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Cup Finals Special: 11 Matches, 38 Sets, and a Reverse Sweep
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This week on That Volleyball Guy, it's a Cup Finals Weekend special.
I'm joined by my fellow Volleyball England commentators Michael Hanson-Morris and Jess Smith as we recap an epic two days of volleyball action at the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering.
Across 11 matches, 38 sets of volleyball, and one unforgettable reverse sweep, we cover it all — from the Cup, Shield, Sitting, and Junior competitions. It was a true showcase of English volleyball, with fantastic crowds, outstanding performances, and a brilliant atmosphere throughout the weekend.
We deep dive into every match, sharing our thoughts and insights from the commentary booth, highlighting match MVPs, key stats, and some behind-the-scenes reflections. We also celebrate the winners of the Volleyball England annual awards — including my own unexpected honour of being named Coach of the Year — and mark the special moment of Ian Legrand’s induction into the Volleyball England Hall of Fame.
A huge thank you to the officials, volunteers, and the Volleyball England team who made the event possible.
We originally set out to record a 30-minute episode... but when you get three passionate voices together, it naturally turned into a full hour of conversation about the sport we love. We hope you enjoy it! If you couldn’t be there in person, you can catch all the matches — and hear our commentary — on the Volleyball England YouTube channel.
That's a wrap for the indoor season. There's plenty of exciting beach volleyball action to come over the summer, and we already can't wait for another fantastic indoor season next year.
Connecting Through Conversation
That Volleyball Guy Hello, I'm Luke Wiltshire, the host of that Volleyball Guy, and if you love volleyball as much as me, then you're in the right place. That Volleyball Guy Hello, and welcome to a special edition of that Volleyball Guy, a chance for us to recap all of the action from this weekend's Cup Final weekend at the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering. 11 matches to talk about and I'm really pleased today to be joined by my two colleagues from the Volleyball England commentary team, michael Hanson-Morrison and Jess Smith. Michael Jess, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Hello.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Luke, and we've all had a chat before this conversation that we're pretty knackers because what a long weekend of volleyball. We had 11 matches for you to talk about 38 sets of volleyball, seven 3-0 wins, three 3-1s and just the one 3-2. And we're going to try and unpack all of that in the next 30 minutes. So you're in for a bit of a chat, Michael Jess. How did you enjoy the weekend being part of the Volleyball England commentary team? Start with you, Jess.
Speaker 1:Always really enjoyed joining the commentary team up in the comms box. Obviously we have a really great team together. We had a few guest commentators this weekend, but yeah, just the core team. That we've got amazing.
Speaker 3:And, of course, always a pleasure to watch such high level volleyball awesome and for you, michael I mean jess, I think he's only saying it's long because he didn't do final four no, again, it was. It was a great weekend. I think it was a chance for us to reflect because, for just a little throwback for people at home like we got together as a group for the first time literally a year and a week ago and to kind of see where we've we've grown as a comms group. It's been really fun, like some of the things we were able to add this weekend, um, and yeah, we had some. We had some real high moments as well, some roller coasters, um, but yeah, it was. It was a really fun weekend and credit to the whole volleyball team another great event as well that ran pretty flawlessly, which, with 11 teams awards as well, and I will mention it's not an easy task to pull off. So, um, hopefully everyone that was there in person enjoyed it and, um, hopefully the live stream was good as well yeah, michael, completely agree with you.
Speaker 2:The live stream is evolving, constantly evolving. Big shout out to JC from Volleyball England, who you know, and all the team like you mentioned who make it all possible. And we know from the comments in the live stream that you enjoy watching at home if you're not able to get to the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering, but great to see so many people there in person watching it and great for the athletes to have a big crowd to perform in front of. I've been around volleyball and I can remember the first cup final I went to, which was held at Bath University, which is a very, very long time ago now, and I'm absolutely amazed by the standard of volleyball and just the like the professionalism in the last couple of years has been. It's been huge.
Speaker 2:So, yes, so, as Michael said, 11 matches to talk about. We're going to try and do our bit and cover each one of those interestingly, 14 different clubs in the 11 matches. So lots to talk about, lots to discuss and some huge games with some big results. But we're going to start then by talking through the women's and girls finals. We're going to start, then by talking about the women's cup final where, which saw Mallory defeat and beat side out team, side out three nil. Jess, you're on the cons for this one, so tell us your thoughts and opinions on the game yeah, it was an incredible performance from the Mallory Eagles.
Speaker 1:You know they. They came in and they had a great performance as well at Final Fours just a couple of weeks ago and really built on that confidence. So they didn't meet side up Bologna in the Final Fours, but they had a good road to the Cup Finals. They've had a couple weeks worth of rest and a little bit of extra time to train together and they came out with such a high level of confidence, absolutely decimated Polonia from the offensive side, really great service pressure from all of the ladies.
Speaker 1:They did have a little bit of a wobble in set number two when Polonia figured out how to put a little bit of pressure on the blocking um for Mallory where they were running slightly different offense. They brought Scandale in, which just changed the view of it a little bit, and they also Polonia really did a good job in that set, particularly of putting in some short float serves and really challenging Mallory. We saw a number of aces happen, which, yeah, interesting wobble. And then somehow, despite the fact that polonia had the first set point in that set, mallory dug deep, showed their resilience and came out on top. And then in the third set it was fairly close, but I think mallory were pretty well in control all the way through on that one as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you're absolutely right 25-16 in the first set, 26-24 in the second and then 25-22 in the third. Jess, putting you on the spot, you know if Polonia were able to face that second set would they? Have more of a chance to win the game, or do you think Mallory were stronger overall?
Speaker 1:I think, based on the performance that Mallory were putting out, I would have expected that they would have closed it out in four anyway, because, yes, they had that little bit of a wobble, but overall they had the upper hand for a good chunk of that set. They were more in control, they were running at their own rhythm rather than running at the rhythm that Polonia wanted them to, and they were able to keep themselves in system most of the time thanks to some really good passing and, of course, have to shout out our MVP for that match. Jordan McGovern was everywhere and, even when the pass wasn't perfect, putting up a absolutely impeccable set almost every single time. Not very many misconnections on the Mallory side. I think it was just that level of setting which you don't see a lot, or we haven't seen in the last couple of years. So really great signing for Mallory this year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Michael. So I know you weren't part of the Direct Comms team, but you're involved in the pre-game and you know a lot about these teams. So any thoughts from you on the Mallory victory?
Speaker 3:about these teams. So any thoughts from you on on the Mallory victory yeah, I think I think Jess touched upon it the difference of this group, like I'm. I'm lucky, I live 15-20 minutes away from where Mallory trained early in the week, monday, tuesday so I was able to pop down a few times during this season, a couple of times last season. I know the group pretty well but there was a very remarkable difference and we talked about it on the final four stream. There was a very with the pretty much there was a very marked difference of how they were going into the big games last year to how they were this year. There was that confidence. I mean, this is a team that they dropped one game all season and that was ironically to side out and I knew that was a motivating factor from going in.
