Round 4 Summary v Central

Round 4

Best: Port – G. Phillips, N. Magor, B. Luteria, T. Underwood, B. Mudge. Central – C. Johnston, M. Woolford, S. Watts, M. Griffiths, C. McKnight. Goals: Port – G. Phillips 7, M. Burford 5, H. Whiting 3, T. Hall , T. Byerlee. Central – R. Morris 3, S. Carter 3, G. Hull 2, C. Johnston, M. Harvey For the first week in a few we kicked into the breeze first up in last year’s Grand Final. We welcomed back Jacob Neary and our skipper Ben with Jarrad Adams stiff to miss out and Jimmy Reddaway unavailable with the birth of his heir young Archie- congrats Jimmy!Centrals were heavily depleted with injury but came at our boys after we snuck two goals around the 10 minute mark. They still had plenty of bigger bodies but our tackle count reached 20 in the first with 3 to Fethers alone. At the midway point of the second it was 3 goals apiece when Henry cut free for 3 for the quarter and we went in 4 goals up. Frustratingly we were down 14 to 6 in the frees and we must look at why this is as it is becoming a trend.The game opened up in the second half and I thought our rotations allowed us to be fresher at the contest. Nelson again was good in ruck and both Tommy back at half forward and Brodie Mudge as a defender alongside Ben Luteria seemed to work well. Greg kicked 6 second half goals for 7 for the game in a classy performance and his form continues and Michael Burford looked dangerous with strong contested marks at the goal front.We still didn’t win enough clearances only winning 31/30 despite winning the rucks. Tim led the 1%ers again and his form this year has been 1^st class.First time in a few years all three grades came home with the chocolates from Augusta in a few years and we look as a group to repeat it this week. This week v West Augusta We sit at 2 and 2 and need to get ahead of the ledger.West are a very smooth moving unit when they are up and also sit at 2 and 2 having won their last 2 games and starting to move back under Rays coachingThis is a team you must break and the importance of this game is massive- we will turn after playing them all either a game ahead or a game behind them- we must be ahead!!!! Big Game!

Matt Ganley