Phil Hoffmann Travel Round 18 Match Report Under 18’s

Eagles 11.8 (74) def North Adelaide 9.11 (65)
Goal Scorers: Pearce 2, Kasianowicz 2, Poulter 2, Frederick, Schofield, Williams, Jackson, Barnett
Best Players: Barnett, Phillips, McNeilly, Poulter, Buck, Jackson

The Under 18s rounded off our minor round with a good win against North Adelaide on Saturday.  The Roosters started strongly and it was only their bad kicking at goal that kept us in the game at all and at quarter time both teams had one goal each and North had  a 5 point lead after kicking 7 behinds for the quarter.

We had a much better second quarter and kicked 5 goals whilst conceding two goals to North and we took at 9 point lead into half time and we retained that lead through an even third quarter.  North really fired up after three quarter time and kicked the first 3 goals of the quarter to get out to a 10 point lead with only 11 minutes to play.  We then managed to get hold of the ball and attack and we kicked the last 3 goals to run out winners by 9 points.

It was a tough hard contested match and Luke Barnett reveled in those conditions with his attack on the ball and ball handling very good, Zac Phillips made a welcome return to the side after injury and worked really hard in ruck and both Shaun McNeilly and Zac Buck had plenty of work to do in defence and did it well.  Deakan Jackson had some important moments in our forward line and Caleb Poulter continued his good form in the midfield.

So to this week and we will play West Adelaide in the Second Semi Final at Maughan Thiem KIA Oval commencing at 1.30pm.  It is exciting for all the boys who have worked hard to create this opportunity and we know we will be in for a tough encounter on Saturday. Good luck to the Reserves who will also be commencing their finals campaign on the weekend.

Shane Reardon
Coach Under 18s