Rel’s Review – Round 5

We knew Round 5 v West Adelaide would be a challenge and West always have a way of taking away the oppositions game by creating an in tight fight around the contest. We started well and kicked 4 first quarter goals but allowed a late first quarter goal to the opposition.  From there the game became a contest war, classic arm wrestle and over the last three quarters both teams only scored two goals apiece.  We controlled the match and never really allowed West to take ascendency but on the flip side they held us well also. We came away eventual winners by 18 points and the first quarter proved to be the winning part of the match. The win gives us 5 in a row, our first time achieving this many wins in a season and the only team remaining unbeaten for the first part of Season 2025. We are satisfied with this start but understand we need to keep the ball rolling our way to ensure we are amongst it at the end of the season where it matters most.

The win was soured with a significant injury to our quiet achiever, Bri Walling we will know more about her injury as the week progresses. Pleasingly our spread of goal-scorers continues to be the best in the competition with us not having to rely on one key forward to continue our scoring. Our front half dominance is also a feature with our F50 entries a statistics that is jumping off the page which we attribute to our midfield working strongly together and more importantly the cohesion of our backs who are working so well together and ensuring when the oppo does get some F50 inside ball we are sound in both our contest work and ability to repel the ball and get it going back to our scoring end.

Round 6 we return to Maughan Thiem KIA Oval to face a red-hot North Adelaide and pair up with the U16’s and U18’s Boys for a Saturday Triple header which should be a great day. We had a sneaky look at North Adelaide when we played them in our first trial for Season 2025 and we were all impressed with their style of play and this one could be the clash of the round. Thank-you to our supporters for all the postive comments on socials, please feel free to stop and say hello to any players or coaches as we move around the grounds. We love hearing that there is interest and support for our Eagles SANFLW and it really does make a difference to all involved in the program that supporters are following our progress.  See you at the footy.

Narelle Smith – SANFLW Senior Coach