Coaches comments 2012

Round 1 – Eagles vs Port Adelaide Magpies

Michael Godden – League Coach Report

When we all sit through a game like that we look to point the finger at lots of different things but the fact is on the night we got beaten by a more ferocious and committed football side and that’s it. We can make all the excuses but realistically we can’t do anything now the siren has blown all we can do is act upon our short comings.

Whenever you enter a new season you never really know what to expect and tonight taught us many things we need to improve on and do it quickly. I said to the lads after the game that watching the game it looked like they didn’t know what to do when they got the ball, which is obviously not right; it’s just what it looked like. I honestly believe they were just rattled by the intensity early and didn’t recover quickly enough. The other area that was evident was our discipline, wow I have never seen us like that before, we gave away 30 frees in which they scored 8 goals 4 from including 6 x 25m penalties and from them they scored a goal directly from 1 of them, so that is 58 points by bad discipline; simply unacceptable and this is an area both the players and I must take full responsibility for; me for educating them on where to channel their anger and for them to quite simply control themselves.

Football is a great leveller isn’t it? Whenever you think you might have it sussed out it turns around and smacks you right between the eyes, but I guess that’s why we all love the game so much because it’s always testing our resolve and willingness to get better. We have some very dejected players and staff tonight but we all know this is a marathon not a sprint, the goal as always is to make top three to have a real crack so that means we require12-13 wins, so now we just have to get them with 1 less game. That’s the simple maths but to achieve such goals we need to improve significantly to make sure we are firstly competitive, then to start moving the ball with more confidence and finally converting hard work into scores.

As I often say we have a great group of players and staff and I am confident if we put our heads down and learn from this we will come out the other side better in lots of different areas.

Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report

What a great way to start the year for the Reserves. I can honestly say that I was very proud with the way all the players attacked the game with intensity in both forms of defence and attack. The overall team orientated mindset was where it needs to be every game with lots of blocks, support and voice.

We hit the first quarter with real purpose and caught Port out early with our fierce endeavour at the ball and body. We failed to reward ourselves on the scoreboard with some poor kicking for goal. Port plays a fast brand of footy with erratic movement to play on at all costs. Our defenders were caught zoning in the first half too much assuming their player would not get used which resulted in some easy goals for them. Jake Fairclough set the scene early with some hard contested footy, with Joyce and Killian providing some drive.

The second quarter was probably the lull in the game with our ball movement and structure was not where it was in the first. In words I have expressed to the players “getting too cute” and not doing the basics. Our intensity was still at a high but we overused the footy and tried to switch play way to much instead of attacking the corridor and goal square. The Reserves went into half time 1 goal down.

The boys came out after the main break with a strong mindset, the feeling in the rooms was real positive with the players realising where we were letting ourselves down. Our defenders didn’t give their player an inch and we started playing instinctive and direct footy attacking the goal front at every chance. Our pressure on the Port Players was fierce and caused them to turn it over and provide us many opportunities. Unfortunately some inaccurate goal kicking 4 goals 6 points did not put the game to bed but set up a last quarter which would test the lad’s strength to finish together. First gamer Archie Longbottom was calm under pressure and decision making set some real attacking play up for us.

The last quarter was a real tussle with the rain coming down and port having a slight wind advantage. To the Eagles Reserves credit we stuck strong and held our nerve and mindset to lock the game down and create chances when needed but also cause repeat stoppages when port were surging. Players Jake Fairclough, Nick Joyce, Aaron Killian all played solid games with Archie Longbottom, Nathan Batley and Zac Fitzgerald all playing well. Eagle’s Reserves hit the ground running in Season 2012 with a 3 goal victory over a team that in previous year been around the mark.

Shane Grimm – Under 18’s Coach Report

At last we get to kick the footy in anger for the first time for the year and I was interested to see how the players were going to perform under actual match day conditions and against a perennially strong Under 18 side like Port Adelaide.

The game started with the expected high intensity with both teams sizing each other up. Port managed to get the first goal on the board and looked good early. Tim Sumner in his first game for the Club got our scoring underway with a long goal from outside 50m that really lifted the side and we managed to stay on top of Port for the remainder of the first quarter to lead by 6 points at the first break. Better performers in the first quarter where Nick Clift in defence with 6 possessions, midfielders Caleb Lloyd, Luke Dunstan and Malcolm Karpany with 5 touches each and James Batty playing as a small forward had 5 possessions and kicked 2 goals.

We were kicking with the aid of a breeze in the 2nd term and we continued our dominance in the game to increase our lead to 27 points at half time, by kicking 4 goals to 1 for the term. Some better performers for the term where Luke Dunstan with another 9 possessions, Ruckman Cam Giles picked up 8 touches along with 6 Hit Outs and a Goal on the Half time siren.

At Half time we talked about remaining disciplined and we didn’t want to drop our intensity, but we did have a few areas we needed to improve, like our protection of the ball carrier and our Clearance work. We also emphasised the fact that Port would come out hard early in the 3rd quarter and that we needed to weather the storm and keep our head over the ball.

As expected Port came out hard early and kicked the first goal of the second half and they all showed a lot of energy and I was very interested to see how our players handled the situation. I was pleased to find that the team as a whole responded well and regained the ascendancy from Port to outscore the Magpies by 5 goals to 2 goals to stretch our lead out to 47 points at 3 quarter time. First gamer Lachy Everett from Cairns was very good in the 3rd term and gathered 9 possessions, Malcolm Karpany worked hard for his 8 touches in the 3rd quarter and Tim Sumner had a big quarter and gathered 10 possessions. Will Northeast had his best period of the day showing some very damaging signs while picking up 11 possessions as a small forward.

Both teams were running on the spot a little toward the end of game due to the high intensity the game had been played at for the entire game. It was the only quarter for the game that the Magpies outscored us which was a little disappointing. We did manage to stretch the lead to 60 points late in the game, before Port kicked the last 3 goals of the match. Better performing players in the final term where mainly from our defence with Tom Daly collecting 8 possessions, Nick Clift picked up 7 touches and Nick Grimm and Sam Rowland both collected 5 possessions, in what was a very solid performance by the entire back half.

Darren Hams – Under 16’s Coach Report

After an encouraging Trial Game period against Port, West and South in which all of our Squad members played we were looking forward to our first hit out for points against Port Adelaide at Alberton

We began well by kicking the first 2 goals and our Key forwards such as Jack Hayes and Luke Michalanney were taking advantage of the delivery into our forward line, but to Ports credit they came back at us and by quarter time we only lead by a solitary point. During the quarter time break we addressed the lads and made specific instruction to our midfielders working back into Port Adelaide’s forward area.

Our second quarter was unfortunately our worst for the game. Port Adelaide’s tall forwards started to take grabs and they ended up kicking the first four goals of the quarter. Matteo Impagnetiello was moved to full back and to our lads credit and Matteo’s we kicked the next two goals for the quarter and put some respectability into the score line and only trailed by 10 points at the main break.

Kicking with a slight breeze in the 3rd quarter we knew we had a good chance to come back and make a good contest. The 3rd quarter was a struggle where only 2 goals were kicked but it was us who kicked them. Therefore at 3 quarter time the games was tied away at 7goals 7points a piece.

Whilst Port had a slight breeze to come home with spirits were high that we knew if we could keep on working both ways that we had a good chance to get over the line. But unfortunately it wasn’t to be Port jumped us early and by the 12 minute mark of the last quarter Port opened up a 3 goal lead. The last half of the last quarter proved to be a much better effort, albeit a little to late.

To sum up the day we had some good patches and obviously some moments in which we were not so good. We were inconsistent and I believe that it was more of a concentration factor as opposed to the ability of the lads. The U16s program is generally the first year the lads are exposed to this level of footy therefore realising that they need to concentrate and work hard both ways for the whole game is a must at this level of football.

Our better players for the day included Matteo Impagnetiello who started the game at Centre Half Back and then went to Full Back during the second quarter, Jack Hayes who played mostly at Full Forward kicking 3 goals and also had a stint in the Ruck. On ballers Jack Gaffney and Lachlan Hall worked hard all day and Eddy Dunstan off the half back line along with Matteo repelled many of Port’s attack.

Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report



Well, what can I say that is going to make anyone happy after a result like that? One thing I can say is the whole football department is hurting more than you could imagine, but most importantly the resolve within the playing group is strong and they really want to improve and no one is hiding from the facts and they are all facing this head on.



One thing I must say and I know as Eagles people we don’t want to think it but I often quote you are only as good as your opponent allows you to be and Norwood were outstanding today, their ability to suck the life out of us was very good and everything they touched was class so today I believe we watched the benchmark of the competition, so only time will tell if we can improve to that level.



Our inability to hold the ball in our forward half is becoming a major issue. Both the Norwood and Port game they have had the ball in their forward half for a huge time in comparison to us which is highly unusual to what we are used to. Our ability to stop teams scoring freely must be a big focus considering 2010 average score against was 79 points, 2011 was 68 points and so far this year it is 125 points. It is obvious what I have in place at the moment needs some adjustment so I will be addressing these areas but not only as a team we are struggling as individuals we haven’t seemed to improve yet. The simple message is we need to focus on small steps and build some confidence back in the group so we don’t allow this season to get away from us.



This week the Club celebrates Justin Cicolella’s 250th game for the Eagles and our first home game for the year at Woodville, so even though pride in performance should always be enough the added incentive to make the day a good one for a Club legend should be.



Eagles 5.5 (35) defeated by Norwood 19.14 (128)



Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report



I will start off this report with an apology from myself and the 21 reserve players on Saturday, It was embarrassing and honestly one of the worst games of football I have been involved in. I take full responsibility for the efforts or lack their off from the team and the way we went about it. I know it’s a cliché but unfortunately its true “you play the way you train” the Good Friday training session for my group was nothing more than lazy and lack lustre. This has always been the trend in my years of playing SANFL football with the younger group, in that training on a public holiday always has this mindset. The alarm bells rang for me straight away on Friday Night but I gave my boys the benefit of the doubt and still backed them in that Saturday was a new day and their drive and want would be at the level it needs to be to play SANFL Reserves Football.



Clearly the mindset of the 21 players had not changed from where it was at the night prior and we were out muscled, played and worked from the Norwood team right from the first bounce. The most disheartening thing for me personally is that the 21 players simply did not follow simple instructions that were given to them before the game and throughout the game breaks. This is a simple disregard and lack of respect for the coach in that the message was clearly not getting through; I take this personally and will have to rethink the way I get the message across to get the players not only playing for the jumper but playing for me. For some unknown reason the 21 players had this front of arrogance and looked like they were better than the man next to them, and I am not talking about the man next to them in the Norwood players but the man next to them in the Eagles Colours.



