Prelim Final - 2/10/2011 Eagles v Norwood AAMI Stadium 3:10pm

ok guys post away should be a cracker of a game

I like our chances this week. We should be able to soar all over the wounded 'Legs, if we're on our game.

EaglesWings wrote:I like our chances this week. We should be able to soar all over the wounded 'Legs, if we're on our game.

True but it will not be an easy game .eagles need to attack like they did last week very early on !!

And not let up until it is impossible for a comeback. There would be no doubt that the lesson of last years corresponding match would be still in the mind.

Our 9th Prelim Final in 12 years i believe, (Spelly??) Wonder if there is any chance that there would be some sort of record? (Spelly?? lol)

A big opportunity has presented itself here Eagles.
Take it

10 out of 13 Preliminary Finals, Columbo - missing 2002, 2008 and 2009 since 1999. As far as I can see, only 8 times is the next best (out of 13 seasons).

Reddeer wrote:A big opportunity has presented itself here Eagles.
Take it

here here

FF Toumpas Grocke Rimington
HF Goldsworthy Staple Treeby
C Allmond Lewis Jarrad
HB Thompson Day McKenzie
FB Raymond Grieger Giuffreda
Ruck Parry Cicolella Powell
Interchange Lane Redden Tiller Rowntree Hall

Rowntree fit for final


READY TO GO: Eagles on-baller Angus Rowntree has been declared fit for the Eagles' preliminary final so may force his way into their line-up. Picture: Tait Schmaal.
WOODVILLE-West Torrens on-baller Angus Rowntree has been declared fully fit and is available for Sunday's preliminary final, should the Eagles choose to use him.

Rowntree, one of the Eagles' more consistent performers this season, missed last weekend's first semi-final with illness.

Despite being declared fit he is no certainty to win his place back in the side.

"He's ready, it's just whether we want to go with him," Eagles coach Michael Godden said.

"We'll get through training tomorrow and then see how the side will line up. We still haven't finalised it yet."

The Eagles will do a short late afternoon session tomorrow before Godden and his coaching panel select Sunday's final 21.

Godden said his side was happy to be back in the preliminary final and believed it had learnt a lot from its qualifying final flogging at the hands of Sunday's opponent, Norwood.



"Sides that have the best pressure at this time of year win games," Godden said.

"The two times we've played Norwood during the minor round we attacked them and we were first to the footy and we won the games.

"We didn't do that in (the qualifying final).

"There's no real magic formula to winning games of football. We've just got to be a lot better than we were last time."

No Parry, no Eagles at least against good sides Norwood and Centrals - Parry, was well beaten in the last encounter, rendering our onballers inrffective out of centre and allowing Shenton to be set up easily.

An upside was that Parry wae good again against South and McKenzie has room for improvement - both of those firing with the usual Powell, Cicollela, Jarrad and the rest of the team will be carried along. Thought Almond's game last week was excellent and went unnoticed by the media- hope he can slip under the radar again.

Been fortunate injury -wise for this time of the season - from our list in April, we have only lost Hentschell, Aaron Kite and Ryan Fitzgerald who would have pressed for selection. However, we probably expected that AFL players Salter, Jarrad Irons and Paul Stewart would have been available.

(Off the subject at hand, could we see the Crows swap Tippett for Brisbane's Polec plus a second round pick, Armstrong for Sydney's Sumner ? - could be a little more pace around the club next year if Sumner, Jarrad Irons and APY player Frank is available)

But back to the present. Knock off Norwood by 15 points this week and then a boil-over when we knock over Centrals by 11 point!!!

What a cracking day for a game of footy.....Go Eags!

Nice job, Eags. Knew you could do it. A bit on the inaccurate side (will have to fix that up if we're to win again next week); but we never really looked like losing that one.

I had the U Dogs chant in my head this week, because I did think we would win. However, I'm amazed it was that easy.

I think last week seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Norwood players. To me, it seemed odd that Gallagher would choose to kick into the slight breeze. I think that probably set the tone there and then, because at first, Norwood never looked like goalling, then even never looked like scoring up until in the last. It all looked like the Redleg players were just hanging on all throughout the match.

Was it an ideal hitout? I guess so. My main concern here is some players would have taken that as the Grand Final. Because even that effort replicated next week won't be enough. Can next weeks match be won? Only with a totally focused, positive, switched on, work the guts out performance for the entire match.

As far as the 3.5 (23) score goes:

It is the lowest score in a preliminary final, Norwood had that record in the first place - was 4.7 (31) in the 1981 Preliminary.
It is the equal third lowest finals score since the McIntyre Finals series began back in 1931. And the lowest score in a finals match since the 1989 GF. Also, Norwood kicked 2.5 in the 2nd Semi of 1988 and West kicked 3.5 in the 2nd Semi of 1957 - both against Port.

Including finals before 1931, it is the equal 21st lowest, and Norwoods' 5th lowest finals score.
As far as conceding the score goes, it is the lowest score conceded by us. Previous was 4.6 (30) vs Port in the 1993 2nd Semi.
And, the lowest PF final score conceded was 5.12 (42) against Port in 2005.

Disappointing to learn from Mick Godden that Greiger twigged a hamstring at the last training session on Saturday- unsure how serious at this stage.

If Rowntree narrowly missed out this week due to doubts on fatigue with his pneumonia, should be right to go next week to replace either Lane or Hall. His toughness at the footy and ability to find the ball offsets his lack of pace and he wouldn't be any slower than Lane and Hall.

I have no hesitation in saying we can play better than yesterday. There were some moments of mucking around with the ball and missed targets that could have been avoided with better decision making. However, to suggest this by Bassett:

3. Norwood (2). Redlegs coach Nathan Bassett was asked if he had a tip for this week's Grand Final yesterday. ``Yeah but it's predictable,'' was his response. ``I wish the Eagles all the luck next week but I didn't think they were that great. I just thought we were worse,'' he added.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/monday-morning-centreman-pf/story-e6freckc-1226156437607

is laughable, when you consider that Norwood went on the defensive almost immediately after we sent the ball into attack first. How many times did we see no players in Norwoods half of the ground? In the article, Jai also goes on to say that Bassett did not try to even throw darts at the whiteboard to make a comeback. To which I think that is exactly the same sort of thing that Andy Collins does: going on the defensive and is ultra conservative. Except Bassett probably has greater material to work with - hence the Redlegs making the top three and West missing out.

The margin should have been greater than that. The other area that needs to be worked on is kicking for goal. It is glaringly obvious you need to take every chance you are given against Central District. It should have been 13.9 to 3.5, and even 14.9 to 3.5. There lies another problem. Discipline. Even though the disallowed goal was caused by a soft free, it's still a free kick and still six points annulled.

I'd prefer if energy is spent not throwing weight around when it has nothing to do with getting the ball. However if it must be done, here's the two things you must not do - make contact with the head (or neck and shoulders to be safe) and make the player fall to the ground. That's where frees are given away.