League Match Report – R2 v North Adelaide SANFLW

After a solid performance in Round 1, our Westies girls were eager to test their skills against one of the most consistent teams in the comp and last year’s Premiers in North Adelaide. We only had one forced change to the Round 1 team, with Forward Paris Francis becoming unavailable, which brought in Tabby Saville for her SANFLW debut. As a club we also celebrated Kelly Barltrop’s 50^th SANFLW game, fittingly against the club she played majority of her SANFLW career for.

The first quarter started off well and our Westies girls quickly took control, keeping North Adelaide scoreless in the first quarter and we went on to kick 1.3 for the quarter after a lovely clearance from a stoppage inside 50 from new recruit Iilish Ross.

The girls were able to keep the momentum running early, with another strong outing in the 2^nd quarter, keeping the 2022 Premiers goalless up until half time while adding another 2 goals to our tally to take a 21-point lead into half time. Lauren Young again was impressive finding plenty of the ball, getting a miracle bounce to put away her first goal for the game. Tabby Saville also got on the scoreboard in her first game kicking a nice set shot from around 30m out on a slight angle.

Despite a handy lead at half time, we knew North could run out games so we had to keep up our intensity that we showed in the first half. Despite being evenly matched on the scoreboard, North Adelaide started to take over. Having 11 inside 50’s and almost doubling our disposals in the 3^rd, we managed to hold on and take a 20 point lead going into the last quarter. Keeley Kustermann kicked our only major of the 3^rd after a free kick was given 20 meters out directly in front.

A last quarter surge by North made sure that we were on our toes throughout the whole 20 minutes. Lauren Young had another impactful last quarter, kicking a goal from a strong mark in the goal square and assisting Tammy May running into an open goal to seal the match late. Lauren finished with 21 disposals and kicked 2.3 for the game, as well as strong performances from both Zoe Venning and Jess Macolino. Iilish Ross was important throughout the game and Lucy Boyd was again strong out of defense.

In the end, the girls were able to hold on to be 11-point winners and move to 2-0 to start the season. Round 3 will see us travel to Noarlunga to face South Adelaide Saturday evening. We hope to see many of our faithful supporters cheering us on.

Final score: West Adelaide 6.7 (43) def North Adelaide 4.8 (32)

Goals: Lauren Young 2, Tabby Saville 1, Iilish Ross 1, Tamika May 1, Keeley Kustermann 1

Best Players: Lauren Young, Iilish Ross, Jess Macolino, Lucy Boyd, Zoe Venning, Emma Kilpatrick