an inspiration and never gave up trying for the whole game he was reminiscent of one of those energizer bunnies he just kept going and going. Scott Cooper & Dean Laurence were also on fire both booting 2 goals as well as feeding it off to Cam Nyko for a 6 pointer Player of the Day was awarded to Jake Sherwell and the Macca’s Awards went to Harry Walker and Cameron Nyko.

Under 10s Port Douglas played a high standard of football this week against a strong Cairns Hawks team. The boys knew they where in for a hard contest right from the first bounce. Reuben and Toby combined well to get the ball out of the centre which gave our forwards plenty of opportunities to score. Accurate kicking especially from Jacob and Anthony opened the play up allowing our on ballers to run into space. A big thanks to Dean and Scotty from the U8s who stepped up for the game to match Hawks numbers, all the boys in the team put in a great team effort with goal kickers Ryan 1 and Anthony 1. Awards went to Daniel Davidson club medal Jack Harrington Foodworks, Bryce Bakker and Reuben Allison also were award.

Under 12s Cairns City Lions Blue 7-9-51 def Port Douglas 4-11-35 Sorry guys but I did not receive a match report this week so I have just put in the score from the juniors web site

Under 14s Centrals 9-16-70 def. Port Douglas 1-2-8. Port Douglas Crocs travelled to Griffiths Park on Sunday to take on Centrals. In what turned out to be a rather scrappy affair. The Bulldogs & the Crocs beared their teeth from the opening bounce and were evenly matched coming into the first quarter break. However the 2nd quarter saw Centrals begin to edge ahead of the Crocs winning centre clearances & booting a number of unanswered goals. Despite lacking a number of key players, the boys from Port Douglas soldiered on fighting hard to get back into the match and trying tirelessly to get the ball up into their forward line to create some scoring opportunities. Not their best hit out this season but good to see the boys enjoying their football regardless of the final score. Goal kicker for the match was Giles Hanley. Newcomer Dylan Davies received The Beach Shack award with the E.J.’s Takeaway voucher was presented to dependable Under-12 player, Tom Goodall. Other award recipients were Patrick Lanskey and Jarrah Wren who each received McDonald’s meal vouchers for their efforts. Thanks to those volunteers who assisted with match duties – your help is very much appreciated

Under 16s Cairns Hawks 12-11-83 def Port Douglas 3-4-22 Premiership favourites and top team Cairns Hawks showed the Port Douglas Crocs why they are sitting alone on top of the ladder after 8 rounds of Football. The Crocs failed to make the most of their opportunities and many of the boys are trying to win matches by doing the least possible on the ground. Training has been welled attended all season and the enthusiasm shown by most of the boys on Tuesday & Thursday nights just does not seem to come across when they hit the paddock on a Friday Night. Cairns Hawks swooped in on every Port mistake turning play around several times creating opportunities and delivering the ball with pin point accuracy. Big Westy helped out with the backline boys this week reminding them that all they had to do was beat their opponent and they would have done the job required of them on the night. As has become all too familiar so far this season the Crocs are being beaten in key positions, letting teams establish an early lead and then playing catch up football all night. Time to turn it around this week boys can still make the finals if everyone puts in 100 percent for 4 quarters. A few different faces were amongst the best this week good to see Aaron Marks, Oliver Hanaran and Liam Edwards rewarded on Friday Night. Goal kickers for the Crocs were Micheal Mckeown, Alex Forbes and Zach Stewart

Home game this week people (Sunday 29th May) and a great opportunity to showcase our local talent to the good folks of Port Douglas. Who knows we might even get an appearance from Spiderman like at the cricket last Saturday?