Development League Match Report – R2 v North Adelaide SANFLW

On the back of a narrow win against Glenelg last week we entered round 2 with a positive attitude as we faced off against the 2022 premiers in North Adelaide.

The game began with North Adelaide playing some fast attacking football and taking us by surprise. We conceded two goals for the quarter and we were unable to score trailing by 15 points at quarter time. The second quarter was a more even affair with both sides scoring two goals each but North Adelaide were still controlling the game as they led by 14 points at halftime.

Asha Dufour and Grace McNicol were our best trying to spark something. Beth Sigley was competing strongly in ruck and Maddy Zacher, Steph Walker, Scarlett Griffiths and Charlie Scutchings continued to battle hard.

Not much changed after half time as North continued to press us and their speed on transition saw us in big trouble going into the last trailing by 22 points.

The three quarter time discussion centered around belief in each other and to start playing with freedom and not over thinking the game.

Out came a completely different side and when Steph Walker slotted an early goal we could feel the energy and momentum shift. Maddy Zacher went forward and impacted instantly converting a long goal around her body, then at about the 8 minute mark Steph Walker again impacted, converting another goal to put us 4 points down with 9 minutes left on the clock.

North were panicking and we continued to press forward keeping the ball in our forward half.

With just over a minute left, a series of handballs saw Grace McNicol center the ball 25m out to a fast leading Asha Dufour who marked strongly under enormous pressure. With less than a minute on the clock Asha went back and calmly kicked the goal to put us in front with what would be the last kick of the game. We ran out winners by 2 points in what was truly an amazing result having trailed North for the entire game until then.

The belief of this team is enormous and now finds us undefeated after two rounds, a wonderful start to the season.

Final score: West 6.2 – 38 defeated North 5.6 – 36

Best players: Asha Dufour, Grace McNicol, Steph Walker, Maddy Zacher, Beth Sigley, Charlie Scutchings

Goal Kickers: Steph Walker 2, Asha Dufour 2, Izzi Rawley 1, Maddy Zacher 1