Speaker 3:But they just found they kind of taken on the mantra that team side out used to be. The reason you could always struggle to beat side out is they wouldn't beat themselves, they wouldn't make errors. And you look at the Mallory error count um, we had them down as 14 total errors in the free sets. Side out were 26 I believe. So you look at it, mallory, you have to beat Mallory and with Mallory's defense on that back row, obviously Ari leads it and by admission, she didn't play well. And then you look at the saves she makes to end up on that championship point where she's on a knee, dolphin dives, gets it over and puts the pressure back on 95% of the time. That's nice.
Speaker 3:Um, the Mallory defense just caused so much pressure and it forces teams to beat them and they can just hold up and, as as just said, the addition of Georgia was huge in January and the way she set, but that Mallory team just clicked. And again to have one loss. With the quality of the Super League teams this year they've played they obviously played Newcastle as well in the early cut rounds and second round. They've kind of gone through everyone this year and they've deserved both titles.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, completely. Sorry, michael. You just reminded me of something that uh coach jefferson williams said in the post-match interview, which was that they hadn't dropped a set since georgia joined just factually wrong.
Speaker 3:They definitely dropped at least one set super league maybe they have.
Speaker 1:Maybe they have.
Speaker 2:However, don't argue with michael jess, I've learned that right on the stats, yes, I know he definitely knows his stuff.
Speaker 1:He, he definitely knows it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and Jess, you obviously got to chat to coach Jefferson Williamson at the end of the match not winning the Cup since 2006, I believe, and last in the final in 2013. So 12 years ago, like is it Mallory's time for a bit of a surge now? They used to be. You know, when I go back to what I remember of volleyball, mallory were the strong team. They haven't won it since 2006. And they were dominant. From my perspective, I got to watch that courtside and enjoy the atmosphere courtside. I even spoke to Carol Gordon after the game and she said Luke, look, I was worried for team side out by training on Friday. I've never seen the team train like that. They were fierce, they were on fire and what I loved most was the dance at the end from him, which just shows how connected they are as a team, carol Gordon leading the dance move. So tell us a little bit about what you talked to Jefferson about.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So Jeff had some good thoughts, thoughts, a couple of player jersey number call outs rather than the names, but I mean he did specifically call out, you know, chloe allen. Selena batiste was really, really good and he was saying that they have a really good rhythm. Amongst them they've been there's a few of the key players. They've been playing for quite some time. Um, so he was really pleased with the girls and he hinted that there could be some changes to the squad for next year. But I think if they can keep most of that core group of players, they'll they'll stay at the level that we've seen in the 24-25 season awesome and I think I think they've got depth when they make changes.
Speaker 3:And you look at some of the things like, we all were shocked when we saw the starting seven because I I was back up in the comms with you guys when we got it. I was like we started jojo cruz because checker tamoy was exceptional in that final. That final uh, the gold medal game where essex, you don't serve at chloe allen, you don't serve out, you go at the other outside to mallory and checker tamoy won the final just on that serve, receive and and you start Jojo. She was a huge impact. We didn't see Jane. Scott Kellum came in as a great serving serve.
Speaker 3:But when you look at, arguably, the fourth middle on the roster V comes in set point. In set number two, jeff pulls Georgia McGovern off the court and they run a double block and get the winner off it and it's like Jeff was able to make so many changes and he could impact the game so well. And it's like Jeff was able to make so many changes like and he could impact the game so well and it's a depth that the Mallory team had. Um, and I think when, if they lose a couple, we're always going to get a couple more in through the university. But really I think we agree.
Speaker 3:We know George McGovern will probably go pro next year. It was delightful to have her back, but she's a high level player what Grace does, because Grace was phenomenal again. Grace could have easily won MVP yesterday. She had 12 kills through the middle against a very strong blocking middle group of of Polonia and she was obviously our MVP at final four as well. So you've got that core group that if you can just keep that spine of that team in some shape, like everyone's going to be trying to recruit to beat Mallory the way, I kind of view that offseasonseason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you both. And Mallory winning the league and the Cup this year, so very, very good season for them. So moving on then we're going to talk about the Women's Shield final. Michael, you had the pleasure of commentating this match. We saw a bit of a Bristol rivalry, with Bristol taking on fellow Bristol team Bemi. Two clubs that are quite close to my heart. I'm from that area originally, so, michael, talk us through the game. Bristol took that one 3-0.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it was interesting. Both teams spoke to the coaches before the game. This was an important game for both teams but there was no pressure on this in a way because obviously the main aim of the season yeah, you always want to get shield fine if you're Division 2, division 3 sides but really it was promotion and both teams obviously sealed promotion. Obviously Bristol did it through the league, bedminster did it through the playoffs, so that kind of took some pressure off, I think for both teams and allowed them to obviously enjoy it. But really it was kind of Bristol Bedminster never just really got going.
Speaker 3:Both setters struggled and you could tell that by the amount of changes Bedminster were making the second position just trying to find something to go. Bedminster could never really click on the day and that kind of allowed Bristol to be a little bit more comfortable than I think they were expecting. And I think the difference was the middles as well. I think obviously we'll go on to where we went with MVP in a minute. But both middles for Bristol were really consistent. Both had like seven, eight kills through the middle and it wasn't just one middle. It means you constantly had that pressure and that really allowed them to kind of exploit that badminton defence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you alluded to it then, sir. So, mvp, talk us through, as if you're not aware. Alluded to it then, sir. So, mvp, talk us through, as, as if you're not aware, the commentary team, uh, at the weekend, were the deciders of the mvp awards and well, I'll throw us under the bus.
Speaker 3:Why?
Speaker 2:not wait, but I'm gonna say this, isn't it as and jess back me up here because I think you play libro too right? Is we never get it? I was a lib. We never get mvp. What happens, michael? Talk us through.
Speaker 3:It's one of those when it's a total team performance and it's like it's never good, but every time the MVP we haven't named them. We probably should Sylvia Birdie, the MVP for Bristol, but every time she was asked to make a play whether it was serve, receive, whether it was a dig she got a positive touch and it really allowed them to flow, force Bedminster to win points. And it's similar to what we talked about with mallory. Sometimes it's almost you don't need to win points, you need to force the other team to win them and that therefore increases error rate and that kind of frustrated and she just made positive touch after positive touch, um, and it was a real team performance by bristol.
Speaker 3:But it's the one thing when you look back on, it's that again, if we had to try and split the middles for MVP decision, which are both in consideration, when I was doing it with Alex and we're trying to brainstorm while we're live on air, it's like splitting the middles was really difficult, like it was a team performance, but it was just that no error type, low error rate and contributing to the game on limited touches and and those libero touches are so important. Jess knows that she is a lib. She played against Bemi as well this year and you know that's what you're forced to take and I think it was a really good job. And again, it's also nice when we see the reactions, because we know what's coming, we know where to look and those surprise ones that, yeah, it's the right decision, but when the players aren't expecting it, they're always the fun reactions as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, thank you all so much. So a good game, but Bristol, the stronger team, this time, winning 3-0, 25-21, 25-14, 25-21. So moving on to the under-18 girls' final then. So this one saw the Boswell's team taking on leeds gorse in what was leeds gorses. Um, they had three. They were in three finals this weekend. So, michael, you were on comms for this one again. So talk us through this game, a really exciting game right here yeah, I mean this was this was the one I think.
