Gut Feelings is back again, a little late this week as the mind ticked over and we began to consider the great weekend of footy at Sherwood last week and beyond.

A random collection of thoughts from the influential minds, deep inside the Nest!

• Footy was back at McCarthy Homes Oval and what a great day it was to not only have football back but to win 4 out of the 5 senior matches, and certainly for the big contingent of Grey Magpies beating Mt Gravatt in 3 of those matches rounded off a great day. The return of Sherwood as the moniker for the Senior teams was pleasing to the Old Boys (Grey Magpies), many of whom were the stars when Sherwood won 8 flags in a row in the 1970s and 1980s.

• The ground and club premises were presented perfectly and a great turn-out proved that we all love our local footy and the cameraderie and community spirit it generates.

• The Senior QAFL Side side established an early ascendancy in a high standard contest and what a treat it was to see some free flowing football with long kicks into the forward line which resulted in  great contested marks. The Pies  have a potent forward line with the strong marking Brodie Lumber and Liam Dawson clunking them and then you have Ryan Harwood and Claye Beams lurking with their footy smarts creating headaches for opposing backmen. Billy Johnson is showing growing maturity to complement the group with a deadly left foot.  

• The Pies have a well rounded team with a half back line of skipper David Lewis, Jack Goodall and new player Erin Wasley-Black, who looks a class player with a raking left foot ( is there any other way to describe a left footer?). Reigning Bill Peirce Medallist Luca Winton anchors the backline at fullback and again won well over his opponent while Brenton Saunders mops up brilliantly and has made the transition from a small forward to an attacking defender seamlessly.

• AFLQ confirmed earlier advice late last week that the quarters would be 17 minutes with time on. Well, it was difficult to  detect any short quarters as each quarter on Saturday in the Seniors all went longer than 30 minutes. Maybe this has something to do with umpires and boundary umpires taking too long to either bounce or throw the ball up after a stoppage or throw it in at boundary throw ins. It is 10-15  seconds each time there is a stoppage!! This is not to blame the umpires as they follow instruction but maybe headquarters could look at this. 

•  Another obvious reason the quarters were longer was that 30 goals were kicked in a high scoring affair!

• The change to shorter quarters of 17 minutes without time on in the Colts and Reserves resulted in almost 50 minutes between the end of the Reserves and the start of the Seniors at 2 pm. Great for the returning Grey Magpies to reminisce but this is an unintended consequence of the shortened quarters without considering the impact the change would have on the schedule for the day’s football. Gut Feelings’ spy at Morningside said they had 1 hour between the Reserves and Senior matches!! Maybe an under 10s match could be slotted into the gap  in the future—not a bad thought!! Or start the Colts and Reserves 30 minutes later. Or what about  20 minute quarters again? After all , the rationale for shortened quarters in the AFL was due to short turn arounds which is not the case in the QAFL, with every match played on Saturdays only. No short turnarounds here.    

• Club President Andrew Thomson must have some good contacts in the media with the Under 11 girls team getting front page billing in the Courier Mail on Tuesday with an extended story several pages in, not to mention whenever several local TV stations want a backdrop for community sport McCarthy Homes Oval with its beautiful surface and picket fence is the backdrop. Thommo makes sure the scoreboard is in the background with " Sherwood" prominently displayed. All great publicity for the club and the game of Australian Rules. Keep an eye for some more media soon, with Queensland Fire and Rescue holding their first training session and season launch on Thursday, with media, firetrucks and helicopters on site! Plenty of Sherwood involvement with past players in Matt Dillion, Cory Hopkins, Jadan Morton taking part, while old boys Craig Lashman and John Cawcutt were on hand .

• The job of a club President is never done!! Despite a huge few weeks in the past month to ensure the club is all ready for a return to footy, ours certainly had a full day on Saturday! Starting at 7.45 Thommo ran the morning Auskick session, then made sure all was well for the Colts and Reserves games and mingled with guests, before disappearing to run water during the senior game. Though when asked why, he suggested he preferred to run water as that way he gets to watch the game without interruption! To top it off, for the big crowd who enjoyed the womens game at 4:45pm, you may have noticed Thommo still out there umpiring the game! Into the club afterwards for a well earnt drink and cleaning the dressing rooms before heading home around 8pm. He also reckons he got a few kicks in the Woodsmen game the night before!

• The Pies match day coaching panel is first class with senior coach Anthony McDonald, Senior Assistant Coach David Hamill, line coaches Quentin Johnson (midfield), Brett Connell (defence) and Alex Mitchell (Forwards) supported by gameday rotations manager Paul Grentell, Reserves coach Cory Hopkins and and development coach and match day runner Justin Clarke. 

