Moody’s Match Report

Round 9 Match Report v Central

Coming off a high of watching 5 of our Crows Listed girls win a AFLW premiership Saturday afternoon, the mood was good this weekend with our SANFLW team making the long trip out to Elizabeth to face Centrals at X Convenience Oval. This week saw a total of 7 changes as we lost some key players to State requirements, Health and Safety Protocols and a couple of injuries from last weekend’s game. We welcomed back Jess Macolino who had missed games over the last few weeks, we welcomed back Alex Mason, Maddy Zacher and Tiarna Harfield as well as young guns Asha Dufour and Jess Chyer. We also welcomed a couple of new faces to the team, with Saraid Kustermann (sister of Keeley Kustermann) and Ruby Ballard (sister of Crow Abbie Ballard) making their SANFLW debut after impressive runs in our Development League.

The game started off with a bit of back and forth between the teams. The Dogs took an early 2 goal advantage though after a couple of questionable freekicks inside their Forward 50 and it looked like our girls were going to be in for a long day. We managed to wrestle one back late in the first with a great passage of play and some quick ball movement saw first gamer Ruby Ballard find some space inside our 50 and kicked the first of the day. Beatrice Devlyn found the ball with 7 early disposals and the backline held up well in pressure. Asha Dufour after missing a few weeks was lively and looked like she was ready to make an impact too.

The 2nd quarter again was a good battle, as our girls ramped up the pressure on the ball and neither side were able to take advantage. Centrals kicked the first goal of the quarter but was matched not too long after by a nice snap from Jessica Macolino for her first goal at West Adelaide saw our girls right in the game at half time down by 14 points. Charlotte Spence ramped up the pressure in the midfield with 6 tackles, while Jess Macolino started to find the ball and had 11 touches and a goal at half time.

The last half our girls ran out of steam on the big oval and the pressure fell away. The Dogs were able to pile on 4 goals to zip in the last half and ran away with a 7-goal win. Maddy Zacher impressed in her first game back with 19 disposals and strong spoils in defense, Jess Macolino also performed well leading the team in disposals with 23.

With a bye over Easter and 3 games left for the season, a big theme amongst our women over the next few weeks will be to ensure that we don’t give up. Currently sitting on the bottom of the ladder our aim will be to continue to improve and develop and see if we can’t earn back a little pride in ourselves and a bit of respect from the rest of the competition. We will face Norwood at Coopers Friday 22nd April and we will look to get a far improved result from the last time we met.