The only positive to take out of Saturday is that it is purely a mindset that was the issue, the rare occasion where we did have some grunt and work ethic to execute the play we managed to look dangerous but the link of the play was let down by a below par effort from another player. This is all it takes is one effort, or one skill error, or one missed tackle, one player not sticking to the structure for the link to be broken.



This is a huge wake up call for the players and we need to realise as a collective group that footy is not an easy game, and is played on pure work rate and who wants its more. As a young group in the Reserves the quicker they realise this, the better players they will become and a better club the Eagles will be.



Eagles 3.6 (24) defeated by Norwood 21.12 (138)



Shane Grimm – Under 18’s Coach Report



It is never ideal to have a Bye in Round 2, especially after a good win in Round 1 it puts a halt on some momentum that you have picked up over the Pre-season. Having said that I was looking forward to the trip to Coopers Stadium to test ourselves against a team that is always very competitive and plays a different style of Football to most of the opposition we face.



We started the game well and controlled the game for the majority of the first term but we were unable to make it count on the scoreboard. We went in down by 10 points at the first break but looking like we were well in the game. Players who performed well in the first quarter were Luke Dunstan who picked up 13 possessions, James Batty who kicked 2 of our 3 goals and Karl Muller was on top in the Ruck.



The second quarter started much the same way as the first with us having control of the footy for the first 5 minutes of the term, but then some errors crept into our game and Norwood were able to capitalise on them and banged on 7 unanswered goals to go in to half time with a 52 point lead. Better performing players in the second term were again Luke Dunstan who picked up another 10 possessions and Lathanuel Rigney who was playing in his first game for the club was playing with the aggression and determination that we had spoken about before the game.



The third quarter was a better effort by all Eagles players and we outscored Norwood 5 goals 5 behinds to Norwood’s 3 goals 1 behind. We managed to keep control of the ball for longer periods and we also made better decisions going forward. At three quarter time we had managed to get the deficit back to 36 points and we were hoping for a strong performance in the last quarter to get us back in to the game. Luke Dunstan continued his strong performance with another 12 possessions in the term and Caleb Lloyd and Nick Clift were also showing a lot of desire and accountability which was starting to spread to others in the team.



The final term started well and we managed to get to within 23 points of Norwood but unfortunately some errors again crept in to our play and M=Norwood mad us pay for being too far behind at Half time to have any real shot at over running them and pulling off a good win.



As disappointed as we were with the result the pleasing thing to come out of the game was the player’s ability to follow instructions after half time when we decided to change things up. Our defensive pressure all over the ground was pretty good for most of the day and we also had some good passages of play that we will continue to attempt to keep in our game.

Eagles 9.11 (65) were defeated by Norwood 16.11 (107)



Darren Hams – Under 16’s Coach Report



Having the bye in Round 2 gave us extra time to identify some specific areas in which we could improve upon. We sat at length with the players and viewed vision of our Port Adelaide game high lighting some areas in which we could improve on. Going into our second game against Norwood 5 player changes were made to give other squad members the opportunity to show us their talents at this level.



Our turnovers by hand under pressure against Port really hurt us therefore it was an area in which we had to improve on if we wanted to perform well against Norwood. We began well under lights at the Parade, kicking the first goal within the first two minutes of the quarter however Norwood settled and kicked the remaining 2 majors in what was a tight opening quarter in which we trailed by 7 points at the break. Daniel Minney and Jack Gaffney continued on with their good work around stoppages in the 2nd quarter however we were making some poor decisions by hand and the ball wasn’t moving as quickly as we would have liked to give our forwards the opportunity to compete one on one in a marking contest.



During the half time break we again discussed how Norwood get numbers behind the ball and if we could move the ball quickly by foot then we could catch them out of position. Whilst behind by 8 points at the major break we were quite confident that we could turn the game around and play it under our terms.



It was during the third quarter that we were able to break the game open with greater productivity by foot, with Luke Michalanney controlling half forward along with Rowen Nicholas and Tom Caire turning defence into attack by rebounding the ball and placing it deep into our forward line so our low forwards were able to compete one on one, our third quarter proved to be our most productive by kicking 3 goals to Norwood’s one for the quarter . At the 3 quarter time break we were 5 points in front and confident that we could keep up the momentum with winning the ball around stoppages and moving it quickly by foot to our key forwards to capitalise on.



Our last quarter proved also to be just as productive as our third with the continued ball winning of our on ballers, whilst Kosta Economou finished off the good work by kicking 2 goals for the term. In a hard fought game that had 91 stoppages it was encouraging to see our lads battle it out and gain some confidence from the 16 point win. We look forward to our mid week game against Sturt on Wednesday and back it up on Saturday with a game against Glenelg at Gliderol Stadium.



Eagles 9.8 (52) defeated Norwood 6.10 (46)

Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report

During the last few weeks the playing group have been focusing on constant improvement, basically small steps to get us back to the form we all want.

The areas I identified last week with the group improved dramatically on Saturday without the ultimate result. What we all need to understand is if we keep improving at that rate and continue to train the way we have been things will turn and they will turn quickly. The worst thing you can do is put your head in the sand and wave the white flag, this game is a 50/50 contest every week and at times things aren’t going to go your way and the opposition might just be better than you on the day, so the way you respond to adversity will ultimately be the making or breaking of an individual.

The unfortunate injuries to Powell, Giuffreda and Heinjus on the weekend on top of Parry and Eddy’s infections and Grocke’s suspension certainly haven’t helped but they are things out of our control, Aussie Rules is a physical sport so we need to expect these issues to arise at times. What we can do as a Club is rally around the lads that have been given the opportunity to play for the Eagles and make sure they continue to develop so when the more senior players become available they make selection a headache for me and ultimately helping the Club be in a stronger position.

I understand people’s frustration at the moment with the teams results and the fact that some players are down and not progressing as fast as we would all like, but believe me the playing and coaching group are the ones that feel it the most and are doing everything in their power to right the wrongs and get back on track.

At 0-3 it goes without saying the importance of Saturday’s game so what we can do is put a team out there who is going to want to fight to the very end and leave nothing to chance. “Control the controllables”, this week they are our preparation and our mindset and if we have them in place the rest will take care of itself.

Eagles 8.10 (58) were defeated by Glenelg 13.12 (90)

Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report

Another disappointing day on Saturday, after such a good build up with training and the vibe during the week it was not the result we were all hoping for. I can say that even though we lost by more than the week prior, I could see that there was an effort by most players which was pleasing to see. Our warm up before the game was the best that I have seen in a Reserves group for many years which is something that we need to maintain every game. This rolled into the first quarter which can easily back up the thought process of you came to play with a solid mindset. We had most of the play in the first quarter and showed some really promising signs that when our intensity is high we can match it with our opposition. Still our skill errors were costly and more to the fact the basic skills is a concentration lapse. But we still manage to keep an even game with work rate and energy.

The second quarter we dropped our intensity and work rate by 10% and unfortunately we hurt us on the scoreboard with Glenelg kicking away by 5 goals. We still had just as much possession in this quarter but again our skills and some decision making the main factor. At half time the boy’s body language seemed like we were beat already only being 5 goals down and kicking with the wind in the third and your body language certainly did result in what it showed with the last half was pretty poor to say the least. Our tackling pressure and ability to shut the game down when the opposition has a run on needs to get better really quickly so that results do not blow out as they have.

Some promising signs are that first gamer James Batty showed that he has some qualities of future player, and Jake Summerton has been improving week to week with some really strong contested marks. Angus Poole keeps giving his all and has really been developing his leadership skills on the field which is a really good sign, especially when the results are not great this is a quality that all of the reserves players have to start doing.

The players and I are all hurting from the past few weeks and we know that the road is going to be tough, we are all in this together and we hope that you the members, supporters & sponsors can stick with us too, as it’s not too far away.

Eagles 5.9 (39) defeated by Glenelg 25.12 (162)

Shane Grimm – Under 18's Coach Report

We travelled to Brighton Road to play Glenelg in Round 4 on what was to be a very warm day and against a team we had yet to beat since the inception of the Under 18 competition in 2009.

For the third game in a row we started the game off well and kicked the first 2 goals of the game, before things settled down to become a tight struggle for the majority of the game. At quarter time we lead by 6 points and were looking the better of the two teams. Players who impressed in the first term were Sam Rowland from Balaklava, who was very strong over the ball and clean with his possessions. Dane Pfitzner and Tasman Fitzgerald were also prominent early and were controlling the air at half forward and providing us with good targets going forward.

The second term was also a tight struggle with both sides having their moments of dominance. We got the score on the board early in the second term but couldn’t increase the lead and instead Glenelg came back at us late in the quarter to edge us at half time to go into the main break with a 2 point lead. Sam Rowland continued his form from the first quarter and Nick Grimm was providing a lot of run from defense as well as a strong contest in the air.

Just before half time be suffered a setback with one of our more consistent players in 2012, Nick Clift injuring his shoulder. He was assessed at half time by the CoE physio Chelsea Christie and he was deemed to have some damage to his AC joint rendering him inactive for the remainder of the game. This left us with only 2 players on the interchange, and with the conditions being as warm as they were it was always going to be a big ask for our players to run the game out well. We did manage to kick the first 3 goals of the third term to jump out to a 17 point lead late in the term, unfortunately Glenelg responded with 2 late controversial goals to peg the lead back to 3 points at the three quarter time break and go into the last term with some momentum. Tim Sumner responded well to a challenge given to him at half time and took the game and the opposition on and gathered 10 possessions in the term.

The final quarter did not start the way we had hoped and Glenelg quickly jumped out to a 4 goal lead which in the end was too much for our players to peg back, even though they battled hard until the final whistle and provided some excitement towards the end of the game, getting back to within 4 points before the final siren sounded.

I was very disappointed with the result because I thought we were the better team for the majority of the game but we could not put Glenelg to the sword when it really mattered, which kept the Bays in the game and ultimately they were able to overrun us at the end.

Some positives to come out of the game were the continued improvement of Dane Pfitzner as a tall marking forward, Tim Sumner is getting better each week and I am sure we will hear a lot more about him in the future. Nick Grimm showed some good signs deep in defense and Sam Rowland also showed that he could push for a run in the Reserves if his form continues. Jacob Dutschke also showed the he is more than capable of playing at the level.

