Reserves – Round 4 Match Report

Eagles 5.11 (41) def by West Adelaide 13.15 (93)
Goal Scorers: Comitogianni, Davis, E. Miller, X. Redden, Weidemann
Best Players: X Redden, Guilhaus, Heinjus, Nason, C. Gaffney

After starting the year with 3 consecutive wins we were going to Richmond oval with some confidence that if we could continue to play strong contested football in tight and keep the directness of our ball movement we would be a good chance to make it 4 in a row.

The first 10 minutes of the game saw West Adelaide control the contest with the ball kept deep in their forward half. As the quarter continued we were able to steady and turn the tables on West Adelaide keeping the ball in our forward half but we were unable to capitalise kicking 6 behinds for the quarter to go into the quarter time break 13 points behind even though we had dominated scoring shots and inside 50’s.

The second quarter saw a real tight tussle with the ball being played between the middle of the ground and no team being able to gain a real advantage with poor disposal allowing a very even quarter of football with West Adelaide taking a 14 point half time lead.

The message at half time for the group was to drive hard at the contest and we put some bigger bodies in the midfield to assist in this. We also knew that we were too reactive and needed to find the balance of impacting when we had the opportunity.

The second half of football was a long way of the football this side had produced for the previous 3 rounds. West Adelaide smashed us in at the contest and we were not able to be proactive enough on the outside to curtail this influence. The backline was under some serious pressure as West ended up with 18 scoring shots to 5 for the half and taking out the contest by 52 points.

With an 8 day break it gives us a great opportunity to work on some areas of deficiency to ensure we come out this week against Central’s at home and rebound back on the winners circle.

Vinnie Rugolo
Reserves Coach