Rel’s Review – Round 6

Round 6 we came up against North Adelaide at Maughan Thiem Kia Oval. As a team we rate their style of play and the way they are playing their footy in season 2025.  We were not going to underestimate this dynamic young team. They matched us well for the first quarter and held the lead at the first change by 1 point. Q2 was basically the McKenzie Dowrick show she kicked 3 goals for the term and considering this is her first League game returning from an ACL injury it was an amazing individual performance. We managed to keep North scoreless for that quarter and held a good lead at half time.

Q3 and Q4 saw us kick 5 more goals and looked in control of the match. Pleasing from a team perspective our defence continues to provide us opportunities to keep our offence rolling. 5 separate goals kickers over the match is proving to be our blueprint and will be our focus as we move towards the back half of our season.

Unfortunately, we lost one of our co-captains in Poppy Waterford to an ACL (confirmed during last week) and her presence on-field is hard to match but as they say in football an opportunity will now present for another player and we will have Poppy with us in a role for the remainder of the season so her influence will remain.

During the bye we have had 4 players play in the SA v WA State game on Saturday 3 May on Adelaide Oval. It was pleasing to see our players represent their state with great pride and presence. Representing the Eagles SANFLW was Annie Falkenberg (SA Captain) along with Sophie Zuill, Leah Cutting and Christina Leuzzi. All performed well and it was an amazing win by the SA team.

R7 sees us play Glenelg in a triple header with our Men’s League and Reserves at Stratarama. Our second meeting with the Bays this season, we will not take any team lightly and understand the Bays will be hungry for a win – team football is what we want to be known for and this will continue to be our focus.

Narelle Smith – SANFLW Senior Coach