A good win to round out the minor round
Port 6 7 / 8 9 / 11 12 / 11-14- 80
West Augusta 1 2 / 6 4 / 6 6 / 9-10- 64
Port
… Goal Kickers: G. Phillips 3, M. Gale 2, M. Burford 2, A. Casey 2, A. Waters , C. Carey
Best Players: K. Johanson, A. Casey, G. Phillips, B. Luteria, A. Waters
West Augusta
Goal Kickers: T. Starkey-Treloar 3, N. Collins 2, H. Warren 2, R. Stapleton , C. Singleton
Best Players: R. Hobbs, D. Kelly, T. Harrison, R. Stapleton, N. Collins
Summary
The last minor round game was a hard fought victory over quality opposition. West had beaten us twice over the year and this was our chance to square the ledger.
We started well with good numbers getting into defence but we burnt the ball in front of goal and at one stage was 1-6. From the 20 min mark though to the 29min mark we straightened up with 5 goals to go in 35 points up. As is the Hawks way they came back strongly with open flowing footy to kick 3 goals in the first 10 min. From there we steadied with good pressure and finished with 2 more goals each for the quarter. We kicked three in the third and they kicked 3 in the last to hold sway for the game.
Our desire and intensity at the ball were good for the majority of the day especially the extra shepherds 19 in Q1 allowed players the extra time to move and set up play. Our Achilles heel for the day was our ball handling. So many simple dropped balls and fumbles off the ground were very noticeable and placed huge unnecessary pressure on ourselves. Too often we didn’t keep our eyes fixed on the ball, its a concentration issue more than a lack of skill, we must get it before we can move it on! We did over finesse from time to time and looked much better when we went long and strong and when we ran at their lines and took them on.
The defence again was very good with some excellent scrambling boundary line work.
Five players had double figure 1%ers led by Tom with 13 in a very good running game.
Positives from the game
• Super jump out of the gates gave us a good Q1 lead that lasted the game.
• Defence was very good, super game from most with special mention to Johanson & Hancock for his first senior game for the year
• Steadied when they came at us unlike last time
• We were able to divorce the distraction of next week to focus solely on the game at hand
• Great even spread of good players
Points we need to work on
• Fumbles, fumbles, fumbles!!! We made it much harder than it needed to be with hand skills and some simple short footpass errors. Would have broken the game open if tidied up.
• Dropped our workrate somewhat to let them back in even though we knew they would come.
• Missed some very gettable goals 11-14 would look much better at 15-10. West pressure was good but many of those were set shots.
• A couple of 50m penalties- Zero is our acceptable level.
• Talk was better but always looking to improve this.
Well thats the minor round done and the job done for us getting us into the top two successful.
There are no easy games coming so lets look forward and be ready for what is to come.
Make it count, enjoy it!