Gotchy’s Match Report – Round 8 vs South Adelaide

A very interesting first quarter at Noarlunga with both teams feeling each other out and giving no leeway sees South kick 4 behinds to our 3 behinds indicating both had come to play some serious football.

The 2^nd quarter was the opposite with both teams kicking 5 goals and Westies playing some of their best footy of the year. Can you believe it? Unfortunately for our confidence and belief we pull back 2 goals late in the 2^nd where we lead by the solitary point [though it was our 2^nd highest half time score apart from Centrals in Round 2].

After the break Brooksby lifted in the Ruck and in 8 minutes South kick 3 majors without us having an inside 50 entry. From there we battle hard using our secret weapon Tom Keough into the backline to steady the ship and pull back 2 Goals to 3 for the rest of the quarter to stay in touch at ¾ time; 22 points adrift.

I still felt we were in the game and from the first Centre bounce of the 4^th quarter Keough to Beech & unfortunately he misses from 35m out & from there South steady to win by 30 points.

Still another step forward for us as we develop, and considering Josh Ryan was a late withdrawal, the way we played was enough to suggest we are not far away from any team. Very pleased with mid-fielders Hamish Hartlett, Josh Carmichael, Lachie Squire and Joel Stevens, although Brooksby [South] dominated the ruck hit outs. Josh Gore with 4 goals as a small forward was outstanding again and is gaining some real consistency. Sam May returned and was inspirational with his courage down back along with Callum Park as was  Kaiden Brand with 10 spoils.

We intend to keep chipping away in pursuit of that consistent four quarter performance which will hopefully give us our best chance to taste success, hope to see many of you at Glenelg supporting the team.

Best: Joel Stevens, Josh Gore, Sam May

Goals: Josh Gore (4), Josh Carmichael, Hamish Ellem, Lucas Meline, Joel Stevens

Brad Gotch

League Coach