Good start, off to a hard fought win!
Port 2.2 3.3 4.6 7.7 (49)
Sollies – 0.1 2.4 5.8 (38)
Best — Port: C Carey, J Neary, T Underwood, A Casey, A Waters. Solomontown – S Swayne, J Davies, L Promnitz, L Bearman, M Turner. Goals — Port: C Brooke, G Phillips 2, A. Casey, J Watson, T Byerlee. Solomontown – Z Siemer, R Talbot, R Hayes, A Johnson.
In general the game was a very scrappy affair with plenty of numbers around the ball and very low scoring. We know its their style to do that and still should have been able to counter this better. Sollies did compete strongly and their younger players should excellent resolve.
Positives that came from the game
• Endeavour and intent was generally good and we stuck at the task well.
• We were on top is all the stats with 38/18 overall clearances at stoppages and inside 50’s in our favour 60 to 36.
• Clearly we WON and based on that’s a good thing and a great way to start.
• Pretty much good signs from all players IN PATCHES. Very few 4 quarter efforts but clearly the talent/ability is there for us this year.
• We were able to finally get most of the group together and start to gel. It all takes time
• Defence and numbers back were excellent
Points we need to improve on
• Our skill level let us down all day with too many fumbled balls, poor kick around corner passing and dropped marks. This placed more pressure on ourselves than necessary.
• 7 goals from 60 inside 50’s is too low- Even against the stronger Tanunda we got 7 goals from 25 inside 50’s (28%), this week is was 7 from 60 at under 12%!
• Out tackle count needs to be higher and we all should aim for at least one 1%er a quarter
• Tactically we didn’t use the space enough and continued to bang the ball straight up the line and played into their hands. We need to be more aware of short switch/square options and then run the ball more through the midfield. Take the game on a bit more. We were taller and faster and should have made more of it.
Looking forward
Our first trip to Port Augusta on Saturday to play West. This game will be a much faster free running game. We will need to tailor our tactics to defeat a well drilled fast side so I look forward to a good week on the track ironing out a few kinks in our game.