Villi’s U18s Match Report – Semi Final

UNDER 18s

The Under 18s won their First Semi Final against Central District on Saturday, winning a tough encounter by 5 points. Central started strongly kicking 4 goals in the first quarter and holding us to just the one – a great goal from an acute angle from Zane Peucker – brought us back to 20 points behind at quarter time.

Our turn with the breeze in the second term and we did not quite reward ourselves kicking 2 goals 6 points and the Dogs kicked one on the siren to hold an 8 point lead at half time.

The third quarter was our best kicking 4 goals straight and holding the Bulldogs to 2 goals 3 points – we took the lead for the first time in the match after the three quarter time siren when Jack Mumford kicked truly and it was set for a classic last quarter as we held a 1 point lead.

And so it was with both sides giving everything – again we were a bit wasteful early but when Brock Jamieson kicked his second goal of the match at the 22 minute mark to put us out to a 10 point lead we looked home – but there was another sting in the tail as the Bulldogs mounted another charge and kicked a goal with less than a minute remaining. We managed to win the resultant centre clearance and close out the match. Final scores were Eagles 9 goals 14 points to Central Districts 9 goals 9 points.  Three of our last four games against Centrals have been decided by less than a kick.

We had many good players and Jack Cook and Jevan Phillipou back from their League footy experiences were both very valuable in our midfield – with Jack also playing well in defence and Jevan working well up forward with 3 goals. Mitch Harris, Ethan Ashley and Jensen Frantz were strong defenders, Jack Leys and Jake Hall were good wingers for us and Zane Peucker and Lachie Sands had strong second halves in our midfield.

This week we play minor premier Sturt in a Preliminary Final at Thomas Farms Oval (Unley) at 11.00am.

Shane Reardon – U18 Coach