Match Report SANFLW Development League – Round 5 vs Eagles

Round 5 saw us face the Eagles at home on Saturday in perfect conditions for football.

We continued to give opportunities to the players in the squad making numerous changes and seeing Arabella Prowse play her first game for West Adelaide.

Most of our games this year have been hard fought low scoring affairs and the first quarter demonstrated that it would be the same again.

The Eagles scored early in the quarter and thereafter we found plenty of football, but we were unable to capitalise going forward and we entered quarter time down by 5 points.

The 2^nd quarter was an even affair and when Charlie Scutchings was on the end of some good ball movement, we scored our first goal. Both teams finished with 1.1 for the term and we entered halftime 5 points behind.

Our wings in Saraid Kustermann, Scarlett Griffiths and Kathleen Beer were doing well, Annie Brearly and young Molly Petersen were working hard and finding the ball and Chole Tonkin was giving us a marking target up forward. Our backline led by Niamh Davis was holding well with Maddi Fitzgerald, Tiana Fernandez, Arabella Prowse and Cam Kennedy. Unfortunately, Maddy Zacher sustained a thumb injury after starting to show some good form.

The 3rd quarter saw us play some very good football with no reward and for 16 minutes no team could score. The Eagles managed to somehow find a goal in the last minute to extend their lead to 13 points at the final change, leaving us facing a tough come from behind situation again.

The last quarter was a physical and strong battle and when Kathleen Beer scored her first goal after we found some clean football and hit our targets, we closed the gap to 6 points.

With 8 minutes left on the clock we needed to score again but the Eagles held steadfast and restricted any further opportunity.

Despite suffering another tight defeat we were very pleased with a number of players showing some excellent signs of improvement.

We will play Norwood next round and look to continue to finish the last 2 rounds displaying some exciting strong football.

Final scores: West– 2.4 -16 defeated by Eagles 3.7 – 25

Best players: Saraid Kustermann, Scarlett Griffiths, Molly Petersen, Niamh Davis, Annie Brearly, Maddi Fitzgerald

Goal Kickers: Charlie Scutchings 1, Kathleen Beer 1