Eagles 14.11 (95) were defeated by Glenelg 14.14 (98)

Michael Godden - Senior Coach Report



Unfortunately, this report is starting to feel like Groundhog Day.

Clearly everything we have tried to put in place over the last month hasn’t worked which puts us all in a position we have never been in before. Not only are we losing but the way we are playing is embarrassing with no spirit and no fight. We can all cop it if we make mistakes while having a fair dinkum dip but at the moment we look arrogant and we have absolutely nothing to be arrogant about.



We have no choice but to strip our group and department back to the bare bones and find out what is happening so we can start to perform at a level that is acceptable. Our aim must be to win 2 of our next 3 games to go to the bye at 2-5. If we can achieve this we will give ourselves a chance to get on a roll and salvage the season. Make no mistake as bad as we have been, the ultimate focus is still finals - but right now we have to get back to education, throw out the game plan book because we can’t implement the plan if we don’t have the ball and aren’t prepared to work hard for ourselves and our teammates. What we need is a 10-20% improvement in individuals so as a team we have a fighting chance of improvement.



I started as of the final siren on Saturday putting in place a 4 week plan to make sure we address all areas and leave no stone unturned. If we are all proactive and are prepared to fight our way through this our luck will change and things can be achieved. This is probably the worst position this great Club has been in and as the leader I am embarrassed about this. However, I do strongly believe in my ability to turn the group around and I believe in the group’s ability to turn it around.



I can assure you all that the responsibility of this job is not lost on me. As we did last year in success, we must stick together, all pull in the same direction and I have little doubt that we can achieve what we all want.



Eagles 5.12 (42) defeated by North Adelaide 19.7 (121)



Jarrad Wright - Reserves Coach Report



Yet another game has gone by with the same result as the previous weeks. We as a group spoke briefly after the game about the areas of concern and it is pretty much running through the entire Club not just the Reserves and that is arrogance and work rate. They are the 2 issues that are stopping our group from developing into solid footballers and a good football team. I have told my players to forget about all of the peripherals of getting drafted or playing League Footy as it will simply not happen if you do not WORK as hard as you have ever worked before. From experience and I can certainly say experience, is that League Football does not get given to you on a plate, there is basic fundamentals that have to be ticked. This is not Junior Football anymore it is SENIOR Football. The basic fundamentals that are letting us down are listed below.



· WORK RATE

· MENTAL TOUGHNESS

· PLAYING YOUR ROLE IN THE TEAM STRUCTURE



These are all boxes that require to be ticked as a starting point if you will ever succeed in not only football but all sports, business and all facets of life.

In regards to the game and how it played out, I have broken it down into quarters for my players to show where we are failing.



1. 1st quarter we were outworked (5 goal loss)

2. 2nd quarter there was selfish acts (4 goal loss)

3. 3rd quarter we had more consistency in the above areas (even quarter)

4. 4th quarter we again were out worked and not sticking to structures. (4 goal loss)



Forget about skill level for the time being, as the 3rd quarter was not pretty football but we had our basic fundamental covered more consistently and the result showed. We as a group really need to focus at the task at hand and that starts at step 1 not step 4.

Make sure you all get down to our home deck on Anzac Day for a big game of football and support the Club as in times like this we need to stick tight.



Eagles 5.5 (35) defeated by North Adelaide 17.7 (109)



Shane Grimm - Under 18's Coach Report



We finally got to play our first home game in Round 5 against North Adelaide and it was always going to be a tight game.



We again started the game well in wet conditions mainly due to Karl Muller’s excellent Ruckwork and the work around the ball by Malcolm Karpany (11 possessions) and Tim Sumner (9 possessions) and the clearance work of Tom Schwarz (7 possessions and 5 Clearances). Jarrod Harding was proving a handful up forward and had 2 goals on the board at quarter time. We did let North back into the game late in the term with a goal with 20 seconds to go in the term and it proved to be a turning point in the match. At quarter time we were leading North by 15 points.



The second quarter was all North Adelaide, they got on top in the midfield and continually pushed the ball forward. North players were running around unchecked and with little pressure applied which was causing our defence a lot of headaches. Nick Grimm and Lathanuel Rigney were working hard to compete with the wave of North attacks during this time, while continuing to provide drive from defence. At half time we went in with a deficit of 17 points, with some hard questions about to be asked.



At half time we made a few positional changes, moving Rigney into the midfield to add some grunt and pushed Jarrod Harding to Full Forward and Malcolm Karpany, who had been in great form in the first half played as a small forward. All the moves paid dividends with Rigney picking up 7 possessions and all of them were contested, Jarrod Harding added another 2 goals to get his tally to 4 for the game and Malcolm Karpany was again outstanding picking up another 5 possessions but more importantly 3 goals. The team as a whole lifted and responded well to the questions posed to them at half time and we managed to regain control of the game with a 7 goal to 1 goal quarter to go in to the final break with a 22 point lead.



The final quarter was an arm wrestle with both teams giving everything to get over the line and apart from the physical contests all over the ground there was not a lot of highlights to speak of, until of course when the final siren sounded and we had prevailed with a 14 point win.



The result was a reward for the effort all players have been putting in over the past 3 weeks. This week’s game was the last game for about 6 weeks where players who are attending Colleges are available to play for us so we will now get to see how good our depth is within the Under 18 group.



Eagles 14.12 (96) defeated North Adelaide 12.10 (82)



Darren Hams – Under 16’s Coach Report



Eagles vs West Adelaide – 18th April

Over the last week of the April School Holidays we have played West Adelaide under lights at City Mazda Stadium on the Wednesday and last Saturday we played North Adelaide who was undefeated at Unleash Solar Oval. Both games ended up in the result we were looking for but both games were contrast to one another.



Against West Adelaide we got off to a good start by kicking 5 goals in the first and 6 goals in the second to lead 11 goals to 4 at Half Time. Our midfield of Lachlan Hall, Tom Caire and Jack Elsworthy were on top with our forwards Sean Dixon and Like Michalanney capitalising on the on ballers good work. After half time we went into our shell a bit as well as giving opportunities to other players on top of Westies wanting to get back in the game both teams kicked four goals each. In addition to our on ballers performing well our defenders who have been solid for most of the games, Eddie Dunstan repelled many of Westies attack, whilst Luke Hoare who started in the Ruck performed serviceably at Centre Half Back, whilst Daniel Minney chipped in with 3 goals as a small forward along with Sean Dixon who played as a lead up forward kicked 3 also.



Eagles 15.8 (98) defeated West Adelaide 8.11 (59)



Eagles vs North Adelaide – 23rd April

The North Adelaide game was seen as another challenge for our group, the fact that North hadn’t lost a game in the competition thus far as well as the fact they had the bye on the Wednesday which gave them the 7 day break. Six changes were made from the West Adelaide game. Our first 10 minutes was good but North Adelaide after that were able to capitalise on our mistakes to open up a 16 point lead at quarter time. The second quarter was much the same we were able to get our hands on the footy in the midfield but really fell down when we got to half forward. At the main break we were 22 points and hanging in there, but hoping that our lads still had enough in the tank to come home with. The third quarter proved to be our most productive for the day kicking 4 goals 7, our on ballers Jack Gaffney, Daniel Minney and Jack Elsworthy continued to win the football around stoppages whilst Joe Heinjus created opportunities up forward to kick 2 for the quarter.



At three quarter time we came in confident and leading by 1 point. The last quarter was a battle and our backline did an excellent job in not only stopping their opponent but also remaining calm under pressure and turning defence into attack in which our spread and switch during the last quarter was the best so far this season. We were able to hang on and win by that solitary point which was a good character building result, our midfield in Gaffney, Minney, Elsworthy and Nicholas were good all day, whilst Jack Hayes who started at CHB went forward with Heinjus to both kick 2 goals, Ryan McCarthy who started on the bench also contributed well with his pace, run and carry and delivery into the forward line.



We look forward to Centrals this Saturday at Playford Alive Oval.



Eagles 9.18 (72) defeated North Adelaide 10.11 (71)

Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report

Coming into the Anzac Day clash 4 days after being smashed by North was always going to be tough mentally. Physically both sides had the same rest so that wasn’t going to be a problem the issue was if we could focus on the job at hand and move on quickly from the debacle at Prospect. In fact it was nice to not have to wait too long before we had another game and a chance to rectify some of our issues.



I was very happy with the lad’s attack and ball movement early, we knew we had to make a statement and I was very pleased with the start. Losing Ben Grieger at the start of the second which forced us to put Todd Culley in the Ruck made it even more difficult at the stoppages than it already was and unfortunately Centrals were able to capitalise on this and kick away early in the second. We certainly had our chances in that quarter but we missed 2 crucial goals in the first 3 minutes which would have definitely shaped the game differently. The 3rd quarter was just an arm wrestle with Centrals not being able to put us away and us not being able to bridge the gap. The last quarter saw a strong finish by the players but in the end we didn’t take our opportunities and fell short by 6 points.



The most disappointing thing from the day was our discipline, we gave away far too many frees and 25m penalties in which they were able to score easily from. The most positive thing was our effort, the boys could have waved the white flag half way through the 3rd but they stayed strong and showed when they work together we can still be very competitive.



Over the last few weeks we have struggled as individuals and this has been a big focus of mine. I need to make the players play better as individuals so we can have a chance as a team. There were some players that started to show improvement, and now with the long break leading into the South game we should see more improvement.



This week is a no brainer, just win!



Eagles 12.6 (78) were defeated by Central District 13.6 (84)

Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report

As much as we do not accept a loss but the effort from the Anzac Day match against Centrals was exceptionally better than previous weeks and definitely a standard set that we cannot lower from now on. This now provide a base to work from and as a coach can try and develop the young group, but we can only achieve this by keep the standard set from Wednesday game and the Work rate to back it up.



Our first quarter was an area that we needed to focus on, in getting a good start to create/give ourselves an opportunity right from the start. Our key indicator of Tackling and Hand Ball receives were up which means our intensity and work rate was high and the result showed with some hard efforts in holding the ball inside our forward 50m and kicking goals in directly from pressure. Nick Joyce and Angus Poole were providing some real drive from our midfield stoppages.



With work rate and pressure being the 2 main focus points of the game the second quarter was again was high, our tackling pressure did drop down a fraction but we were controlling possession of the football far more than the opposition. The area that let us down was our lack of penetration inside the forward 30m, we had some really good tall targets deep in our forward line with Charlie Rae, Jake Summerton and Jake Von Bertouch but we struggled to roll on and kick it deep to apply scoreboard pressure. All in all a good first half of Football and we went into the half time break 5 point leaders.



