In weekend news - my team responded to the request to put in more energy/effort and contest the ball from the kickoff, and had their best team game of the season.

Good consistent play out from the goalkeeper, controlled passes to the front 3, making the extra pass (and even recycling it when confronted with a defender(s)).

All the things we've been working on for weeks and weeks finally clicked ... because they proactively and consistently used and guarded the ball in possession, chased it down when they lost possession and jockeyed and won the ball back when out of possession.

Regardless of the strength of our opposition I was immensely proud of the group - play like that would see themselves stand a chance against the stronger teams in the age group.
I've told them they now have no excuses not to apply themselves every week

The only disappointment (and yea, first world problems) is that Adamstown again switched entire teams at half time. The first time it happened at Adamstown earlier in the season I was consulted about it before the game and agreed; however in hindsight it distracted my team too much and was not going to agree to it happening again - this weekend they didn't even talk to me (apparently an oversight?) and we found ourselves up against an entirely different team in the second 30.

The downside to this is the kids automatically divide it in their minds into two different games and connecting the threads of what we had practised and (in this case) executed is more difficult.