League – Round 5 Match Report

Eagles 9.11 (65) def by Port 16.6 (102)
Goal Scorers: Rowe 4, Poole 2, Hayes J, Hayes N, Johansen
Best Players: Rowe, Lonergan, Petrenko, Hayes J, Foote, Sinor

Back at Maughan Thiem Kia Oval for ANZAC Round in perfect conditions for football, we were looking to respond after a disappointing showing against West Adelaide the previous week.

The boys had a strong week on the track and brought this into the game with great intensity around the ball and plenty of pressure being applied in the first half. Angus Poole, returning from a quad complaint, put together back to back goals early in the second term to give us a 10-point buffer. A couple of missed opportunities going forward late in the term, resulted in Port transitioning and capitalising at the other end, taking in a 9 point half time lead. I felt we had control going for large parts of the first half, but some missed shots on goal and costly turnovers meant we had a big second half ahead.

Our 3^rd quarters haven’t been a strength so far this season and unfortunately this continued. Port hit the scoreboard with three early goals in the third term and put a 5 goal buffer that we were never able to reel in for the remainder of the match, eventually going down by 37 points.

James Rowe continues to be a shining light for the side, kicking another four goals to see him tied for the Ken Farmer Medal after 5 rounds. Unfortunately after just coming back into the side and playing really well in the first quarter and a half, Joe Heinjus went down with an foot/ankle injury in the second term and looks likely to miss around a month of football which is disappointing.

After having multiple changes each week so far this season, it will be good to move into this week with potentially a more settled line up with Heinjus the only forced change at this stage, although we have had some strong performances from players in the Reserves over the past month who are certainly pushing for spots.

We have another massive challenge this week, coming up against an in-form Glenelg team who have had a great start to the season. This is a critical game for us leading into the state game weekend off and we hope to see all you Eagles fans down at the Bay supporting the boys and helping us get across the line.

Sam Lonergan
Senior Coach