After what was our best half of football for the past 4 weeks, our work rate and effort in the 3rd was far from acceptable. Even though we still managed to score 4 goals our defensive pressure and tackling was below standards, we did focus on getting the ball deep to our talls and it clearly showed with Charlie Rae taking some good catches and providing a dangerous threat kick a few majors. Clearly our defensive pressure dropped with only 5 tackles for the quarter and Centrals replying 7 goals of their own into the wind setting up a difficult task for us in the last.



To our boys credit they got my message loud and clear at the break and dug deep in the last and really showed some fight. The game could have easily been blown away when Centrals kicked the opening goal of the quarter. Zac Fitzgerald was outstanding all game but stood tall in the last quarter on our defensive line to not only stop goals but set up some attacking play also. We stuck to the process and applied pressure and intensity around stoppages and fought back to only have to time clock beat us with a 2 point loss. Heartbreaking to say the least, I could say we were the better team on the day but Centrals got the 2 points. It is pretty clear to the group that the effort is now the minimal requirement to be competitive and even with a 15 min lapse you can still lose a game of footy.



Eagles 12.5 (77) were defeated by Central District 12.7 (79)

Shane Grimm – Under 18’s Coach Report

After having a good win at home against North in Round 5 we were now making the trek to Elizabeth to play Central District who have been gradually improving and should be a more than capable opponent.



There were not a lot of highlights in the first quarter with each team only scoring 1 goal each, with our goal coming from a goal mouth scramble and some coolness under pressure by Will Northeast. Some of our better performing players in the first term were Caleb Lloyd who was providing some great rebounding drive from defence as well as midfielders Matt Appleton, Matt McDonough and Jack Muirhead.



In the second quarter the game opened up a bit more and we played a very good attacking brand a football with contributions from players all over the ground. Players like Tom Schwarz and Jack Muirhead were providing the team with great leadership around the ball and Dane Pfitzner was starting to take control in the air and was pulling down some very strong contested marks, whilst also getting on top in the Ruck. Unfortunately a lapse in concentration with about 30 seconds remaining in the half saw Centrals kick a late goal and undo some very good work in the previous 27 minutes.



The third quarter was another tight struggle with both sides playing some good patches of footy as well as having some lapses of concentration at times. At three quarter time we were heading for a close finish and the team who was more prepared to work the hardest for the longest was the team that was going to come away with the win.



We put it on our defence to try and keep Centrals goal less in the final term which would mean that we would win the game. This was in fact the case and only one goal in the final term was enough for us to come away with a win. It was not a classic game of Football and there were times of the game where I was extremely frustrated with some of our efforts and our decisions it is good to come away with a win after a visit to Elizabeth.

Eagles 10.15 (75) defeated Central District 9.9 (63)



Darren Hams – Under 16’s Coach Report

With 2 games to go we were still a chance to play off in the Final for the U16 Competition. Therefore the lads had a bit to play for. We knew Centrals would be a challenge as they have improved as the season progressed. Also with the College system up and running players were required to go back and play for their School, this really tested our depth but the upside is that this creates opportunity for players to stand up and perform at this level.

Unfortunately we didn’t get the start we were hoping for, whilst our endeavour was ok around the stoppages, Centrals caught a few of our guys unaware in relation to ball watching and not being accountable for their opponent, and opened up a 7 goal lead at quarter time.

From this point on it was going to be difficult to get back in the game, we had to keep our endeavour up, be more responsible for our opposition and take the game on a little more. We did that during the second quarter, with Curtis Blythe winning some ball around stoppages and provided Luke Michalanney up forward with more opportunities and out scored Centrals 2 goals to 1, therefore taking some confidence into the half time break.

Centrals were kicking with the breeze in the third quarter and out scored us 4 goals to 1, with Lachlan Smith performing well in the back half, a more acceptable effort given that Centrals were kicking with the breeze. The last quarter was all about taking some risks and taking the game on. We out scored Centrals for the term but were not effective as what we would have liked with Joe Heinjus and Isaiah Blumson finishing off some of our good work.

With one game to go against South Adelaide we look forward to winning our fifth game, which will be quite a reasonable result given that we give all squad members to perform at this level.

Eagles 6.6 (42) were defeated by Central District 14.8 (92

Coaches Comments

League – Michael Godden

Friday was always going to be a tough game, it’s never easy to win down there especially at night and in our situation but to the players credit they found the aggressive footy that we have been known for in the past and pride ourselves on.

An interesting fact is from the 10 minute mark of the 3rd quarter of the Anzac day clash to time on in the last on Friday night we have only let 8 goals against in about 150 minutes of footy to our 20 goals. This means our vision to simplify our mindset and get back to being competitive is on the improve and the challenge now is not only to do it again but improve on our defensive action while continuing to develop a forward line that can kick 100 points most weeks. In the first 4 games we had an average of 115 points against so this is a huge improvement and as I have mentioned in the past if we have that sort of effort consistently myself and the coaching staff can start implementing some better structures and help the group push forward quickly.

Over the last few weeks we have been working hard at training on individual improvement. The goal was for every player to improve by 10% by the end of the Sturt game. I believe we have already achieved this so we are now looking to improve again this week by another 5% before the weekend so we can put ourselves in a position to go back to back before the bye.

The start to this season obviously has been very tough but I truly believe the boys have found some belief and we are heading in the right direction, this week vs. Sturt at home is another chance to improve and we would all love to see as many Eagles people there on Mother’s Day to cheer on the boys.

Reserves – Jarrad Wright

First of all congratulations to the Michael Godden & the League Team for its first win of the year, a really great game to watch which was intense attack on the footy and player. Another great result for the under 18’s with a win, Shane Grimm and his young players are really putting some pressure on my reserves players who currently are underperforming significantly.

Now to the reserves game on Friday Night against South Adelaide, after such a promising build up from the prior week’s training and the near win again Centrals on Anzac Day, I/We really had high hopes in moving forward and taking the points against the Panthers and that is pretty much where it was left as “hope” as the players certainly look like a team that was desperate and have the want to win the game of Football. I will take full responsibility for the players actions as coach, as clearly the message is not getting through to the players that you need to have the hunger and competitive spirit to win a game of football.

There was pretty much only 4 shining lights for the Reserves Team and that was Cameron Ellis-Yolmen, Nick Joyce, Angus Poole & Sam Martyn. These four players have been leading the way on the field with intensity and fighting nature consistently for the past 3-4 weeks. Now 4 players out of 21 is nowhere near acceptable and if you take into consideration we only lost by 6 goals, if I wanted to focus on any positives from that I could. But this is not the focus, the focus is on the 17 other players who need to start to realise that footy is not a ride that other players take you on, it’s a chain that 21 players, a “Team” work together and when its your turn to put your head in the hole, chase, tackle you do it with fierce attack.

In saying the above, I do take full responsibility that we do not have a larger spread of players in the team not performing to a standard. It is in my endeavours to change this quite quietly and teach the players on how to do this.

U18′s Centre of Excellence – Shane Grimm

We were back at Woodville for the second time for the Round 7 clash with South Adelaide and were going for our third win in a row against a side who was yet to win a game, or even look like winning a game.

We started the game well and kicked a goal in the first 30 seconds of the game and I think this could have been the worst thing that could have happened because too many of our players seemed to think that it was going to be an easy game and that we just needed to cruise through for the rest of the day. Unfortunately no matter who your opponent is you must show them respect and play with the same intensity that you would against a top 3 side. We dominated possession and most statistics in the first quarter, we had 50 more possessions 23 more marks but 2 less inside 50 entries and only lead by 15 points at the first break. Better performing players were Matt McDonough (15 possessions), James Batty (10 possessions and 3 tackles) and Sam Rowland (9 possessions and 3 tackles)

We continued to stay in control of the match for the majority of the second quarter but a few lapses in concentration as well as the odd skill execution error gifted South a couple of goals late in the term. Our defence was a highlight of the second term with Tom Daly and Daniel Redden competing well against much taller opponents, Nick Grimm providing a lot of run from defence as well as Nick Clift and Lathanuel Rigney working hard once the ball hits the ground.

A five goal lead at Half Time is never to be taken for granted, but I was not very happy with the intensity and commitment of the majority of our players and made my feelings known to the group and asked for a lift in all areas of the game.

Our third term was our best of the game and we had total control of the game and probably should have put more score on the board to really make sure the game was out of South Adelaide’s reach. Daniel Blythe was instrumental in the third term racking up 9 possessions and a goal, Lachy Everett continued his good form picking up 12 possessions in the term, while Karl Muller continued his enormous work rate all over the ground. With a 48 point lead at three quarter time we made a goal to win the game by 10 goals or more.

Our final quarter was not great and we did not achieve the goals we had set ourselves. It was a very disappointing end to an extremely frustrating day. At our best we are in the top 3 in the competition but top 3 teams always prepare to play the same way each week. Until we can do this as a group we will continue to have inconsistent performances.

Best Players: Karl Muller, Daniel Blythe, Nick Grimm, Matthew McDonough, Caleb Lloyd , Sam Rowland and James Batty

Goalscorers: Jack Muirhead Daniel Blythe 3, Jarrod Harding Scott Miller 2, Dane Pfitzner Matt McDonough Caleb Lloyd James Batty each 1

U16′s Centre of Excellence – Darren Hams

In what was our last Under 16 game for the year we were keen to end up on a positive note & register our fifth win for the program.

We began well with Joseph Heinjus winning the ruck & providing our midfield in Tom Caire & Isaiah Blumson the first look at the ball, hence moving it quickly into our forward line which gave Kosta Economou the advantage to capitaliseon a one on one contest in which Kosta was able to kick 3 for the quarter. At quarter time we came in quite confident in opening up a 5 goal to 1 lead.

The second quarter was almost a mirror image of the first with our Rucks now including Kristian Muller were able to give our on ballers first use, Lachlan Hall on the wing also started to use his pace on the wing & drive the ball forward into our 50, if our key targets were unable to mark our small forwards in Anton Vassallo & Jayden Bortoletto were able to capitalise. The backline lead by Matteo Impagnetiello had been solid for the half & at half time with a lead of 9 goals we had the game under control.

To South’s credit they came out after half time a little more desperate, in which the game tightened up and prohibited our guys from playing the free flowing football we were able to play in the first half. A few changes were also made to give our defenders the opportunity to run up forward. For the quarter we were able to keep South Scoreless and kick 3 goals ourselves.

