U18’s Match Report – Round 14 vs North Adelaide

Round 14 saw us host the ladder leading Roosters at home. We played them earlier in the year and just fell short by 8-points, and the boys were feeling good about playing them again to see if we’d improved in some key areas from last time. Harrison Barker, Fraser Bone and Tyson Coe were included into the side from the previous week.

For the second straight week we got off to a flyer in the first quarter, again kicking 8 goals. We were kicking with the breeze, but most of our dominance came from the initial contested work and our ability to ensure wherever the ball went on the oval we had good numbers there and kept the ball moving our way. We led by 37 points at ¼ time, with Tom Scully kicking two of them. In the second term we conceded 3 goals to 1 but I thought we held up reasonably well in the conditions and deserved our 21-point ½ time lead.

Our third quarter was excellent. We had 8 scoring shots and stretched the lead to 42 points at ¾ time, including goals to Tyson Coe and Max Downs in the last 3 minutes. In the final term the boys carried out our instructions perfectly. We knew how to play the conditions and what we had to do to ensure the game was never in doubt. North kicked 3 late goals but it was pleasing to run out 24-point winners. Our defence were enormous in the last quarter to repel entry after entry and ensure valuable time kept being taken from the clock with no damage done on the scoreboard early in the term.

Tyson Coe was excellent in his return from an achilles injury and added 3 goals to 37 disposals to collect the league weekly MVP award. Darcy Minchella was dominant in the ruck with 36 disposals and 16 possessions, Archer Byrne impressed with 21 disposals from a wing and Finn Higham led the defenders with 7 marks and 7 rebound 50’s.

This week we travel to Glenelg to face the Tigers. We are excited that every week now we get to play in important matches and we look forward to the challenge as we try to keep our momentum going. The match is at 1:15pm on Saturday and it would be great to see some red and black amongst the crowd. Finally, it was great that we were able to play before the league side on the weekend and witness their win over Port, congratulations to all involved!

Best Players: Tyson Coe, Darcy Minchella, Archer Byrne, Finn Higham, Jonah Zinndorf, Judd Hansen

Goals: Tyson Coe, Tom Scully (3), Judd Hansen, Lachlan Tredwell (2), Liam Westdijk, Max Downs, Lukas Zvaigzne, Jordan White (1)

Paul Streatfield

Talent Manager & U18 Coach