Speaker 3:On Sunday morning we were chatting amongst the comp team. We're like we don't know where this is going to go, because form coming in, boswells were probably favourites just because of the amount of times they played in the Super Series and Boswells had won everything coming in. But they had some injury updates late in the team. They had to change a couple of positions around. So it was for boswells a little bit of an unknown. They obviously had a lot of time going in.
Speaker 3:But we know leeds have got that obviously the confidence, having won the 16s which we talked about in a minute the day before, and had a couple of big performances. You add the super league experience of daniel chandu to that 16s group and it was like okay, this can go really any way and Boswells were well deserving of a win and they were just really consistent throughout. When they had low moments they were really quick to turn it around First time out of the game Dan Lewis called, they got an immediate response. It was a really fun game to watch and I think it was set a really bright standard for the juniors coming through the pathway, with both England obviously and the clubs respectively.
Speaker 2:Cool, and that second set then looks like it was a tight one, so Boswell's winning 28-26 in the second set. So what do they do to sort of clinch that, because that could have gone either way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think ultimately for Boswell's it was that that was, and Jess's was just next door in sats it was. That was a back and forth. Both teams like had 3-0 runs late in the set. Um, and I think it was really interesting, but I think ultimately it was. Again.
Speaker 3:It was similar that Boswell's found ways to really limit the two leads big hitters in perfection a wag bow and Daniela Shandu. Neither of them really got anything consistent going on the offensive end. Oagbo ended up with 11 kills but I think five errors. Shandu had, I think five kills in the entire game. So Boswell's had that bit more depth and Alice Jagielska really had a huge game. She had a bigger set one, but it was all through setting. We talked about it with Georgia McGovern, same thing we did with Yasmin Baptiste, the MVP of this game. She was just able to spread the ball in different ways, obviously Boswell's losing One of the hitters in Eliza Jarman, who was their third biggest hitter going into the game. She had to play Lieber. She managed to find ways to get the others involved and that was huge because Boswell's had that depth that Leeds just never found on the offensive end.
Speaker 2:Jess, anything you want to add, because you're nodding along and I know you were watching that game.
Speaker 1:No, it was a really great match to watch and Michael called out. We did select Yasmin Baptiste for the NDP for this particular match and you know a couple times this weekend. Obviously we selected the center as the mvp, but baptiste not only set out a really great, really varied offense that kept leads on their toes, but came in and had seven aces in that match with no service errors, which is really impressive for an under 18. So and they were hard serves as well and I think that was so she was obviously a difference maker with those serves. However, the service pressure from all of the boswell's girls keeping leads off balance and out of system for most of that match, you know, as michael alluded to, really shut down their big hitters and it meant that Leeds just struggled from start to finish.
Speaker 3:Awesome. I'll say quickly sorry, the Boswell's depth was important. We talked about that. But the ones that didn't get opportunities to hit regularly through the middle and stuff, they didn't make errors. All the Boswell's errors came from the two big hitters. The others never contributed to the error count and that's really important. I think that sometimes it's not necessarily about getting winners, it's about getting ball in play, putting some pressure on and not giving three points away, and I think the Boswell's depth players did a really good job of that as well and that's credit to, obviously, what Darren Lewis has done. They've been, they've started to become that dominant junior team Boswell's at 16s 18s obviously, richmond it's a surprise not seen in finals, but you look at it, boswell's back-to-back um champions obviously won the under 16s last year as well.
Speaker 3:Um, and I think the other thing we need to mention is obviously alice jagielska um, her last indoor game. Obviously I will say we never got to some broadcast. Alice is also doing a beach futures event with kirsty star in a couple of weeks, so she's immediately trying to go off to the beach, but obviously she's off to college as well. So to see alice kind of shine yesterday in that last performance and she um. Obviously being able to come away with something not quite winning, the final was was really nice to see yeah, no, awesome, great insight from both of you.
Speaker 2:So let's move on then to the under 16 uh girls final, where we saw leeds Gorse again in action, taking on Mallory Eagles. Jess, you're on comms for this one. Talk us through this game.
Speaker 1:Really enjoyed watching this one. It was a good battle between these two, despite the fact that it was a 3-0 victory for Leeds. So seven of the players actually that were on the roster for this particular match were also on the roster for the under-18s match for Leeds. So really great to see the girls get plenty of court time across the weekend. But I think from from the start you know the the mallory under 16 girls were a slightly smaller team. So you know watching the ladies and warm-up you could see a couple of the leads girls you know particularly perfection obviously absolutely bouncing balls in warm-up and you're like, okay, this is going to be an interesting matchup between these two.
Speaker 1:I think the Mallory girls did a really great job in defense, really good scramble, pretty good in serve-receive as well, but Leeds just coming over the top of the blockers on a majority of the occasions and just really putting the Mallory defense off. So you know exactly the type of performance that they would have wanted to see. They had a couple of standout players. You know we talked about Perfection, agbo there's also, and Gacha was really great on the Saturday as well.
Speaker 1:But the standout for us and who we ended up selecting for MVP was Charlotte Machinska, so she opened up set number two with five straight aces and that was like it was a really impressive service, running really flat, really deep, jumping float serves. She also had 11 kills in that particular match, so great performance from her. Um, you know, we had our ones to watch and the ladies did really well. But you know there's there's four leads players in the top scores for that match and only one of the Mallory players, so Martin coming in with 15 kills, which was that's a big number of kills, but she was almost their only outlet on the day, mostly because they were out of system. A majority of the of the match.
Speaker 2:I mean, that was my uh, first game I got to watch courtside of the weekend and that was the first junior volleyball match I've watched for a long time and I was just blown away by the athleticism, the power from the Leeds Gorse team. Um, I looked around and said to someone is this under 16?
Speaker 1:I know I had to keep reminding myself and I was saying it on the stream. I'm like, just as a reminder. These girls are all under 16, so as at of the 1st of September, they would have only been 15 at the most. Some of them are younger than that as well, and they have incredibly bright futures ahead of them. And some of those ladies as well, obviously part of the England cadet squad. So exciting for English volleyball as well.
Speaker 2:And then just sticking with you. Then for the final girls game, which was the under-15s. So under-15s, under-16s and under-18s in the junior competitions, you were on comms to see Richmond get a 3-0 win against fellow London side Wapping. Talk us through that one then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, going into this match, richmond would have been the clear favourites and these two teams did meet earlier on in the GP series and Richmond had beat Wapping Wildcats in two sets quite comfortably as well. So in the first set, you know Wapping coming out and looking a little bit nervous. Obviously these are young girls. They were all 14 or 15. Some of them were a little bit younger than that as well. But I think, the real story of the weekend here being the fact that Wapping actually made it to the cup finals. So and I have to shout out my own club because they've only they only narrowly beat out the MK City under 15 girls to make it to the cup finals. So a little bit disappointing for us but really happy for them.
Speaker 1:And you know, I know coach Elsa, I've played with her before, really great coach and you know, for a very young club it's only been established for the last couple of years to make it that far and they put in some really good performances and they, they came on the day they had eight players and Richmond came with a full 14. So you know the the depth of squads, obviously a huge difference maker in the first set, richmond making an early substitution bringing on Snow Dixon, who had a big impact on the match from start to finish. That depth is just something that Wapping will build out as their club grows over the next few years. Richmond obviously is a massive club, but huge standout performance as well from our match MVP in this one Fiend for Hayden, who is actually only 13 years old.