In the last term and having the game under control we were in a fortunate position to give some of our forwards the exposure to backline footy, in which they would have taken a lot out of as South played a good last quarter and ran out the game by kicking 6 goals to our 3 points.

On reflection the lost to Port Adelaide in Round One has probably cost us a spot in the final. But to win 5 of our 8 games & give the opportunity to our squad members to play at this level will hold the club in good stead for the coming years. We wish Glenelg & Norwood all the best in this weekends final.

MICHAEL GODDEN – SENIOR COACH REPORT

Sunday’s game was definitely a game of two very different halves.

The first half saw us dominate possession by 42, inside 50’s 31 to 16 and 19 scoring shots to 9. Even with all of this we only lead by 25 pts. at the main break. In one way this is a positive because what we have been addressing over the last few weeks has been our ability to get our hands on the ball which clearly we were doing but our finishing was average and there was no reward for effort. With all of this effort we were unable to break Sturt’s spirit with scoreboard pressure which ultimately made it harder on ourselves, but to Sturt’s credit they swung the momentum back their way in the second half.

The second half started really well with 10 inside 50’s to 2 in the first 10 minutes and 4 scoring shots to none but once again we only scored 1 goal 3. As I mentioned Sturt made a really good run at us but the lads held strong in the end to scrape through with a narrow win.

So with that said it is pretty clear the desire for the contest and our ability to restrict teams is on the way back, but our ability to finish off the hard work with scoreboard pressure is the next thing to address. The next 3 weeks of training will be crucial to make sure we work on all areas and continue to improve on the things we have been focusing on. I honestly feel we are on the right track at the moment, it’s just unfortunate the position we have put ourselves in but with hard work I know we can be back playing the complete footy we are training for and with an 8 game streak between the byes we can be in a strong position by the next break.

Eagles 11.15 (81) defeated Sturt 11.6 (72)

JARRAD WRIGHT - RESERVES COACH REPORT

It was always going to be a tough game on Sunday against Sturt, who are travelling very nicely in the reserves. We had a fairly lengthy discussion during the week to the “senior reserves” players in regards to the desire and effort that is required but more importantly the on field leadership that we have been lacking in the past for the younger development players. This was going to be even more a requirement against Sturt who are a very strong team and we had a couple of U18’s brought into the team due to injuries.

Our first quarter was going to be a slog as Sturt kicked with a pretty strong wind and was the scoring end for the day in both grades. Unfortunately we got out worked offensively by their spread from stoppages and they managed to get some clear uncontested football which put our defenders under pressure and the kicked 6 goals unanswered after we opened the day with the first. Sturt had 30 more possessions in the first quarter and this came down to their offensive spread. From here it was always going to be hard but we had a very good feeling about the way we went about it with our pressure and intensity around the contest.

With the spread from stoppages being the main focus point for the rest of the game, we managed to win more of the uncontested ball and control the games tempo with our possession rate. This was evident after quarter time as the possession rate for the rest of the game was 11 more in Sturt’s favor, vastly different from 30 in the first. As a result of winning more football we were able to gain direct ball movement into the forward 50 and give our forward line a chance of putting on scoreboard pressure. The inside 50’s and scoring ratio could have been a lot higher if our ball handling in the wet was sharper in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, there was instances we could have created more overlap with handball receives and penetrating the forward line if we had clean hands with first possession.

The aim going into the last quarter was to win the quarter; we managed to really be competitive in the 2nd and 3rd with Sturt winning each by a goal in which I strongly believe we should have won both with the better ball handling. Our intensity and pressure was high and we had good leadership, so we had to maintain and win the last quarter. To the boys credit we did win the last, only by 3 points but it was a small victory for the day. Again we had some wasted opportunity and leaked 2 easy goals from concentration lapses. If we forget about the first quarter, as a 3 quarter collective game it was a 9 point loss with a huge amount of positives to work from.

Sam Heinjus was solid in the Ruck all day with 53 hit outs against 2 big ruckmen, which gave our mids first look at the ball. Nick Ramsey had a break out game in the midfield which we have been looking for also Sam Martyn and Angus Poole putting in solid performances as they have been consistently over the past month. Patty Sinor and Layton McMahon taking a step forward also.

As we all know you cannot win games of football from a 3 quarter effort, but to match it with the top team for 3 of them is a sign of changes for our team if the effort and leadership remain at that level as a minimum.

Congratulations to Mick Godden and the League Team for another victory and Mark McKenzie playing with 200th game for the Football Club, Mark has been a player and person for the WWTFC. Congratulations to Nick Joyce in playing his first league game.

Eagles 7.9 (51) were defeated by Sturt 14.9 (93)

SHANE GRIMM - UNDER 18'S COACH REPORT

The Under 18 competition enters another interesting phase from this week where all Clubs being affected by both the College Football program as well as the State Under 18 program. Both the Eagles and Sturt had 5 players unavailable due to their commitments with the State program, which has given more players in our squad the opportunity to show what they are capable of at the Under 18s level.

Saturday’s game was a very frustrating game to be involved in for a number of reasons. There was never a stage in the game where I thought we were going to challenge for the lead, but we were also very competitive and I think the final margin of 8 goals wasn’t really a true reflection of the way the game was played.

For the second week in a row we were undersized all over the ground and again I thought our defense performed well against a constant tide of attacks from Sturt. On the other hand we struggled to get the ball through our half forward line, this was partly due to the poor delivery from our midfield and defenders as well as the half forwards not presenting strongly or often enough. We had a clear winner in the Ruck in Karl Muller but we couldn’t take advantage of his good work and lost the clearances convincingly, although Sam Rowland did his best in this area with a game high 10 clearances of his own as well as over 30 possessions and 7 tackles to continue his good form.

The only other clear winner we had on the day was Nick Grimm either at Half Back or on the last line of defense. He provided a lot of run from defense as well as providing a contest in the air.

We now have 2 weeks off before our next challenge against a very strong West Adelaide side under lights at Richmond.

Eagles 8.9 (57) were defeated by 16.8 (104)

Eagles vs West Adelaide



Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report



It’s obvious after Saturday’s game I haven’t been able to fix our problem with playing games off of long breaks. After 21 days in the middle of the season the big question is can you be clean under pressure and make good decisions. The answer on Saturday was “no”.



Apart from the obvious things such as ball movement and the ability to win contested ball, my biggest concern is the lack of improvement in our middle to younger players, I know I have spoken about this previously and I thought through lots of hard work recently both from the players and the coaches the lads had certainly improved, but today was a big step back. This game for lots of reasons wasn’t one for the highlight reel, lots of numbers behind the ball and plenty of simple skill errors from both sides created a game of very slow movement and to be honest boring football, but sometimes you have to find a way to win and today West did things better than us and deserve their win.



As a member I can only imagine your feelings are frustration and disappointment, you are not alone with these feelings. Even though we all think we know the answers there is rarely an easy fix, what we can do is identify all the things that make a team better and tick or cross these boxes and then put a plan in place to make sure there are only ticks. Since our first trial vs. Glenelg things have been very tough, but I still have huge faith in this group and my own ability to turn this Club around, there are lots of things that have lead us to this position some in our control and some out of but what we can’t do is dwell on these all we can do is look forward and make sure we move onward and upward and don’t rest until we reach our goal.



Eagles 10.4 (64) were defeated by West Adelaide 12.11 (88)



Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report



After a 3 week break and some really quality training sessions, this was not the result I was expecting. We came into the game feeling really confident with some senior inclusions that provided a solid side, something which we have not had in the Reserves for 4 to 5 weeks, so there were no excuses.

Again the game was broken down into 2 x halves, the first West were far too superior with their skill level and work rate and the second we managed to compete at a level where we made the game an arm wrestle. All throughout the game we managed to win our fair share of contested footy and gain enough possessions to win a game of football, but our skill execution by foot was amateur. Our ability to deliver the ball to another team mate who was in the correct position was nowhere near the level that reserves football should be played at, and West Adelaide made us pay by rebounding from turnovers at CHF and catching our defenders out of positions. A clear indication that our ball use going forward is clear with having only 15 less possessions but 17 less inside 50’s. Unfortunately for our defenders who I thought were doing a terrific job were getting unpressured footy coming straight at them, before you know it at Half time we were down by 40 points.

The second half was better in the fact we had more defensive pressure on the opposition when a turnover occurred, which made the task for our defenders a little easier. Still our decision making and skill by foot was not up to scratch but it was 15% better than the first half. We managed to gain more possession in the second half and enter inside 50: 20 times to their 19 making the game an arm wrestle in the second half. We ended up losing the game by 46 points (only 6 points after half time).

It was pretty clear that we have to work much harder on the track with skill execution by foot under pressure if we are going to win matches.

Eagles 6.6 (36) were defeated by West Adelaide 12.16 (88)

Shane Grimm - Under 18's Coach Report

After 2 weeks off with a Bye and then a State game I was always mindful of the mindset of the players coming into Saturday night’s game against West Adelaide. All week we spoke about during the week was coming prepared both Physically and Mentally to play the top ranked team in the Under 18 competition.



We started the game well and got the first goal on the board early and were consistently pushing the ball inside 50. Unfortunately we were unable to take advantage of our dominance early and West kicked the next 4 goals to enter the quarter time break with an 18 point lead.



The second quarter was a tight struggle with both sides having dominance in periods of the term but unfortunately we were not able to make inroads into the lead and at the Half time break we still trailed by 20 points.



The whole second half was a very good contest between two very good sides, Westies would get out to a 5 goal lead and we would peg them back to within 2 goals regularly.



Even though it was a good effort and I was happy with the overall result it was disappointing in other aspects of the game. We had 13 more Inside 50 entries than West and had 1 less scoring shot and obviously lost the game and our Clearance work was also very good but we could not make it count on the scoreboard.



We have a very important month ahead of us and it could well shape our season, I am looking forward to seeing how the players respond to the challenge ahead.



Eagles 11.11 (77) were defeated by West Adelaide 13.9 (87)

Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report

My parents instilled into me at a young age no matter what life throws at you, you face all of life’s problems head on and never give up, you don’t hide behind anything and you don’t make excuses and that is exactly what I am doing at the moment. Make no mistake bad kicking is bad football.

The first quarter was a huge improvement on the West game, even though we had 15 to 4 inside 50’s we were unable to put Glenelg away and we only lead by 7 points at the first break. That’s about where the game ended for us, unfortunately we exerted a lot of energy for no result and we were unable to maintain that intensity for the rest of the match.

