Hello everyone,

this week was the last week of grading and we are now moving into the true competition. I think there might be a couple of changes this week but that should be the end of everything for the next 14 weeks.

Games

None of the grading games will come up as being played or any stats of the games. Everything starts from next week as week 1,if there is a record of what occurred during grading it will be erased over the next week or so. By Tuesday we should have this coming weeks game out and hopefully by Thursday they will have the draw out up until the first week of April which is when we break for School holidays. Over the break Southwest Metro will do the draw up for the rest of the season.

Please remember games will not start until both teams have a scorer and you lose 2 points for every minute you cause a delay in the game, your team will lose 5 points for anyone who does not have the correct pair of shorts.

This week I came across the 15 All Black Principles which was a very interesting read, I would like to share some of their principles and they are very interesting considering how successful they have been over many many years considering the size of their country.

All Black Principles - Number 6. No Obnoxiousness

Follow the spearhead.

In Maori, whanau means ‘extended family’. It’s symbolised by the spearhead. Though a spearhead has three tips, to be effective all of its force must move in one direction. The All Blacks select on character over talent, which means some of New Zealand’s most promising players never pull on the black jersey – because they don’t have the right character, their inclusion would be detrimental to the whanau. Like all the great teams the All Blacks seek to replace the ‘me’ with the ‘we’. No one is bigger than the team. The team always comes first.

Individual commitment to a group effort is what makes a team work. Connect with one another and strive towards a common goal.

The reason this one stands out for me was as I was leaving the Stadium on Friday night I saw one of our players and asked how was his game - the first thing he said to me was "I only scored 13 points" I did not have a great game. My response was "how many assists did you have or how many turn overs did you create". His response was " one assist but the guys in the team can't shoot" and I think a couple of turn overs".

I then spoke to him about the benefits of passing the ball to your team mate who is either in a better position or just to help a team mate if he is low in confidence. I spoke about the more you pass the ball the more you will receive it and you don't just pass the ball only when you can't shoot.

Not sure if my conversation made any difference but if his next team has the same philosophy as the All Blacks he will not make the team and he would wonder why as he scores the most points in his team.

Have a great week

From the courts

Mark