Straight From The Sauce – Round 5 League & Reserves

It was a business-like win vs Port Adelaide on Saturday afternoon at Maughan Thiem Kia Oval. With wind playing a role in the game, we kicked into the breeze in the first quarter kicking 2.2 to Port’s 1.7. The second quarter we were able to get som scoreboard separation and convert our chances with the wind to open up an important 27-point lead.

With the wind dying down in the second half and the game tightening up, the lead never got to more than 33 points or Port didn’t close inside 21 points. We ended up running out winners by 25 points in an important victory for our season.

Better players on the day were Riley Knight, who was back to his defensive best by putting a lot of pressure and physicality on the opposition, he had 26 with 6 score involvements, 3 tackles and 6 clearances. James Rowe (31, 6 score involvements) played more midfield time and gave us plenty of drive, and Kobe Mutch yet again showed his high-level consistency with 29, 5 tackles, 6 score involvements and 6 clearances.

Joe Sinor continued on his good form off half back, setting up a lot of our offensive play. It was great to see Jett Hasting lead our goal scorers on the day with another 3 goals.

We are very much looking forward to the opportunity to take on Glenelg at Stratarama Oval this Sunday on Mother’s Day. They have been the benchmark of the competition for the last 2 years and it will be a good test to see where we are at.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Sauce

Sam Jacobs – Eagles Senior Coach

Going into Round 5 being 4-0 is a great confidence boost to this group to show everything we are training is working. It was a bit of a different game as we were stand alone on a Friday night, so as a group we really wanted to create our own atmosphere and be up for the challenge.

As every week we wanted to start fast and defend hard. We felt we were able to do this from the get go, however we weren’t getting the reward for effort with the amount of Inside 50’s we were getting. We reset at half time, but unfortunately didn’t start the way we wanted and Norwood kicked the first 3 tying the game up. The great thing about this group is that they were able to regroup and from the 10 minute mark of the third quarter, going on to kick 10.6 to Norwood 2 points.  This says a lot about the maturity of this young group and how they have the confidence of trusting the process, that if they keep persisting the tide will turn.

Adam D’Aloia had a fantastic game and stood up all night leading the group, as did Blake Hansen. Tate Delmenico is starting to show how talented of a defender he is and this goes for Jake Andrews as well. The youth that we have in this group is really exciting and I feel it is very bright for the future for the club.

We have a huge challenge this week against Glenelg on Sunday at Stratarama Stadium, which will show where we are at as a group coming up against an extremely solid line up. As I said it will be a big challenge, but something we are looking forward to taking head on.

Go Eagles!!!

Shane Hancock – Eagles Development Coach