Speaker 2:Amazing.
Speaker 1:So it's incredible to see some of the strength of her serves, how high she's jumping and how much power she's putting behind those balls. Absolutely crazy to think she's 13,. So what's she going to look like in a couple of years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, one to watch, for sure, right.
Speaker 2:Definitely definitely Awesome. Well, we could. Yeah, I mean, I said 30 minutes, but I think it's going to be longer than that, right? So, no worries, let's give the players the credit they deserve for what a weekend of fantastic volleyball. But, Michael, I want to, just before we move over to the men's, I want to talk about the sitting volleyball final as well. So this at both disciplines on display. No beach volleyball this weekend, for us just the sitting, and uh, indoor 6v6. Michael, you had the pleasure of commentating the sitting final, which saw sitting bucks taking on help for heroes. Tell us about that game as sitting bucks winning 3-1, and I believe that was their fourth consecutive win in a row.
Speaker 3:Yeah, indeed it was, and I think again, it's kind of you have an idea going into these games when you do the prep, you kind of look at some of the results where where you probably go with favourites and Sitting Bucks with a clear favourite. So the the caveat with this is it's the one cup final isn't a cup final. The Sitting Dude, the cup final, in the end this is the grand prix final, which always confuses us in the commentary box, is always a good one, but um the um, the sitting volleyball grand prix series is six stages prior to finals, well prior to the actual final, and sitting box won every single one of them. So, oh, no, sorry correction, it's five. But yeah, you again, sitting box won everything. So you're like you're going in.
Speaker 3:And then, first set, help for Heroes came out and just dominated the set and it was like, okay, I got a couple of texts from people. I was like, ooh, what's going on here? And it was like really dominant. First set it was 25-13. But there was a moment in the game where one of the Help for Heroes and I can't remember his name, so I'm going to apologise had a one-on-one block on John Monroe, who's one of the most experienced sitting players for GB. He did a little shake, a little shimmy, little celebration, a little bit of trash talk and from that point John Monroe and the whole team. It was like a wake-up call and the whole match just flipped on like one solo block and a celebration and from there you could just see the depth um and that same boxing got so much experience. Talk about the gb captain, rob richardson, obviously john marone, an mvp, and like we've got so many kind of options and it was um. It was a really fun game and we nearly had um, we nearly had the moment of the entire weekend on game, one of the whole weekend. Uh, I was believe it was 23 13 in the third set and it got to 23 22.
Speaker 3:We had a 901 um by help for heroes and that says a lot about that group and obviously a lot of them are, most of them, all of them are army veterans. One of the guys had his leg amputated four or five months ago and it's already back and that kind of says just the resilience of that of of that group and they just never found a way to quit. They couldn't quite close it out, which was a shame, but it had all of us around looking around and going if this, this pulls off, this is. This is going to be one of those things we'll talk about for a long time. But yeah, really good side Sitting box. Obviously I've had a really good year. Didn't win the Cup, but I think everyone's wanting to find a way in the sitting community to knock them off. But, as ever, it was a really nice way to start the weekend.
Speaker 2:Awesome and I'm so pleased that you're on the comms for that. Oneael, just one, because of the speed of the game and you're, you're. Yeah, I can't keep up with it. I'm trying to sit there and you're and who better to be on comms than michael, the man with the the quickest brain I know? I think you can keep up with the game at that speed. It was a great, great um spectacle to watch and the sitting volleyball athletes got to performance in front of some sitting volleyball legends. The Gordon, neal, dennis Abrulia was there this weekend.
Speaker 3:And the new sitting head coach, which I actually don't think was due to be. I was told it was due to be announced today. I've not seen the announcement. Maybe I've missed it, but the new sitting head coaches are soon to be appointed as well. Well, soon to be announced. They have now been appointed and they were both in attendance as well, so I know, speaking to Joanna Cook for British Volleyball, she's really excited to where the sitting programme on the GB side is going to go.
Speaker 2:Awesome, great stuff.
Speaker 2:So, before we dive in to the men's review there, let's just take a moment to talk and discuss all the winners of the Volleyball England Annual Awards, all the winners of the Volleyball England Annual Awards. So this event taking place at the National Volleyball Centre at Kettering. At Cup Final weekend, the nominees are invited to an awards dinner and get to listen to all the nominations for all the different categories, and then the winners of the awards presented their awards along for the Men's cup final. So I'm just going to go through them quickly. For more information on this you can head over to the volleyball england website. But I'm going to start with uh, the universal services coach of the year. So I was absolutely honored and blown away to to be yeah, to be given the award of coach of the year for adults. So a huge shout out quickly to my club, southampton Volleyball Club.
Speaker 2:I've had the pleasure of coaching the men's team now, for I've been around that club for a long time, but I've been leading the men's program again. I had a break, came back to it three years ago. We've gone division three, division two and now we're in division one. So it's been a. It's been a great three years ago. We've gone Division 3, division 2, and now we're in Division 1. So it's been a great three years, but I'm very lucky to have a very, very good group of players and a really great assistant coach. But yeah, I was blown away to win that. So, yes, thank you very much to those who nominated me. I don't know who you are, but thank you.
Speaker 2:Coach of the Year for children then was Caitlin Walsh um coach of the year for children. Then was Caitlin Walsh, young coach of the year, going to Sam Sorsky, who was in action in the women's uh cup final. He was one of the coaching team for team side out Polonia. Ref of the year Hiroko Turner. Young referee of the year Evelyn Lee. Volunteer of the year was Maskin Pawlowski. Young volunteer of the year was Marskin Paoloski. Young volunteer of the year from the Essex Rebels is Benjamin Merry.
Speaker 2:Serena Morton inclusion award going to the Leeds course coach, elaine Brown, and it was a really nice touch to see Serena Morton's husband, richard Morton, actually give out that award on the court side. So a lovely thing to see. Huxnet club of the year went to Brazuca's universe volleyball club. Hope I'm saying that right, deep dish. Hevo award going to Jolson Santi from the University of Nottingham.
Speaker 2:Then we get on to the big ones. So the Contribution to Volleyball Award went to Navaz Sutton, 25 years leading the Lincoln Cannon Volleyball Club, and it's, you know, volunteers like that that often go unnoticed. So great to see his contributions recognised. The Unsung Hero went to Nicholas Hitt from ivy bridge college, and then the peter wardell memorial award going to the legend that is gillian harrison, who so many people have got to thank in this sport and she's just, yeah, just an amazing lady. So congratulations to all those winners. But it wouldn't be right to forget, you know, a big, big award. So going into the Volleyball England Hall of Fame is the legend, ian LeGrand. I know Michael, you know Ian well, so do you want to maybe say a few words? It's a huge feat to be awarded that uh, induction to the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3:I'll be honest, I could probably talk about Ian more than Ian would talk about Ian. I can tell you that much, um, but no, obviously Ian kind of moving on from the sitting sitting, um, community uh, he's still be a part of it, obviously, but from that sitting head coach duty and almost running the program, which he's done for for a long time, ever since London 2012 and being part of that coaching staff um, obviously he's still around the University of East London. Obviously I got to work with him for three years when I was at UEL Still does a lot of the administration, still the recruitment side. Ian's a big part of doing all of that as well as really running the UEL program, along, obviously, with Jefferson and Carol from the coaching side, but all the background stuff is done by Ian. Obviously, he's been a national team coach and obviously sitting, but also on the standard side of the volleyball, so he's done a great job throughout and he never wants to give himself any credit. He's the last person to do it, but you're seeing first one to sort out.