Since the bye I have really simplified the game for the lads and we have done a lot of work on the basic hard things. Last week these numbers were down and this week the first quarter saw a great result but we then dropped away very quickly which is both frustrating and disappointing. These simple but important structures and key performance indicators will not waver until the next bye. I said to the lads last week this will give us continuity and something real to aim for and if we meet this numbers the scoreboard will look after itself.

I felt in two minds post match, do I rip into them and identify some average performances or do I stay positive and run the risk of making them feel good about this terrible situation. What I did was not much, I walked into the room and the players were well into their discussion, there was a lot of honesty being spoken about so all I had to say was we can go 1 of 2 ways now. We continue to try to improve, work on deficiencies and strengths and maintain faith in each other and the system or we put our heads in the sand and wave the white flag and regret that for the rest of your life. I know which one I have chosen.

Eagles 8.21 (69) were defeated by Glenelg 18.8 (116)



Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report

It seems to be like Groundhog Day with the reserves on game day and my match reports which you read weekly. Unfortunately the realisation of doing the same thing is not the results neither the players nor I would like to be reporting to the members/supporters & sponsors. On the positive side though we are seeing improvements from some individual players and our ball movement which when it is executed correctly we look quite damaging.

The game result against Glenelg was again tailed by two halves of Football which is the current trend of our group throughout the past 5 weeks. We started the game ok with winning contested possession but not being able to penetrate the forward 50 to create scoreboard pressure, this is heartbreaking when the endeavour of the players is unquestionable but the skill execution let’s all the hard work undone, especially when the ball turns over and goes straight back over your head for a goal with 3 or 4 touches (this is magnified on the smaller ground). To Glenelg’s credit they put intense pressure on our ball carrier which made us overuse possession and run ourselves into trouble far too often, rather than getting the ball long and high to a 50/50 contest, which we know is our strengths. Suddenly the match siren sounds for half time and we are 39pts down with a big effort (not impossible) ahead to get back in the game.

At half time I spoke to the lads and basically only focused on 2 areas, getting the ball long and deep into our forward 50 rather than over possessing. We had Zac Fitzgerald and Charlie Rae providing a big target for us so why muck around with the ball (especially under pressure). The other focus point was defenders locking down more as we were getting caught out on the turnover as all had run to create and losing contact with the opposition forwards.

Funnily enough by executing these 2 focal points we managed to enter inside 50:- 19 times for 12 scoring shots (6 goal 6 behinds) which is a very good scoring ratio from inside 50’s. Unfortunately it was all too late though, we won the last half by 10 points which is a positive on a negative but a clear indicator that we are seeing improvements but the 4 quarter factor is what’s letting us down.

In quick summary over the past 5 weeks we have averaged losing our first half by 31 points and winning our last half by 1 point. I will be looking at changing our pre game warm up and meetings to try and find the answer in getting off to a good start.



Shane Grimm – Under 18′s Coach Report

After being more than competitive last week against top of the ladder West Adelaide, I was hoping for a similar effort this week against the only team we have yet to beat in the since the conception of the Under 18 competition.

We started well again this week but we were a bit wasteful with the ball going inside 50 and our tall forwards were getting in each others way which meant we were kicking to packs too often when we wanted to be isolating our tall forwards and kicking to their advantage. Our dominance was rewarded however with 4 goals in the first quarter while keeping Glenelg goal less. Quarter time score was 4.3 to Glenelg 0.3.

The second half was a continuation of the first with only a few lapses of concentration that enabled Glenelg to get on the scoreboard, but all in all we played the complete game for 3 and a half quarters against a team who was level with us on games won before the game.

Next week we again play a side who we will be challenging with for a final spot at the end of the year so we will be expecting another similar performance against North at Prospect on Saturday.

Eagles 20.11 (131) defeated Glenelg 4.9 (33)

Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge Bob Hank’s contribution to our great Club and convey how saddened we all are on his passing. Our sincere condolences go to Audrey and the entire Hank family and I hope the Club’s performance today represented the spirit in which Bob had a huge part in creating at the Eagles.

The build-up to this game wasn’t ideal with a 5 day break and the unfortunate loss of Luke Jarrad last weekend to that bad knee injury then the late withdrawal of Adam Grocke on Friday night. Often out of these difficulties comes a resilience and as I mentioned last week as a Club we only had two choices for the remainder of the year and by the lads actions today it showed to me the direction all the players throughout the Club League, Reserves and Under 18’s have chosen.

The game started with a real physical aspect to it with lots of hard tackles and commitment from both sides. I felt we had control of most of the play so it was pleasing to go in to quarter time with a slim lead. The 2nd quarter wasn’t a great spectacle with the ball spending most of the time in our forward half with not a lot of result, finishing off with 1-5. At the half time break we changed our tactics with our inside 50 movement and were able to kick 5-2 which was great from a tactical point but also the ability of the players to adapt to the conditions and stick to the plan. The final quarter was pleasing because the lads stuck to their disciplines and rewarded themselves with another 5-2 quarter to finish off the game 45 point winners.

This was the sort of game we have been searching for, a tough contest against a quality team where we maintained our disciplines and our ability to stick to a task for every minute of the game. After a bad loss last week to Glenelg we found enough positives to think if we can put it all together we can be more than competitive. The challenge now for the group is to back it up this weekend against Port and play the relentless aggressive football we showed today.

Eagles 16.11 (107) defeated North Adelaide 9.8 (62)

Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report

First of all from behalf of the Reserves players and I, that our thoughts and wishes are with the Hank family with the sad loss Bob Hank who was such an inspiration for all WWTFC players, staff, sponsors and fans.

Congratulations is in order for the U18’s andL league teams for both having a solid victory on Saturday. Shane Grimm has the junior players playing some good consistent football and the League boys finally put all the pieces of the puzzle together for 4 quarters.

Our Reserves team on Saturday played some of the best footy we have played all year. Following on from last week’s reports we had a big focus on getting off to a good start in the first half to give ourselves every opportunity and that is exactly what we did. Our ball movement from rebound 50 and through the CHB to CHF was efficient and when we delivered the ball deep inside 50 our forwards were very dangerous scoring 7.4 from 17 inside 50’s (64% ratio). On the opposite end of the field our undersized defence were doing a terrific job with Jake Summerton playing an unfamiliar role at CHB and U18 Tom Daly at Full Back, the collective group kept North Adelaide to 8 goal 5 behinds from 25 inside 50’s (52% ratio). At half time we were down by 7 points but with plenty of improvement required.

The half time break was upbeat and the message was to attack the goal front as we knew that we could put the North Adelaide defence under immense pressure, to the lads credit they executed the best they have all year with fast and direct football. This helped with our midfield dominating play and winning the stoppages 14 to 6 in the third quarter, we managed to dictact terms in controlling the play and penetrating inside 30m. We scored 6 goal 4 behinds in the 3rd quarter from 14 inside 50′s (71% ratio) which is very good to the unknown. Going into the last quarter being 25 points up was unfamiliar territory for us but a very big learning tool for the future.

As we only had 1 player left on the bench for the last quarter so the rotations for the midfield was going to be tough work to keep the running power we had for the previous 3. Unfortunately the boys were out of legs and North Adelaide put the early pressure on us kicking 5 goals in 12 minutes, we had stopped running trying to defend the lead rather than win the game. We got to 8 points down at one stage and to our groups credit they fought back to kick 2 in a row and take the lead back with only minutes left. We held on for as long as we could until North forward player grabbed a mark on the lead and kicked a goal with only seconds left making the final result being a draw. A hollow feeling none the less but clearly a very big improvement from a 74 point loss to the Roosters only 7 weeks ago.

The morale of the group is high and the confidence is building with some better results over the past 3 weeks. We need to consolidate this form into a win next week over Port Adelaide who will be firing after we knocked them off round 1.

Eagles 16.9 (105) drew with North Adelaide 16.9 (105)

Shane Grimm – U18′s Coach Report

After our best win of the season last week against Glenelg I was hoping we would continue the good form of the past 2 weeks starting against West Adelaide. The players have been showing a lot of maturity and professionalism with their preparation for game day and it has been showing in their individual performances.

Before the game we also spoke of the significance of the day with the recent passing of Club Life Governor Bob Hank and a strong performance in today’s game would be a great way to honour Bob’s memory.

Our starts have been strong for the majority of the season and this week was no different. We had total control of the game and it was just our inaccuracy in front of goal that was stopping us from being even further in front. Mat Carey was well on top in the Ruck and was also being dangerous around the ground. Matt Appleton was continuing his great form of late and James Batty was causing headaches for the North Adelaide defence. At quarter time we lead by 22 points.

The second quarter didn’t start well for us and North kicked the first 2 goals before we settled and kicked the next 5 Goals to restore our dominance of the game. Appleton and Carey continued their good form from the 1st quarter and Tim Sumner had a purple patch kicking 3 goals for the term to help increase our lead to 42 points at the half time break.

Our third quarter was our best for the game and we piled on 6 unanswered goals, 4 of them to Tim Sumner who was playing under some duress after being ill all week and being unable to train. At three quarter time we were leading North by 77 points.

The final term was not very spectacular with both teams playing out the game without a lot of intensity, which I found a little disappointing. We still managed to outscore North 2 goals to 1 to run out winners by 85 points.

We had winners all over the ground with our Forwards being well lead by Tim Sumner (8 goals) and James Batty (5 goals) as well as solid performances from Daniel Toole at Half Forward and Jacob Dutschke who provided fantastic defensive pressure all day and was unlucky not to kick a goal.

The Midfield held sway all day with dominant performances from Matt Appleton (49 possessions), Caleb Lloyd (36 Possessions) and Mat Carey (16 Possessions and 26 Hit Outs)

The Defence was also solid and well lead by Alby Dunstan and Lathanuel Rigney as well as a solid performance from Peter Elfenbein after 11 weeks on the injury list.

It was also good to welcome back Luke Dunstan after 11 weeks with a groin then ankle injury, Luke finished the game with a more than capable 24 possessions.

Eagles 19.11 (125) defeated North Adelaide 6.4 (40)

Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report

Strong competitive football is what underpins all successful teams and over the last month this is slowly coming back into our game which is the main reason the results are starting to go our way.

The first quarter saw us facing a solid breeze and this was reflected in the scoreboard with 10 shots to 5 so luckily our accuracy was better that Ports.

