The Under 18s had a loss to Central Districts by 12 points on Saturday. We kicked 13 goals 16 points and the Doggies kicked 16 goals 10 points. There was never much between the 2 teams all day with Centrals leading by 5 points at quarter time, and the Eagles by 10 points and 15 points at half time and three quarter time respectively. In the third quarter in particular we played some of our best footy this year but couldn’t quite take our chances, kicking 3 goals 7 points from 12 shots on goal – on the other hand Centrals kicked 4 goals 1 point to stay in touch and they finished the game off strongly in the last quarter to record a deserved win.
Mattaes Phillipou was in everything all day, working hard in the contest and giving us lots of chances in our forward line with 9 Inside 50s complemented by his 9 tackles, his midfield partner Adam D’Aloia was also industrious winning plenty of the ball from clearances (9), Izaac Niemann gave us a target up forward with 5 marks and 2 goals, Blake Hansen and Callum Fairall both returned to the team from illness and did well giving us some good run and ball use, Nathan Barkla and Brody Mair were our other midfielders who gave us a contest all day.
Whilst it was very disappointing not to win the game it was great to see our improvement and I am sure a win is not too far away. This week the School College season commences and we wish our 14 boys all the best as they compete for their schools.
We play West Adelaide this week at Maughan Thiem KIA Oval from 12.45pm in what will be a big game of footy.
Shane Reardon
U18 Coach