Speaker 3:Okay, we need to get the game filmed. Make sure he's still helping on scouting report and I know, um, it was mentioned the post game and by georgia about scouting report and the players led on it. But I also know ian was a big part of putting together the game plan with grace lazard in particular for that um, and doing a lot of stats on the men's side, so ian's been a huge star. Everyone knows who ian is and he's always a great person. He's not always the happiest person to get a smile from you'll never see him dancing, but obviously it's. It's more than that. Ian's been around for so long and, um, he's one of those people you can never feel more than happy for when he gets a recognition like this, even though he absolutely hates it.
Speaker 2:He did, michael, I will tell you he did have a smile on his face when he was awarded the certificate and the trophy in the awards ceremony, which absolutely, as you say, hugely deserved and some legends in that category, and he joins them. So congratulations to all the award winners and a shout out to all those that were shortlisted and nominated Great to recognise all the contributions of people, whether that be referees, coaches, volunteers or people behind the scenes in clubs doing amazing things for our sport up and down the country. So well done to all of those. So let's move on then to the men's.
Speaker 2:The men's cup final, the only five setter of the weekend, and I was actually quite glad to get the opportunity just to watch that game whilst you two were hard at work on the comms team. Um, I just got to sit in the crowd and watch it and enjoy it like a spectator and I loved every second. But Essex getting a reverse sweep, one of my favourite things in our sport, you know a team going 2-0 down and then winning 3-2. Jess, michael, over to you.
Speaker 3:I mean, I suppose I'll give myself a rare little bit of credit here. In our cup final preview I said this is the game I wanted to see and I think everyone can now understand why. Obviously, I saw the game in March between these two sides. It almost felt like you wouldn't get a five setter just because it's improbable, when you play three times in a year, to play five sets again. But they managed to find a way and, yeah, it was everything we wanted the cup final to be. It had drama. It had some very poor volleyball at times from both teams, admittedly speaking to both coaches some super high level volleyball, the drama and obviously going well. Anytime you're ending up 18-16 in the fifth set, you know you've had a. You've had an epic cup final money.
Speaker 2:You definitely, we definitely got our money's worth in the crowd, jess. Your thoughts, then, on the game overall yeah, it was a.
Speaker 1:It was very interesting. It wasn't. It didn't start the way I expected it to start. So you know, mallory looked pretty comfortable in the first two sets. Essex looked a little bit wobbly in the first two sets, maybe a little bit of nerves, but then from that third set Essex just, I guess, woke up and the Mallory men just really really fell apart. You know, across that whole match the scores, you know it was 25, 21 and 22 in the first two sets to Mallory, but then Rebels turning around, 25, 16 in sets three and four. So yeah, it was definitely a rollercoaster for sure.
Speaker 1:And I think you know Michael, you just alluded to it just some good volleyball at times and then some not so good volleyball at times. I think there'll be a little bit of disappointment from some of the players on. You know, not necessarily they didn't put everything out there that they had on the day, but that that wasn't their best day of volleyball. You know, nathan Fullerton obviously is a huge part of the Mallory offense and across a five set match had 12 kills and that's very unlike him. So but you know, huge credit as well to the blocking unit for Essex 16 blocks versus five across that five set match. You know that's a massive difference. That's 11 of the points, and then you know the set score difference. In total there was only 13 points in it. So if 11 of those were blocks, that's a pretty good indicator of how the match went overall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, michael, thoughts on what Essex did to turn it around after finding themselves two nil down. So what was the key to to managing to turn it around and win three, two?
Speaker 3:well, I think the first thing alex porter said it um, in the post game interviews, don't serve down hunter, as good as your serve is. Uh, yeah, dan, dan's seen better ones. Obviously, the 2012 Libero and I think ultimately Essex found the adjustment of what Mallory's game plan was. Trying to really qualm in on that, but, yeah, jess said it was getting the blocking kind of lined up and I think it was very interesting that when you look at this Mallory team, they're undersized. They've got two small outsides, a small setter, where Essex are huge. There's no two ways about it. Obviously, cam Kerr and you're talking arguably Thomas Shuttman, probably your smallest player on that, on that team and obviously outside of Liberia, of course, but obviously Thomas makes up for that to have athletic ears. So I think it's yeah, it's a huge Essex team. It's kind of the way Alex Porter's wanted to go is go with size, and they were able to have really fine situations. So when Yoro Martinez and Mallory Setter was in the front row, you could say they were trying they really were trying to line Jacob Cohen up on him. That allowed Cohen to go up and over the block continuously. There's no answer for that, you, that you can't do anything realistically as good as Martinez is and he's won a few big jousts at the net.
Speaker 3:He had Kern on a one-on-one jousting in the game in March in a big moment and when you've got someone that is as good as Jacob Kern, that's a really tough thing. But neither team could really find consistent serving pressure and that was the thing. Like Essex are known, they're going to go big and they're going to make errors. But they didn't. They got service pressure later in the game but when you actually look at the overall numbers it wasn't a good serving day for for Essex at all. It was I'm trying to find the exact number. It was a 28 service errors and six aces. But Mallory had one ace and that was 9-7 in the fifth set where Essex left the ball they thought was going long and it was well in. It was just a bad call. Mallory also didn't ace Essex in March. So we're talking 10 sets of volleyball. They've had one ace and a team that you can't put consistent serving pressure on that Essex team with all the weapons they've got.
Speaker 2:It was always a huge obstacle for Mallory to overcome and they gave it a really, really good go, but it's just that little bit short yeah, and someone in the crowd near me said well, this is three nil after Mallory won the first two sets and I went nope, nope, nope, not not happening.
Speaker 3:I mean it looked like an eight. Yes, obviously we. We were at the final four. It felt the same way when Essex threw down to Giants not playing well. Giants hit 6-30 in the first set and it was a complete rollercoaster and Essex came back and obviously couldn't quite close it out in five but we nearly got that reverse sweep and that gave us the confidence. But you never quite know that Essex team. They can be high, they can be low. I'll say the way Essex played in set three, four and five. We got some more numbers back from Huddle and Essex sided out 81 and a half, 88 and 82 and a half in sets three, four and five. So we're talking nearly 85% through the last three sets. And the fact that Mallory still nearly found a way to one set five of Essex finding out 85% says how resilient that Mallory group was. But Jacob Kern down the stretch was unreal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and good to see him in the first two sets not getting as much ball on the pipe ball, which he's really effective on. He got more of that in sets four and five, for sure. So just yeah, and you alluded, both of you said not some amazing volleyball at times, but some not so good volleyball at times in the final. But that always happens in every sport. Right On a cup final pressure, playing in front of a huge crowd, like we did at the national volleyball center in catering. But all I'll say is I thoroughly enjoyed it. A very, very good game to just sit watch and actually just watch you two at work. I was too busy watching the reactions of the comms team. I missed half the points um I'm pretty sorry.