• The Grey Magpies were out in big numbers on Saturday and this was in no small way to the efforts of Craig St John and Greg Adams who advertised that it would be a good day to celebrate the return of footy and the return of Sherwood as a senior entity. Paul Grentell from Cleanaway donated the brisket for lunch via BBQ Mafia which helped cap off a great day of football and reminiscing. 

• Spectators may have noticed players wore two black armbands on Saturday. These were in memory of Alex Smith, who until his passing was the club’s oldest Life member. Alex passed away recently at the age of 95, he remained very active until the end playing regular golf. Alex was club Treasurer for a total of 10 years spanning 1962 to 1974. Alex’s son Paul, an ex-player of the club, was introduced by Kevin Kluver at the after match presentations and made a number of presentations to the best players on the day.

• Cherie Morrison passed away recently at 58 years of age after a long battle with cancer.  Despite her battle, Cherie always had a cheery smile on her face whenever she visited the club and was always positive  regardless of her condition. Cherie was  Board member for a number of years and was a confidante of many senior players and her passing saddened many members of the club.

• The thirds aka The Woodsmen had an experienced line-up on Friday night but only just got over the line against Morningside. Looking at the calibre of players in the magpies side the match must have been a high class contest.  There was in excess of 1,000 senior games experience, 15+ Senior Premiership medals, 7 x Bill Peirce Medals and 3 of the 5 most recent Senior QAFL Captains!

• Sherwood’s Colts had a good victory  and have a very strong team. Several of the players in this side are good enough to be given an opportunity to play Senior and Reserves football with with the addition of the 23rd man rule where players 19 or under who have played less than 10 senior games can be used as a 23rd man in the senior side.

• The 23rd man was put to good use last Saturday with 17 year old  Cade Scott given a run-with role on the reigning Grogan Medalist which he stuck to manfully despite getting some rough treatment during the match. Cade won the much coveted BG Award for “Courage and Commitment” and fittingly was presented by club legend Chris Mihalopoulos after  Saturday’s game.

• The after match atmosphere was fantastic with a large contingent staying back in the clubrooms for the after match awards. And what a difference a win makes with the majority of players enjoying a night of i-pod shuffle back at the club on Saturday night organised by Luca Winton. Saw some interesting selections  in the lead up to the night, with Lazer Gun Show from our very own Peter Kilroy’s Hey Geronimo getting a guernsey as it were!!

• One of the highlights of the weekend was the return of womens football to Sherwood and the girls did not disappoint with a strong win over Mt Gravatt. 22 players made their debut  and Mitchell Merritt has a strong side at his disposal.

• This Saturday will go a long way to determining the pecking order in QAFL with Sherwood travelling to Palm Beach to take on the Lions, who demolished Premiers Surfers Paradise on Saturday. The Magpies-Lions matches have always been tough affairs with no love lost between the clubs after  a strong rivalry developed in the pineapple Hotel Cup days. All three teams will get a good test of their premiership credentials on Saturday.

• Youth Football also returns to Sherwood this weekend, with the u12s and one of the u14s sides also playing Mt Gravatt in Round 1, great to get the traditional rivalries going early!

• The Magpies are particularly strong through the u14 age group, and will also field 2 x u 16 teams in the local competition

• The Sherwood u11 Girls play in a competition with no scoreboard and no ladder, but if you saw any of their games - there is no doubt they are a strong pair of teams!

• Paul Grentell, (Dual Senior Premiership coach & Life Member) certainly jumped out of the pool into the fire, looking after the Sherwood u11s vs Kenmore then straight into the coaching box for the QAFL game to run rotations. He hasn’t worked out yet which is more stressful, but our spies tell us he was asking how many are allowed on the field in u11 not long before the bounce!

• The u8s will certainly be familiar with our friends over at the Jindalee Jags, with 5 x Sherwood sides pooled in a competition with 4 x Jindalee sides for a season of black, white, blue and yellow!

• GUT Feelings understands one u8’s team has as many as 3 or 4 Sherwood Father/Son selections in the side, its always great to see the next generation of talent come through and in several cases its now the 3rd or 4th generation to represent the Magpies.

• On the subject of Jindalee Jags, it was great to see several of their players representing Sherwood across the senior program over the weekend. The mighty Jags are a great footy nursery, with plenty of quality players at Sherwood originating from there such as Luke Scott and current senior players Billy Johnson and Mitch Stallard (inj). There is also a good spread of Jags in the QAFL Colts side lead in particular by Josh Lane who will be pushing for higher honours as well as several of his teammates.