Villi’s U18s & U16s Match Report – Round 4

UNDER 18s

The Under 18s had a very good win against Sturt on Sunday coming from 4 goals down in the second quarter to win a tight contest by 13 points.

We started well kicking the first two goals before Sturt kicked two of their own, taking a 4 point lead into Quarter time. The Blues started the second quarter on fire kicking 4 quick goals to get out to a 21 point lead before we were able to halt their momentum and got a couple of goals back to be down 8 points at half time. We played another great third quarter kicking 6 goals but we did give up a couple of goals late and that meant we had an eleven  point advantage at three quarter time. The scene was set again for a big last quarter and we attacked for most of the first 10 minutes and managed to kick the first goal of the quarter but Sturt then took control of the game with many repeat entries but fortunately for us they kicked one goal four points. It was late in the quarter we put the result beyond doubt, taking a ball from a kick in to go end to end for a goal. It was a great effort to reverse the 47 point loss that Sturt inflicted only 2 games ago.

We had many good players – we welcomed Mitch Harris back into the team after concussion and he was impassable in defence with 12 intercept marks from his 16, Will Trengove and Hunter Rowe worked hard in our midfield supported well by our ruckman Jack Marks, Jack Leys was a constant threat on the wing and Lachie Marshall-Bates continued his good form up forward with 3 goals. Zack Lloyd’s ten tackles was also a feature for us.

This week we debuted 3 more players with Mitchell Quinton, Bayden Fenech and Lucas Martin all playing their first games of under 18 footy and all doing some good work for us and making contributions to the win.

This week we take on West Adelaide at Richmond Oval – an important event in our calendar as it is the annual “Jake Watson Shield” game, played to commemorate the lives of Jake Watson, who died on the field playing Under 19s against the Eagles in 2002, as well  as West Adelaide juniors, Glenn Knott, Ben Mitchell and Corey Siemers who all lost their lives way too soon.

Shane Reardon – U18 Coach

UNDER 16s

Round Four saw us take on Sturt who we played a couple of weeks ago in our opening game for 2026.

Seven changes were made from the previous week against South Adelaide, giving opportunities to other Players to show case their talents at U16 SANFL Footy.

Congratulations to Will Adams, Jackson Brooks,Jimmy Burton, Hugo Costa, Hunter Marr, Joel Lipsonand Max Smith on playing their first game.

Our first quarter we were a little slow to get out the blocks, with Sturt jumping to a 2 goal lead in the first 5 minutes, but to our credit we were able to regain the momentum and kick our first goal at the 17 minute mark through 1st gamer Joel Lipson.

Our next 3 goals all came within the next 4 minutes of play with Will Adams another first gamer kicking 2 and Tyson Schultz kicking 1 at the 22 minute mark.

We were able to take a 11 point lead into the first quarter break.

The 2nd Quarter was an arm wrestle where both sides couldn’t take advantage of the momentum swings. Sturt though were able to kick 3 goals to 0 and take a 7 point lead into half time.

Our third quarter was probably where we played our best football all season we were able to generate forward momentum and kick 5.2 to 1.0, lead by Mason Papps in the midfield with 11 disposals and 3 clearances.

The final quarter unfortunately we ran out of legs and Sturt were able to kick 5 goals to 1 to run out 5 point winners.

Tyson Schultz, Mason Papps, Damien Wanganeen, Jude Cowan, Alex Darcey and Max Smith all acquitted themselves quite well on the day.

This week we look forward to taking on West Adelaide at Hisense Arena on Saturday.

Todd Clarke – U16 Coach