League – Round 4 Match Report

Eagles 11.13 (79) def by West Adelaide 18.8 (116)
Goal Scorers: J Hayes 2, Haylock 2, Sharrad 2, Johansen, Hall, J.Gaffney, Rowe, Goldsworthy
Best Players: Giuffreda, Toumpas, J. Hayes, Petrenko, Foote, Lonergan

Good Friday game against West Adelaide at Mazda City Oval was set with good weather and a great crowd. For us it was a challenging day with a chance to be sitting 2 wins 2 loses or 1 win 3 loses.

With James Rowe having the first shot of the day 30 secs in to the first quarter things looked to be moving well and the group moving past our slow starts to games. Disappointingly West Adelaide put the first 2 goals on the scoreboard and put us on the back foot early in the game. During the 1^st and 2^nd quarter it was an arm wrestle with both sides missing opportunities to score. West Adelaide controlled the 1^st quarter with 11 to 5 shots on goal and then it was our turn in the 2^nd with 9 – 4 shots on goal.

The 3^rd quarter which was our strength in round 1 has since been where we’ve lost the game over the past 2 rounds. West kicking 7 goals to our 2. During the last quarter we pulled back with 5 goals to 3 but it was too little too late.

With our team sitting with only 1 win there has been some positives from the weekend. We’re starting to get some key players back on the park with Jimmy Toumpas getting through his first game of the year and pulling up well post game. Jimmy will improve significantly once he regains his match fitness and game touch. Jesse Lonergan played 85% game time and has also got through his first full game for the season. Skipper Patrick Giuffreda returned for his first game with no issues and is set to go next week.

Nick Hayes will be close to a return this week from his finger injury in round 1 and Jarrad Redden will also push to return to play against his old AFL club Port Adelaide.

We’ve been working very hard over the past 3 weeks; these loses are galvanising our group and driving the team to move forward and in the same direction. We’d love our Eagles family to come along and support us at home this week.

Sam Lonergan
League Head Coach