Vili’s U18’s Match Report – Round 8

The Under 18s had a good win against the top side Central Districts on Saturday, wining an entertaining game by 15 points.

The Dogs started stronger winning a lot of the footy and converting and took a 12 point lead into quarter time.  We evened thigs out a bit in the second quarter and started to win more of the ball and we won the quarter by 7 points to have the game poised with a 5 point deficit at half time.  Our third quarter was easily our best as we moved the footy better and we kicked 4 goals for the quarter whilst restricting Centrals to just the one. Both teams created chances in the last quarter and although we were off line kicking1 goal 4poinst, we were able to close out the win.

Darcy Hudson returned to the team from missing the previous week with injury and gave us plenty of run and dash off half back, Brody Mair continues his great from in the midfield winning lost of contested ball along with Zac Schwarz and Archer Charles provided plenty of run from his wing.

Jedd Thomson and Harry Dodd were also strong in our midfield and Jake Andrews and Tate Delemenico were pillars of strength in our defence.

With the Under 18 state program on this week, we were fortunate to have representatives play in their trial against the NSW Academy on Sunday – Cal Fairall, Pat Toole, Pat Weckert, Kade Herbert, Tom Luck and Rome Burgoyne all did well in that game.

As a result of those players out of our side, we had an opportunity to play some new players and Kane Elliott-Karpany and Tarik Sauer played their first games of Under 18 footy this week and both did some very good things and played well.  Both boys are from our country zones – Kane from the Yorke Peneinsula and Tarick from our Mid North zone. Tyler Welsh also played his first game for the year after recovering from a back injury and although he played limited minutes he did well with 2 goals.

So we go into our first bye with 5 wins and 3 losses – we have already played 40 players and over the next month or so that number will grow as we have state and college commitments which will create further opportunities for others.

We are very much looking forward to the rest of the season as it unfolds.

Shane Reardon – U18 Coach