Speaker 1:Up in the box, yeah but awesome.
Speaker 2:Look, we could probably do a whole special episode on that one game. But a true spectacle of volleyball. Great to see a five setter in a cup final. Um, good for the neutral good, I mean we.
Speaker 3:I mean we do need to give jacob kern some flowers. We got. We got the full numbers back um this morning. He had 27 kills on 54 swings, with five errors in a final, and the thing was down the stretch. We all knew the entire crowd. You may not have seen these teams till the cup final I mean the first game you watch. Everyone in the gym knew where the ball was going.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And we still found ways to get kills down the stretch. He had five of the last six points. Esse to get kills down the stretch. He had five of the last six points. Essex as a team hit 684 in set five. They had 14 kills on 19 swings with one error. But Jacob Kern was insane I think he may have had seven or eight of those and he's obviously been a huge element of that Essex team and they lose a lot of players. They're going to lose seven or eight seniors. So for them to kind of close it out with young British talent as well is a real testament to what Alex Porter has done at that programme. And you can kind of see that you rarely see a lot of the guys get emotional.
Speaker 2:There was a lot of emotion on that Essex match after the game and I see a lot of the guys get emotional. There was a lot of emotion on that after the game and I'll make a quick shout out to ben osborne of the essex rebels, who been with the program five years. That was his last game not winning and getting his gold medal on his last game. So, um yeah, huge, huge game.
Speaker 2:Anyway, let's move on let's move on to the men's shields. So I had the pleasure of commentating this one with our colleague who's not with us today, alex Chinnery, and we got the pleasure to watch Wessex take on Coventry Warwick Riga, so Essex div two South winners that pains me to say, because my club came second, but yeah, ok, but they deservedly winners of the league very, very consistent volleyball team and that's what we saw in this final took on Coventry and Warwick Rieger, who were runners-up in their division but both promoted um to division one next year so won't be able to enter the shield next year. Um, because it's just for the teams in division two, division three and non-national league teams. But Wessex doing what Wessex do well, which is keeping the error count low. I had the pleasure of Jess kindly starting that game for me, which helped remarkably. But the error count from Wessex was low, like it always is with all Wessex teams.
Speaker 2:They are disciplined, don't make many mistakes, always put the ball back over, make the other team play and unfortunately Coventry and Warwick Riga just not able to match their discipline. Lots of errors from the Coventry and Warwick team. Lots of unforced errors from Coventry Warwick Riga. They're big hitters not able to to really get firing. The big opposite player not able to to get under, uh underway. Um, victor Solomon, the opposite for Coventry, warwick Riga, a very, very athletic player, and when he got the ball he did do well, but he just didn't get the opportunity to.
Speaker 2:Um. Fair to say that Coventry and Warwick Riga were without their main setter who unfortunately wasn't able to make it on the game, and the Wessex team don't have a huge amount of depth in their squad, but what they do have is consistency. Those six players have played with each other all season. Before the game I managed to speak to Sam Reid, one of their players, who said I've been on the beach for the last six weeks, luke. I came back last night and this is my first time on an indoor court for six weeks. But they are consistent in everything they do and, led by coach and player Matt Hunter, brother Dan Hunter playing for Mallory, they were just too strong for Coventry Morak Riga and some great offence from the American Michael Wall earned him a much deserved MVP. So Wessex taking that one 3-0.
Speaker 3:I think the thing for Wessex was the first time they've ever entered the National Shield to win it. To win it on year one is always impressive and, as I said, obviously Coventry and Morak Wrigley obviously had some lows, but I think both teams found ways to get here as well and you can kind of lose track of those stories. Obviously Coventry and Wrigley obviously beat Army in five sets in the quarters. Wessex were 2-0 down to Sheffield in the semis to get reverse swept. So you'll see it. But both teams had really tough routes to get into Shields.
Speaker 3:Shields are so competitive because you've got all those divisions merging together so both teams even get to the finals big. But I think, yeah, when you lose your setter for the final I think that's the one thing that you kind of highlight you can immediately look up for both teams and go, yeah, does that game look different with the setup? Quite possibly. But again, Coventry and Warwick couldn't put any service pressure on either and they had one ace, 13 serve errors, and that's always a big thing we always talk about. Right is you need to dominate. If you can get your passing system. When you've got a settled six or seven that know each other, it's going to be a little bit easier and Coventry and Warwick can really put that pressure on.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely. I will make a huge shout out, though, to the Coventry and Warwick Riga fan base. They were phenomenal all throughout that game. Great to see so many fans travelling to support their team, and a special mention to Michael Wall's haircut, because it was fantastic. Discussed it with him on the MVP post-game interview and yeah, really yeah and he's moving on from them next year, I believe.
Speaker 2:So huge loss for the wessex team as they go into division one, but a really good game of volleyball nonetheless. So under 18s final then, but still with me on that one, because I got to commentate on that one too, as we saw leeds gorse in their third final taking on amsterdam grammar now, just before we talk about amsterdam grammar, they were in three finals. Commentate on that one too, as we saw Leeds Gorse in their third final taking on Amstel Grammar now, just before we talk about Amstel Grammar, they were in three finals um this weekend and some of the players playing in all three let's just hold hold on to that um under 15s, under 16s and under 18s. And what a good game of volleyball. I thoroughly enjoyed it, leeds-gorse getting the 3-1 win, but it wasn't all simple as it sounds, because Ernst Grammer really turned Leeds over. In the second set Leeds-Gorse came out and just in the first set they were dynamic, they were obviously switched on, they were up for it, they were pumped, they were buzzed, some big swings from mccowski, um, and so some good setting.
Speaker 2:But in the second set interesting uh, the leeds gorse setter replaced and captain nathan hampshire was replaced in the setting position, um, by their opposite. So cosgrove then took in the, took on the role of setter and just completely changed the dynamic of the game. Still not quite sure as to the reason why Nathan Hampshire was taken off. He did have a jump serve a couple of points before he was subbed off, where he then grabbed his ankle and was holding his ankle. So I'm not sure if it was an ankle injury. But Cosgrove did an absolute, phenomenal job running the offense system of Leeds Gorse and for me as the commentator it just looked like Ernst Graham had run out of steam.
Speaker 2:But not surprised really, because a number of their players, like I alluded to earlier, played in the 16 final. And a special shout out to Tate Millwood who played in all three finals, so under-15s, under-16s and the under-18s, and in the under-15s playing through four. In the under-18s final he was playing as a middle, but some big, big swings and some dynamic play from Oscar Smith from Amstel Grammar and the one to watch Alex Armstrong, but they just weren't good enough. The Leeds Gorse team were too strong, very, very powerful, very, very dynamic. I would say their passing unit of the Leeds-Gorse team was superb, which meant they were able to run their offence system. Oritowi Emmanuel Oritowi, picked up MVP, much-deserved MVP. Loved his offence, decision-making, tipping the ball, hitting the ball down the line, hitting the ball cross-court. Just kept the Amstel Grammar team guessing and they couldn't answer it and Leeds scores getting the 3-1 win. I don't know if, michael Jess, you want to add anything to that one.
