Telstra Store West Lakes League Match Report Round 15

Eagles 8.13 (61) def Sturt 13.8 (86)
Goal Scorers: Gaffney, Hayes J, Hayes N, Lewis, Petrenko, Redden, Rowe, Sharrod
Best Players: Hayes N, Lewis, West, Hayes J, Goldsworthy

Round 15 saw us make 4 forced changes due to injury from round 14, Hall, Boyd, Guilhaus were all injured and Jackson Mead received a 1 match suspension. This provided opportunity for Jordan West, Jake Westbrook, Sam Rowland & club champion Scott Lewis to return to league football. The team was very focused on the job ahead from early in the week.

We started the first quarter full of intensity laying big tackles and genuine commitment to win the contest. We were able to go inside our forward 50m on 13 occassions and have multiple shots on goal. Our ability to finish off our hard work was well below standard kicking 1 goal and 6 points. 4 out of the 6 points were from with in 30m and should have been finished with a goal. We took a few point leads in to the quarter time break. Jordan West started off very well and immediately had an impact on the game.

The 2^nd and 3^rd quarter were disappointing as we let the game slip away from us during this period. Frustration crept in and Sturt did what we couldn’t in the 1^st quarter and kicked straight at goals. We’d kicked ourselves out of the game with a score of 4.11 to Sturt’s 11.6.

Our 4^th quarter we won as we’ve done for most of the season kicking 4 goals to 2. It was too little to late and Sturt finished off winning by 25 points. We were beaten convincingly at stoppages which is the 1^st time this season that has happened to us. Best on ground went to Nick Hayes closely followed by Scott Lewis and Jordan West.

Goal kicking has been and issues for majority of the year and the players have been working hard on all versions of goal kicking. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to absorb the game day pressure component which this skill requires. The game in which we’ve won this season our goal kicking has been above 55% and the game lost below 45%. After 15 rounds of football we average the most inside 50’s and we’ve had more shots on goal than any other team in the competition.

Next round we play Port Adelaide at Alberton Oval which is going to be a battle through the midfield with both teams leading the competition in clearances.

The last 2 weeks have been challenging for all and this is the perfect time to support our club on the 11^th August at Alberton Oval.

Sam Lonergan
Senior Coach