U18’s Coaches Report – Round 16

Round 16 U18 Match Report

West Adelaide 12.16 (88) def. Norwood 12.7 (79)

Round 16 saw us face Norwood for the first time since round 4. Our meeting earlier in the year was a high quality game and we expected the same in this match as we know Norwood’s best football is very good. We had 4 changes to the side to the week before for various reasons but most notably we were thrilled to learn that Luke Young and Dylan McCormick were making their reserves debuts.

We went in to the game well aware of how Norwood wanted to play and had trained accordingly to minimize their strengths as well as continue to play our brand of football. For the majority of the first three quarters we didn’t quite get that balance right. We had patches where we looked fantastic and scored quickly, however Norwood were good enough to capitalise on our mistakes and moved the ball well themselves to score at the other end. We went in to the last break 17 points down but our group have shown countless times this year that they fight until the end and I will always back our group in to play until the last moment.

The last quarter in this match was excellent for us. A number of players stood up in big moments, we were much calmer with the football and didn’t get caught up playing the crazy fast football that Norwood wanted us to. In the end it wasn’t a pretty game of football but good teams find a way to get the job done and we left with a 9 point win in the end. Had we kicked straight the margin would have been much bigger.

Dylan White had a big game across midfield and forward roles, Cade Kennedy and Jesse Thackeray were dominant in the middle and Oscar Steene got the ball going our way from the ruck. Jaeden Watts was impressive up forward with his scoring but also his defensive efforts, whilst Cain Satanek was huge down back and helped us stay in the game early.

Finals are now guaranteed for our group but we are not satisfied with just that and we will now do whatever we can to secure a top-2 placing. This week we head to Glenelg to face the top of the table Tigers. We have played in two tight matches against them already and are looking forward to testing ourselves against the competition leaders. With no other West matches this weekend, we hope to see you at Glenelg at 11:30am on Saturday.

Best: Jesse Thackeray, Cade Kennedy, Cain Satanek, Jaeden Watts, Dylan White, Oscar Steene.

Goals: Jaeden Watts (4), Saleh Baltagie (2), Cade Kennedy, Dylan White, Jamie Kovacic, Jack Oates, Liam Westdijk, Harrison Barker (1)

Paul Streatfield

Talent Manager & U18 Coach