Phil Hoffmann Travel Under 18’s Match Report Round 13

Eagles 8.8 (56) def by South Adelaide 8.12 (60)
Goal Scorers: Coff 4, Morris 3, Beecken
Best Players: Jones, Hoile, Phillips, Barnett, Coff, Carter

The Under 18s lost a tight contest to South Adelaide on Saturday, going down by 4 points.  We started the game brightly kicking the first 2 goals and putting good pressure on South Adelaide, but the Panthers hit back with three quick goals during the middle of the quarter before we kicked one late to effectively tie the game up at quarter time. Although South won the second quarter kicking 3 goals to none, we played much better but we didn’t take our chances with 4 set shots on goal but not being able to kick one.  Our third quarter was better again and we won the quarter kicking 4 goals whilst holding South Adelaide goal less although they did have three set shots on goal which they missed. So at three quarter time we held a five point lead, and with us  kicking into the breeze in the last quarter the stage was set for a great finish and that is exactly what we got.

South kicked a goal early to immediately wrest back the lead and for the first 20 minutes the ball was camped in their forward half as we struggled to move the ball effectively from our defence and South added 5 behinds in this period with a few rushed and a couple of shots wide, then at the 20 minute mark South kicked a goal which put them 12 points clear and it seemed like the match was done. Our players don’t give up though and we have seen that in each of our last 3 games and we were able to kick a goal at the 23 minute mark which reduced the margin to 6 points and then we had the last 2 shots on goal of the game in the last 3 minutes but we fell just 4 points short and the Panthers held on for a deserved victory.

Lachie Jones was a very good defender and had a good duel with one of South’s key forwards,  Lochie Hoile did some good work in the midfield and as a defender, Luke Barnett was another who was strong in and around the contest,  Jamie Coff and Josh Morris were dangerous forwards all day, and Zac Phillips was again impressive in ruck again against a very good opponent.

We are looking forward to this week’s challenge on Saturday against Central Districts at Peter Motley Oval from 1pm.

Shane Reardon
Head Coach