Under 16’s Round 1 Match Report

Eagles 12.11 (83) def Central 9.9 (63)
Best Player: Neumann, Burgoyne, Calvert, Watson, Branford, Pearce
Goal Scorers: Watson 2, Pearce 2, Burrows 2, Calvert 2, Nicholls, Williams, Blair, Branford

After trials against Sturt and West Adelaide the lads were looking forward to their Round One clash against Central District on the Thursday evening prior to the long weekend.

Centrals got off to a fast start and lead by 13 points at Quarter time however our second quarter was much better and we were able to close the gap to a deficit of 7 points at Half Time.

Our second Halves across our Trials had been a strength therefore we were looking to finish strongly again. But Centrals again came out after the break and kicked the first 4 goals, which was not ideal as half way thru the third quarter Centrals lead by 30 points.

To our guys credit we responded in the later half on the third and kicked the last three goals of the term to trail by 14 points. The game was up for grabs and the lads could sense there was an opportunity to go on with it.

We saved the best to last and won just about all areas of the ground both on the inside as well as using the ball well on the outside, with 16 inside 50 to Centrals 3 in the last Term we were able to kick 5 goals 6 to Centrals 2 points.

With 8 individual goal kickers Brayden Calvett, Will Pearce & Jay Watson kicking 2 each along with Will Neumann, Jase Burgoyne & Dylan Branford working hard in the midfield and Brady Griffiths & Lachlan Hendry doing a stellar job in defence, particularly early, we were able to open up the season with a positive result in an overall good Team performance.

We look forward to venturing out to Coopers Stadium this Sunday to take on the Redlegs.

Darren Hams
Under 16’s Coach