SANFLW Match Report – Round 10

With a bye round throughout the Men’s and Junior grades this weekend, Hisense took centre stage to our Round 10 match versus Central District. With a little bit to prove coming off a 40-point loss last time we played, we were looking forward to seeing how much we as a collective have improved over the last 4 or 5 weeks. We had 3 changes to our team this week, with Vice Captain Georgie Pater returning from concussion protocols, Jess Macolino played her first game of football since Round 3, 2023 returning from a shoulder injury and the very reliant Hannah Button returned after missing last week.

We knew that Centrals like to move the ball forward at pace and once it was inside 50, a lot of teams struggle to stop them from scoring and had put some work into our defense this week. Centrals came out in the first quarter and showed there scoring ability early with the first goal of the day which we were able to get back later in the quarter with a strong forward 50 contest to Chloe Tonkin setting up an easy Lucy Waye goal. Centrals finished the quarter with a couple rushed behinds and took a 2-point lead into quarter time.

We were able to get on top of Centrals in the 2^nd quarter, but were wasteful with our disposals and couldn’t make the most of our opportunities in front of goal. We were able to keep Centrals goalless in the 2^nd term and hit the lead with a hard-running Hannah Button goal off the ground.

Our third quarter this week probably let us down a little. After taking a lead into half time, Centrals came out and kicked 2 goals within a few minutes to put them firmly in front with a bit of breathing room. We had adjusted to the changes they had made at half time and managed to keep to only 1 goal for the remainder of the quarter, when a Nicole Hooper soccer off the ground wrestled the score back to 9 points heading into the last quarter.

Despite again having majority of the ball inside our forward 50, and keeping Centrals scoreless in the last quarter, their defense held up. Nicole Hooper was awarded a 25m penalty after a strong contested mark and reduced the lead back to 6 points and that’s where the game finished up.

While there were again some string passages of play, our skill execution at times let us down and had left a couple goals hanging which could have swayed momentum, and the result, more in our favour – but ultimately, we still have some growing to do with our young but exciting squad.

Lucy Boyd played her role incredibly well and was awarded Best on Ground. Emma Kilpatrick has again showed AFLW recruiters her increasing value and was solid rebounding off defensive 50. Zoe Venning and Asha Dufour were also both solid collecting 20 disposals, Zoe also collecting 8 tackles to go with it. Tiana Fernandez while not stuffing the stat sheet also competed incredibly well all game.

With only 4 rounds of football left and half a game outside the top 4, every game and moment over the next few weeks is going to be crucial. We are looking forward to down South this weekend against South Adelaide who are also on the verge of making another finals series, so will be another good challenge.

Goals: Nicole Hooper (2), Lucy Waye, Hannah Button (1)

Best Players: Lucy Boyd, Emma Kilpatrick, Tiana Fernandez, Lucy Waye, Nicole Hooper

SANFLW Coach – Bruce Dawes