Moody’s Match Report – Round 6

Round 6 saw us come off the bye with another big challenge ahead of us, the reigning premiers Glenelg in front of a home crowd. Bolstered by experienced Crows players Abbie Ballard and Maddy Newman we were excited for the challenge. We also welcomed back returning players from injury and Health and Safety Protocols to help strengthen our team.

The first quarter saw Glenelg get an early jump scoring the first 2 goals of the game. We managed to wrestle back some momentum and got our first on the board with our only goal coming from a shot on the run from Crows star Abbie Ballard. But the defence were under pressure again for the remainder of the quarter with Glenelg scoring another 2 goals to take a 4 goal to 1 lead at quarter time. Maddy Newman found plenty of the ball with 5 at quarter time.

We’d settled at quarter time and put up a much more competitive quarter in the second with the aim to continually hold our own defensively, but also start to put some pressure on the scoreboard, which is exactly what our girls did. The only goal of the quarter came from a beautiful running effort from Zoe Venning who took a bounce and finished off the goal to put us 2 goals down. The tough quarter dampened by an injury to Vice Captain Ashlea James which saw her take no further part after half time.

With a rotation down and still a 2-goal deficit at half time, the girls continued to stand up to the reigning premiers with a quick I50 and kick off the ground gave Lucy Boyd her first goal for the game and took the lead down to only 7 points. Zoe Venning started to find her footing picking up 6 disposals for the quarter and some great intercept marking from Maddy Zacher putting her body on the line, put us in good stead heading into the last with a very manageable target to reach.

However, the physical fast paced contest and being 1 rotation down got the better of us in the last quarter with our girls running out of steam against a Glenelg team who wouldn’t back down. Glenelg kicked 3 goals to 0 in the last quarter to run away with a comfortable 26-point win.

Zoe Venning was named our best player after a strong performance through the midfield, picking up 18 disposals, 7 tackles and a goal. Maddi Newman was strong out of and picking up 25 disposals and young gun Emma Kilpatrick also played a strong game in defense.

Our girls now welcome an 8-day break before facing Norwood next Saturday at Coopers Stadium. We will use this week to re-gather and again look forward to the challenge to keep any hope of playing finals footy alive.

Final Score:
West Adelaide 3.3 (21)
Glenelg 7.5 (47)

Goal scorers: Abbie Ballard 1, Lucy Boyd 1, Zoe Venning 1

Best Players: Zoe Venning, Maddy Newman, Emma Kilpatrick, Abbie Ballard, Madison Russell