The next 2 quarters were some of our better footy for the year outscoring Port 7.5 to 1.3. On top of this we had plenty of wasted inside 50’s in which we will need to do a lot of reviewing and find our learning points. The last quarter was a bit of an arm wrestle where we lost our way and coughed up 15 inside 50’s to 8, even though we did lose the quarter by 5 points the effort at the contest was still great which is really encouraging. When the effort is there and the ball winning ability is there I am more than happy because that gives us something to work with.

The main key performance indicators we set ourselves after the Anzac day game are getting better every week and in fact this week we smashed all of our targets which is great for the players to see, if we stick to the simple things and do them well consistently the scoreboard will take care of itself and keep ticking over.

As a Club I think the best thing to do at this point is to take our eyes off the ladder and who beats who because all we can do is keep improving and make sure that every time we play we expect to win, and work together to meet our team goals and if we do that well enough we will be there with a chance later in the year. A lot can happen in 9 games so all we can control is the first quarter vs Centrals and then the second and so on.

40 more possessions, 20 more clearances and nearly 60 effective tackles are the basic stats which show our ball winning ability, we are going to need that and more this weekend against Centrals in what is shaping up to be a real test to see how far we have come since Anzac Day because they have certainly improved significantly.

Eagles 14.7 (91) defeated Port Adelaide 8.10 (58)

Best Players: Sumner, Lewis, Smith, Thompson, Rowntree, Parry, Knights

Goal scorers: Staple 3, Lewis 2, Fitzgerald 2, Grieger 2, Grocke 2, Sumner 1, Smith 1, Goldsworthy 1

Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report

Congratulations to Mick Godden and league players on another solid performance and victory on Saturday, Also to Shane Grimm and the U/18s on yet another win the juniors.

The reserves team on Saturday had a very capable line up to win a game of football, we managed to come out of the starters block in good form and maintain intensity for the 1st quarter and 23min of the second and this is where it all fell apart. Being the dominant team on the field for the 90% of the first half kicking a major to go 3 goals up at 23rd min mark of the second term, you would think the momentum would be with us going into half time. This was not the case with the lads switching off and letting Port back into the game with the momentum kicking 3 goals in 5 minutes to equal the game at Half Time.

In saying that the game was even and resets for the second half as it was the first quarter. There was no reason for the second guessing of the team’s capabilities to win the game as we had shown that with mental strength and intense pressure were the better team. To my dislike the words spoken at half and 3 quarter time were only words not actions. Port kicked 21 points up to lead the third quarter and the chips were down, I had total belief that we could get back and win as we showed the week prior against North that we can kick big scores in 1 quarter but also fight back when we are down. But addressing the group at 3 quarter time was the hollowest feeling I have seen from the playing group which is most disappointing, the boys had already chosen to give up and lose and I say the word chosen because it was purely up to them to fight when adversity hits. I could tell no matter what I said at the break to pump them up it was not going to matter. As to my gut feeling was correct that Port damaged us kicking away and winning by 50 points (they kicked 15.11 since the 23rd min mark of the second term)

Over the past 3 weeks we had taken 3 steps forward and then from the 23rd min mark of the second we took a huge step back. We have to try and find the formula for mental resilience in the group if we are going to win. Maybe the formula is to win ugly make the entire game a scrap maybe it’s not but we will be changing something because the current is not achieving the wins.

Eagles 11.6 (72) were defeated by Port Adelaide 18.14 (122)

Best Players: Lindsay, Hall, Poole, Daley, Salter

Goal scorers: Hall 2, Salter 2, McDonough 2, Rae 1, McMahon 1, Lindsay 1, Longbottom 1, Summerton 1



Shane Grimm – Under 18′s Coach Report

We have had some very good results in the past month against opponents who have been in similar positions on the ladder to us and today’s match against Port was another game of importance.

As I have mentioned previously we have started the majority of games very well this year and this week’s game was another where we got out of the starting blocks very quickly.

We totally dominated the opening quarter and should have been further in front than 36 points. We had 11 more Inside 50 entries, 39 more possessions, 25 more Handball receives, and 7 more Clearances and had 11 scoring shots but unfortunately we did not make the most of our opportunities and it was to come back and bite us in the second term.

Port’s coach gave his charges a severe talking to at quarter time and they responded well as a group to get themselves back into the game with 9 scoring shot’s to our miserly 3 scoring shot’s. Luckily for us they were a little wasteful in front of goal. We managed to kick a goal after the siren by Mat Carey to help us go into half time with a handy 15 point lead but with a lot of work still ahead of us.

The players were challenged at half time to respond and after a very tight third term where both teams gave everything we managed to edge ourselves a little further in front to have a 20 point three quarter time lead.

One of the positives to come out of this week’s game was the response the players gave in the final term when challenged again by Port. The playing group worked well together to finish off the game with a positive performance in the final quarter and outscored Port with 5 goals to 1, to complete an impressive 47 point win.

Eagles 14.13 (97) defeated Port Adelaide 7.8 (50)

Best Players

Tom Schwarz, Mat Carey, Tom Huppatz , Will Northeast, Lathanuel Rigney, Matt Appleton, Luke Dunstan

Goalscorers

Cameron Giles 3, Mat Carey 3, Will Northeast 2, Luke Dunstan 2, James Batty 1, Caleb Lloyd 1, Tim Sumner 1 and Joe Alvaro 1.

Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report

Today was our big test after a couple of good results and unfortunately this result has put us back in our box.

Obviously we were beaten by a much better and mentally stronger team today but that doesn’t help with the disappointment we are all feeling. Right from the start we looked anxious and made many simple errors which created perceived pressure on ourselves and ultimately ended in us looking dysfunctional and lacking skill. As I have said previously I have seen some real improvement in the group over the last month but today we took a big step back. The basic indicators such as tackles, shepherds, handball receives were low and these are definitely things we can control, they take very little skill and it is something we can look to fix in a week. I must admit I am becoming frustrated at our inability to sustain consistent efforts which I clearly understand is my responsibility to fix, so myself and the whole group will be working hard on finding the trigger for this.

The result today was a product of some average footy but I don’t believe we are as bad as that, we were just not allowed to play our way and were beaten by a better side and one we can learn a lot from.

Positives are hard to find but there are a few; first, we had so many good players have a very bad day which means they will be desperate to fix that this week; second, I tested some players in different positions late which always teaches myself and the players something and finally, the way the competition is this year we still have a pulse.

So on to the next game, South. We must review the game today and learn what we can but by no means get flat or disheartened; we just pick ourselves up, train hard, recover well and get ready for another big game back at home at Unleash Solar Oval.

Eagles 3.7 (25) were defeated by Central Districts 16.8 (104)
Best Players: Sumner, Parry, Grieger
Goal scorers: Thompson 1, Hall 1, Fitzgerald 1

Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report

I would like to get on the front foot and say I was very happy with the Reserves effort on Saturday against Centrals, although we are not satisfied or accepting the loss by any means the football development and ball movement patterns of our younger individuals was promising for the future. We were very welcoming to the APY Lands players that have joined the group during the week Kieran Roberts & Nelson Peters who will be better for the run and mixing with the group this week.

Again as we do every week we came into the game confident in our preparation. The first quarter was fairly intense for a Reserves grade game with the ball moving from end to end on the ground quite quickly. Due to 3 basic skill errors of letting the ball over the back of the contest which is a basic rule to never happen cost us 3 goals in the first quarter in which was the margin at the first break.

The second and third terms were a very attacking and we had not dominated but were clearly controlled the tempo of the game with our pressure and ball movement. Unfortunately we could not finish our good work with Goals missing 4 certain chances in the 3rd to bring us level or even in the lead at the last break. Some great signs from young players Jack Muirhead & Sam Rowland providing some real tough and attacking rebound football of half back & Angus Poole who lead the way in the midfield with real grunt around the stoppages.

The last quarter was an arm wrestle with us trailing by 18 points all we needed was to jag one early to gain some momentum. We had the football in our forward half (mainly forward 50) for the first 9 minutes but just could not grind a goal. Central managed to get a clean break away from a stoppage and sneak a goal at the 13 minute mark to provide us a hard task being 24 point down and that was the end margin with both teams kicking another major each.

Promising signs from players Angus Poole, Jack Muirhead, Sam Rowland, Matt Appleton, Nick Ramsey, Aaron Killian & Nick Joyce were the positives to come out of Saturday who showed improvement to possibly be the next generation of League players for this Club.

Eagles 7.8 (50) were defeated by Central Districts 11.7 (74)
Best Players: Poole, Rowland, Bock, Muirhead, Killian, Appleton
Goal scorers: Rae 3, Salter 1, Martyn 1, McMahon 1, Longbottom 1

Shane Grimm – Under 18′s Coach Report

The Round 14 game against Centrals was one that we had to make sure we were totally prepared and committed for because even though Centrals had only had one win for the year, their recent results had been a lot more competitive.

We had 7 personnel changes from the game against Port Adelaide due to the availability of our College players as well as some players returning from injury.

We started the game well again this week and had 2 goals on the board before Centrals could get their hands on the ball. We continued to control the game for the majority of the first term and had an even contribution from all players with 5 players having 7 possessions and a further 5 players picking up 5 possessions. We completely dominated the first term and this reflected on the stats sheet where we had 32 more possessions, 11 more clearances and 16 more Inside 50 entries and probably should have been further in front. The one disappointment from the first quarter was the late goal we conceded in the last 20 seconds of the quarter. This has been an area of our game that we have to get better at.

Last week we were in a similar position at quarter time against Port and we did not perform at the same level in the second quarter so we talked about making sure we continued the momentum through until half time. The players worked hard to maintain the momentum from the first term and at half time the only thing we could be disappointed with was our kicking Inside 50 and our finishing in front of goal. At half time we lead by 51 points.

The second half was very much a carbon copy of the first. We continued to dominate the clearances, especially in the Centre and we dominated possessions and the Inside 50 entries. We had solid contributions from players all over the ground, but it was our midfield who completely dominated the game, Tom Schwarz, Caleb Lloyd, James Moss and James Batty had 113 possessions and 38 Clearances between them. Other players who contributed well were Tasman Fitzgerald who was our best key forward with 25 possessions 8 Marks 12 Hit Outs and 4 goals. Riley Knight in his first game of the year was very busy in the midfield and up forward and Koby Evans’ game in defence is one I described after the game to the players as the complete team game.