Speaker 3:I mean Leeds. This Leeds group is probably the story of the weekend, as good as the Men's Cup final was this Leeds team? So for people that don't know, the under 18s works on a super series. The top eight teams um are in that kind of that elite pool and then you got gold, silver, bronze below it, um the fact that none of the teams that won a super series through rounds one and four were in the final. That was richmond who won the first two, newcastle who won the second two, and both teams won their pool in the last eight. Neither of those teams made the final, which was in itself sorry, but Leeds finished last in stage three and got relegated out of the super series.
Speaker 3:So going into stage four, which, being on stage four, only happens in February, leeds were not in the top eight teams in the country. They go on, win stage four, then win. I then played three, five setters in one. So three, three setters in one day in the Elite Eight lose the first one, win the second and then win the third to make the final. So for that lead team to even get there, I think, was the big story going in and then for them to find a way to win. It was a testament to what a job that coaching staff have done, because it's very easy, especially with juniors. You're not quite experienced. You're used to winning a lot potentially and stuff. So to go through adversity of relegation in February and then to regroup and come out was a is a huge credit to the coaching staff, but also the players and I said at the start everyone that Michael's encyclopedic knowledge of volleyball is yeah, I mean thank you because I knew all of that.
Speaker 2:But obviously I knew all of that, michael, I just forgot right.
Speaker 3:Um you knew it because it was on the sheet in front of you during the game. Yeah, I agree moving on.
Speaker 2:Um, uh, under 16 boys final. Then, jess, you were on comms for this one ermston grammar. Like we say in all three of the junior boys finals, um, they were victorious over richmond three nil.
Speaker 1:Talk us through that one yeah, ermson, you know I said this funnily enough in the leeds versus mallory girls match just a few moments ago, but watching the boys even warming up ermson with some really big athleticism, some tall players absolutely balancing the ball and warm up. You know, richmond are obviously a huge club and they're quite well known for their really good organization. So they generally have good service reception, they're strong servers overall and they run like a really good, really varied offense, generally speaking, um. In this match in particular, though, the the richmond boys I don't know if it was nerves or if they were just a bit overly excited, not really sure what they were doing, but they just had a number of errors. I mean 32 errors across the three sets that they played and you know the total point difference in the whole of the match was only 15. So they gave away the match almost um. But ermston again just really overpowering the richmond boys.
Speaker 1:Four of the top five scorers were on the ermston side and you mentioned, uh, kyron tate millard, who actually was actually was our MVP for this particular match. He had eight kills, a block and two aces. So really great performance from him. I selected him for MVP because genuinely he was really good. He was great in defense, he was huge at the net, he put on some really good service pressure. But I wanted to ask him, because he has such a massive vertical, what are you looking at when you're hanging in the air for what seems like an eternity? Um, he really is genuinely up there, so, and he was really lovely to speak to as well, and he's like you know, I'm just looking to see if I can touch off a hand or if there's an open space on the court which to hear that from somebody that's under 16 and I think you mentioned he played in the under 15s as well, he's under15.
Speaker 1:And to hear him say that he's up there and he's thinking about what he's going to do with the ball, he's not just going up there and swinging wildly. The volleyball IQ of the youth in this country is massively impressive, so really excited to see what they do in the next couple of years, obviously likely to see Richmond in another final next year, at least one, and they might be a little bit disappointed with themselves this time. But there was a standout performance actually from one of the Richmond players, so Harrison, through the middle, and it was almost a battle of the two middles in set number two. When it was a bit closer, it was 25-23 in that set, so both middles being number 22 on the front court rotation at the same time. So so battle of the middles going on, both of them having, you know, a couple blocks, um, and some big kills and and landing really close in the points tally in the end, so seven for armston's middle and six for the one for richmond. But overall high level volleyball, impressive stuff from some very young players.
Speaker 3:And obviously this was the under-15 final a year ago as well. Yeah, so Rich Urmston beat Richmond for what at the time was Urmston's first ever junior title last year, exactly the same age group. So I think that gave Urmston a bit of confidence because they hadn't seen each other at 16s or 15s going into this weekend. And obviously this was the first game of the series. We'll get on to 15s in a second, but that was the first game of the series. I think Urmston had a little bit of recollection of that game going in, which I think helped last year because that was also 3-0 in that 15s final a year ago.
Speaker 3:But I think both teams, yeah, they've really started to put a stamp on the junior side and yeah, yeah, they've really started to put a stamp on on the junior side. And yeah, I think if you see these two sides next year you won't be overly surprised with kind of the depth that's coming through. And you've got to give credit to richmond, because you talk about, yes, richmond a, but under 16s, richmond b made the final four and ironically they couldn't make the final because they were playing richmond a. So the two richmond teams end up playing each other in the semi-final. So there's only one was ever going to get there.
Speaker 2:But I think that says about the depth that richmond have got, that you're going to see them kind of come through and that group's going to be one to watch in the next couple of years yeah, and some of those boys I know compete in their national league division two, uh team, because that's the division that my team play in and we beat them both times uh, three, two and three nil. But they were third in the division and held their own. And I think their coach told me all players are under 17 or under 18 playing in division national league, division two. Um, so huge shout out to the richmond, the richmond club. So final.
Speaker 3:Actually I'm gonna throw a word because I've actually just looked it up on the prep sheet. This is actually quite funny. I hadn't seen this when they, when richmond b met ermston in the final eight, richmond b lost 15 13 in the third set, having an ermston having one second at 26 28. So richmond b were really two points away from potentially making it an all-Richmond final. For Amundsen to kind of survive the B team and then come out and did what they did to the first team effectively was kind of impressive. Because yeah, you think if you look at that going in 15-13 against the second team, you probably shouldn't beat the first. But again, that's also testament to what Richmond are building.
Speaker 2:They've got two teams that can nearly beat the best team in the country. Awesome, there we go. And another, michael Insight, there we go. We have a little jingle for that, awesome, awesome. So final game then was the under-15. So the under-15 boys final. So, as we've alluded to Ernst Grammar in another final, and just something that I had to clarify was what net height these guys were playing over and they were playing in between men's and ladies' height on the under-15s, and the athleticism is just unreal. You know Ernst Grammer winning 3-1. Convincing in the first set. Richmond turned it around in the second set from some really, really athletic play from Soumarier, the Richmond outside hitter. I just want to shout out to him because as a coach I get to watch it, and watch it as a commentator, but also as a coach. His jump serve technique for a junior is absolutely perfection in my eyes. The toss always in the same place. I don't think I saw him miss one jump serve um in that game.
Speaker 3:Um, michael's probably going to tell me I'm wrong, michael, no, no I missed that bit, so I'm gonna say you were spot on, luke, uh, but his, his jump serve technique was, honestly, it just astounded me.
