GPS football 2020 preview: Today, Ipswich Grammar School
Today we preview the fortunes of Ipswich Grammar School in the lead-up to the GPS football season which starts on Saturday.
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Ipswich Grammar School will again take tremendous pride in their defence as the group prepares for the start of the GPS football season competition on Saturday.
Coached by Andrew Catton and to be captained by Cooper Nichols, IGS were defensively strong in finishing third last season.
“We have some established key defensive principles that we stick to so we like to be hard to break down defensively and make it hard for the opponent to penetrate us and score goals,’’ Catton said.’’
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Catton said another ambition for the side was “to dominate the second phase and win as many 50/50 moments as we can’’ while also transitioning swiftly, “particularly when we win the ball and try to be composed in possession’’.
Catton was expecting the many who tasted GPS First Football XI for the first time last season to have benefited from the experience, but he said IGS was still a relatively young outfit.
“We are very young but many of them already have First XI experience due to the high number of Year 9 and 10s that played in 2019,’’ the coach explained.
Asked about his expectations for 2020, Catton said: “We don’t operate with any outcome based expectations as such.
“We are process driven and expect our boys to focus on our process and not the result or outcome and the rest will hopefully take care of itself.
“Everything we do is effort based and we expect that the boys never come off the field with us questioning how much effort they put into a game of training session.
“Having won the Bill Turner Cup National Championship in 2019, there is naturally a little bit of chat around our group that but the reality is that particular group is still a year away from being of age in First XI.
“The boys have been trained really well, they have a great vibe about them and we are excited to see them go out and put in their best effort for the school they love to play for.’’
Skipper Cooper Nichols will be supported by his deputy Darryl Barton, with that pair and Ryan Stieler, Pat Smith expected to lead the way.