Speaker 2:I was like where's that come from? Um and richmond, speaking to them before the game, they wanted a bit of revenge. They'd obviously lost in the final the day before against the under 16s, but they wanted it and they, they really dug deep. There was some epic defense from the richmond guys diving all around the court chasing balls down into the, into the sideboards, um, but, um, some grammar just too strong. Some really really impressive hitting we've mentioned him a few times from tate millwood, um, and some really solid blocking from azoka who went on to um get his much deserved mvp in that game. Um, and I loved it. I think it was michael or jess, one of you said earlier when they announced the MVP and they don't know it's coming, but you know it's coming, especially with a group of juniors. It is epic.
Speaker 2:We had a bit of a horrible situation in that game where one of the Richmond players, z, was on the court. I think he experienced some cramp. He was substituted off off. He thought he was okay to come back on. They substituted him back on and then, unfortunately he he went for a ball, landed and just couldn't continue on the game um and was then. I think it was an exceptional substitution. I still need to find and clarify the rules. Jess is not in their head yeah, yeah, I can.
Speaker 1:It is an exceptional substitution, so if you have a substitute, still available to you on the bench you can't be allowed an exceptional substitution. It will be remarked on the score sheet because it can't go in the normal substitution space. Generally speaking, you can only swap a player out once and then replace them, and then that's considered a completed substitution. So it does happen on occasion and it's it is an unfortunate situation, but I think he was okay in the end, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was okay and it's just really sad to see a young man like that. He was so distressed after the game thought he had let his team down. It was lovely to see his team all gather around him and some of his opponents from Amsterdam Grammar going to support him as well. It's not nice to see, but it just shows you how much the game meant to them, to them all. Um, and a big shout out to cheryl, who joined us on the comms uh team for that match in our first comms part of the richmond team and she did a sterling job.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to do a quick cheeky plug, which is if you didn't manage to watch all of the games, if you couldn't get to the national volleyball center or you couldn't watch on the day, you can now go back and watch all of those games on the volleyball england youtube channel where you'll hear our commentary. For if you're not fed up of our voices, go and listen to all of the, the commentary from the weekend a full comms team on all of the games and just a fantastic weekend of volleyball. Now, look, that's wrapped up all 11 games. I said at the start we'll give you 30 minutes.
Speaker 3:We've doubled that an hour all right, but that that's what the weekend deserved, right yeah, and I think I think the one team we haven't mentioned yet, with the officiating team, um, I think they did a sterling job this weekend. Um, there was obviously a little bit of discourse about one or two calls at Final Four, but again, you look at the amount of points they're getting played. One or two calls are always going to be questionable. It's a long game. But some of the moments, some of the communication, especially with the junior teams on a big stage, you need that presence to be able to communicate If you see something about to go wrong, that proactive officiating is really helpful. Or when you call a team out of rotation, taking the time speaking to not just the captain but the coach to allow them to get it fixed, and things like that. And we saw that numerous times, especially in the junior finals.
Speaker 3:Um, we had a big decision, um late in the mallory side out, and I still can't remember which said it was. It may have been set free at like 23 22. They generally had no idea. They, none of the officials signaled anything and they went the composure to go. Okay, no one's sure fair is solution. Rather than making an educated guess, let's replay the point and things like that this weekend and the officiating team did a really good job with that of settling everyone in um and, yeah, I think it was a really really solid job by that group and it takes a lot because they're doing multiple roles obviously the scoring role, um, you've got the lines judges as well. It's a long weekend for those guys and I think they they did a really exceptional job this weekend yeah, I couldn't agree with you more, michael.
Speaker 2:Um, I shouted out one of the referees in one of the games and I've had a lovely message from him saying thank you for the kind words. I don't think he listened to the rest of it. I did go on to say he did red card me once upon a time, but we won't talk about that.
Speaker 3:It was deserved.
Speaker 2:It probably was back then. I was a very different person early on in my coaching career. But a thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable weekend of volleyball. But a thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable weekend of volleyball. And, like you say, michael, huge shout out to all of the Volleyball England team and also all of the volunteers, especially the guys wearing red as well, that were there doing the ball system, mopping the floor, and then all of the people behind the scenes that you don't see, who make that event possible, who stayed on late at Kettering to rip up the Teraflex, put all the chairs away and pack it all away for another year, because that was our final event of the indoor season as we get a break and go into the beach season. Um, but I just want to say a huge thank you to Michael Hansen-Morrison and Jess for Jess Smith for joining me on this special episode of that volleyball guy. Michael, jess, final comments from you both.
Speaker 1:Well, yes, all right, I just really enjoyed this weekend. I was a little bit put out, luke, that we didn't get a chance to commentate together, because every time we've been at one of these events we've we've had at least one match together. Love working with you, but had quite a few matches this weekend working with michael, uh, work with, worked with Tara King and Cheryl as well. So it was a really great weekend of commentary, a great weekend of volleyball, and I can't wait to get back and do it all again next year, but bigger and better, because I know that you know, michael, you said this at the top of the stream it's getting better every single time we do it, and I hope you guys are enjoying it as much as we're enjoying doing it for you.
Speaker 2:Awesome Thanks, Jess. Yeah, and I'm gutted we didn't get the chance to work together. Michael, when you do?
Speaker 3:the planning next year. Right, yes, I will say I'll let the viewers at home do a little secret. Jess and Luke weren't meant to do a game together but Luke was too busy winning an award, so you know, luke has to take some. No, um, I will say obviously, yeah, the stream team, obviously, the volunteers on on the camera side as well with the replays. But jc, um, I don't feel like we can ever give him enough credit the work I do like um, jess, obviously with the stats stuff as well.
Speaker 3:We have a lot of communication in the build up to these events. I have a lot of communication in the build-up to these events. I have a lot of things. Me and JC go constantly back and forth and wants to watch where we're going, how do we build stuff, and we were able to try a couple of new things this week, which hopefully people that tuned into the stream enjoyed, obviously the live pre-game before both cup finals. And again, it's moving.
Speaker 3:We want to move the, the program forward and I was lucky enough I had a 30-40 minute conversation with Rob Payne and Charlie Ford at the weekend, already thinking about where can we improve for next year, and it's not just a broadcast product, but everyone's wanting feedback and stuff like that and I think that's really proactive and we've already got some ideas for next year of things to move forward. But it's exciting. But I think ultimately it was a great end to the season. It wasn't just this event, it was the final four, the promotion games in Cambridge as well. That had some drama in it and I think we've had a really good month in April of indoors and it was a great way to finish the season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome. And finally, then for me, like I set up this podcast last year because I'm a huge, you know, cut me open I'm a volleyball, I bleed volleyball, I'm a volleyball addict. I just love our volleyball community in this country, you know, and there's so many amazing people and, yes, I love commentating and just watching volleyball. But I tell you what I just love being around our sport. You get the opportunity at these weekends to you know, when you're not commentating or when you're not winning an award, then you get the opportunity to just chat to people that I've known for a very, very long time touch base, find out a little bit more about what's going on, and it's just so good to see different clubs.
Speaker 2:Like I said at the start, I think there was where was it? Where was it? Where was it? 14 different clubs represented at this weekend and it's just amazing that our sport continues to grow. So, from me, luke Wiltshire, host of that Volleyball Guy, thank you all so much for listening. Whatever you're doing, remember, keep playing, keep supporting, but, most importantly, keep that volleyball spirit alive. Thank you for listening. That volleyball guy.