Another player who deserves a mention is Lachie Everett who on Thursday night at training was told that he was not selected for this week’s game and he responded well by acknowledging he needed to improve in certain areas of his game. He also trained very hard after getting the bad news. Lachie did in fact end up playing due to players being elevated to the Reserves after some injuries forced a reshuffle, and his response was fantastic which is always good to see and shows plenty of character.

Eagles 16.20 (116) defeated Central Districts 5.1 (31)
Best Players: Tom Schwarz, Tasman Fitzgerald, James Moss, Caleb Lloyd, James Batty, Koby Evans and Riley Knight
Goal scorers: Tasman Fitzgerald 4, Daniel Blythe 2, Lachie Everett 2, Riley Knight 2, James Batty 1, Caleb Lloyd 1, Tom Whittlesea 1, Daniel Toole 1, Tom Schwarz 1 and Cameron Giles 1.
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Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report

Well the week couldn’t have started worse with the loss of Redden, Rowntree, Cicolella and Grieger and then the early loss of Aaron Day to a torn Oblique muscle in the first quarter, but to the lads credit it was the most resilient game we have played this year. There was a lot of heat put on individuals during last week by me so to see the way the players reacted was heartening. It was still a loss but in terms of the way the players attacked the ball and body and moved the ball was pleasing to see. The question remains though; is this a one off effort or is that now our minimum effort and are we going to build on that this week?

The start was a solid one with the players being up and about early and able to put some scoreboard pressure on with some quick and skilful ball movement. The second quarter saw Norwood take control with the strong breeze and out score us easily even though our inaccuracy did hurt us scoring 1-4. At the half time break I could sense with the lack of rotations there was a fair bit of fatigue but there was also a sense of strength and positivity about our first half. The whole second half was an arm wrestle with Norwood edging us out by 7 points to finish off winners by 12 points.

The only thing I could be critical of is the frees against, we gave away far too many easy frees and with 3 frees against in front of goal cost us 3 goals which in the end was the difference, so this is something we need to review and see how we could have done it better.

With this solid effort now behind us we need to look at the things that sparked us to be more competitive, so from a physical point that has to be up to the players resilience and mindset but from a team balance and ball movement point I believe we found something this week and now we need to continue going upwards and make this effort a non-negotiable.

I rarely talk about other grades because I know they have their own reviews but I have to say well done to Jarrad Wright and all his staff plus Trent Hentschel and Shane Grimm for all the work that has been put in this year on individual improvement of our next generation. The Under 18’s are travelling nicely and the Reserves have shown huge improvement and it was great to see the smiles on the faces of the players after back to back wins and a huge scalp with toppling Norwood. With strong individual work and improvement comes team success so well done to all concerned.

We have a huge week this week with a game we need to win to stay alive in this competition and one that won’t be easy, Sturt have been a bit like us this year, inconsistent. So we need to be process driven as I said last week and keep the eye on effort and game style and if we can do that we will go into the 21 day break with some confidence to kick start our good run home.

Eagles 13.9 (87) were defeated by Norwood 15.9 (99)
Goal scorers: Lane 4, Staple 2, Grocke 2, Goldsworthy 2, Hall 1, Salter 1, Kane 1
Best Players: Parry, Powell, Hall, Jarrad, Thompson, Lane

Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report

Football is a funny sport and by funny I mean Demoralising, Frustrating, Exciting, Joyous and many more emotions, funny in the way that you can experience all of these over a 16 week period. If we track back to Round 2 it was a very demoralising & frustrating day as we experienced a mammoth 121 point loss, Fast Forward 14 weeks later to play against the same side we experience an exciting & Joyous day with a 6 point win. I can honestly say that the only way to experience the higher side of Footy is Hard Work and Belief in each other. This is what the Reserves group have been working on since Round 1 and we are starting to see the results come through.

The game did not start the way we would have liked with kicking into a howling 5 goal wind in the first quarter; this could have triggered the memory back to that dark day at the Parade 14 weeks ago if we let Norwood kick away to a fast start. I must say I was more on the critical side in the box when Norwood kicked the first 3 goals but the boys stayed strong and up the anti on the pressure on the opposition, then kicked a couple back to go into quarter time 14 points down. I knew that if we could be within 2 or 3 at the first break we had a real chance of getting some real belief into the team with a solid second term with the wind.

Our mindset of not allowing Norwood to obtain possession was excellent a real ferocious attitude in getting the ball back into our Eagles players hands. Every Eagles player on the field was running hard, talking and supporting each other which made our execution of ball movement fast and high quality, which showed on the scoreboard kicking 7 goals 5 behinds to 2 behinds in the second term. The feeling was up and about at half time going in 19 points up.

The address at the main break was all about continuing to run and pressure the opposition as we knew that Norwood would come out firing in the third and that they did. If you were at presentations after the games I spoke about the team’s mental resilience in which they showed in the third term. The top team kicking 4 goals in the first 15 minutes can always shake a young group up, but the lads credit we held it at 4 goals.

Coming home in the last was never going to be easy with Norwood with their tale up. The players stayed really focused and stuck to the structures put in place running the game out victors. Unfortunately to some average goal kicking in the last we could have put the game to bed early but we kept Norwood in with a sniff until a nail biting finish. We had a really good spread of players contributing to the game, again it was difficult to pin point best players, a very good problem to have which I believe I said last week.

Now we head over to Unley next week with another hard task at hand again Sturt who are sitting 2nd on the ladder. We just have to get back on the training track this week and start focusing for another tough match.

Eagles 10.11 (71) defeated Norwood 9.11 (65)
Goal scorers: McDonough 3, Martyn 2, Muirhead 1, Ramsey 1, Rae 1, McMahon 1, Summerton 1
Best Players: Eddy, Muirhead, Bock, McDonough, Martyn, Joyce, Appleton, T Sumner

Shane Grimm – Under 18′s Coach Report

This week’s Round 16 game against Norwood was a game we had been looking forward to. It was going to be a chance for us to see how much we had improved since the Round 3 game when Norwood defeated us by 42 points.

We had a number of changes to the line-up this week due to injury, illness as well as elevation to the Reserves. Tom Schwarz was rewarded for his good form over the past 6 weeks with a game in the Reserves as was Tim Sumner who was to play his first game in our Reserves after coming back from State Under 18 duties in Melbourne. Karl Muller and James Batty were unavailable because of injury and Nick Grimm was unavailable due to illness.

For the second week in a row we gave up the first 2 goals of the game and it took us some time to get ourselves into the game, but once we settled we began to get on top of Norwood and by the quarter time break we had managed to get ourselves in front by 5 points. Statistically the game was very even but I did feel like we had started to gain the ascendancy over Norwood.

We completely dominated the second term but were unable to break Norwood down defensively but credit has to go to our entire team defence, which only enabled Norwood to kick 1 behind for the entire second term and in fact had kept Norwood goalless from the 9 minute mark of the first term until the first minute of the third term. We entered the half time break with a 17 point lead with a lot of positives to speak about.

Unfortunately just as it happened in our Round 3 game against Norwood we were unable to stop the run that Norwood provided in the third quarter and they outscored us by 7 goals to 1 goal. All of Norwood’s goals for the game seemed to come in bursts, they kicked the first 2 goals of the game in a 4 minute burst and in the third term they kicked 3 unanswered goals in a 6 minute burst before kicking the last 4 goals of the quarter from the 24 minute mark. It was our inability to close down the opposition during this period that inevitably cost us the game.

Our final quarter effort was an improvement on the third but was too little too late and we were unable to bridge the 21 point 3 quarter time deficit.

Eagles 8.5 (53) were defeated by Norwood 10.7 (67)
Goal scorers: Hayes 3, Knight 1, Ventura 1, Giles 1, Lloyd 1, Toole 1
Best Players: Fitzgerald, Hayes, Knight, Moss, Everett, Redden

Michael Godden – Senior Coach Report

I am not sure how to read that game for us, Sturt have been really solid lately at home beating Centrals by 31 points then unlucky not to beat Norwood recently but ended up going down late by 8 points, so on that info. it was ok but I certainly don’t feel satisfied.

Our first quarter was solid and we looked like we had control of the midfield, but then in the second quarter things turned and turned quickly ultimately losing that period by 35 points. Sturt looked to have more run and controlled the ball well through the corridor which had our backline on the back foot which allowed Sturt to score easily without much resistance. So up to half time we had one ‘ok’ quarter then one bad one, so after an honest discussion and some adjustments in the rooms the lads came out with a winning attitude. Even though Sturt kicked the first goal of the second half (which put them out to a 27 point lead at the 3 minute mark) the players switched on and from there we were able to kick 8 goals 9 to Sturt’s 2 goals 2 with 35-16 inside 50’s. Apart from accuracy it was a significant boost to confidence to finish off the game well, but we definitely need to see what happened in that 2nd quarter because that is the area we need to tidy up.

Just like earlier in the year when we had a good win we now have to wait 21 days to play again, we didn’t do it well enough at the first bye so this time we need to adjust things and make sure the players are fresh in both body and mind but are also match hardened enough to be ready for the huge game at home vs North.

Small periods against Norwood and a half against Sturt we have shown the type of football required to win big games and that is exactly what we are trying to achieve, so from here we need to work extremely hard over the next 3 weeks because every game is now a final for us to try to keep our season alive.

Once again it was great to see the Reserves have a good win against the second placed side after a good win last week vs the top side, which now creates genuine pressure on spots in the League and the Reserves team which is healthy coming into the games ahead.

I hope everyone has a good break and we can all come back in 3 weeks hungry and angry and ready for a huge game vs North at home.

Eagles 13.17 (93) defeated Sturt 12.8 (80)
Goal kickers: Grocke 4, Staple 3, Knights 2, Hall 1, Kane 1, Raymond 1, Parry 1
Best Players: Powell, Parry, Lewis, Raymond, Shirley, Staple

Jarrad Wright – Reserves Coach Report

Finally a happy all round feeling for the senior teams on the same day! Congratulations to Goddsy and the League Team for a hard fought victory on Sunday. It’s ironic on similarities in game styles between both reserves and league teams and results from a review. Michael Godden told me this at the start of the year that more often than not the improvement area or positive points from the first game rolls over to be the same in the league. This has happened many times this year but yet again on the weekend with 3 really great quarters of football but a 2nd quarter melt down.

After the past 2 weeks with good wins the reserves group have built confidence in themselves and the game plan which we have been focusing on this year. Sturt are a quality opposition sitting second on the table and we knew that we had to get off to a good start to give ourselves a chance. The lads came with a very focused and driven mindset and executed the structures set at a high intensity going into the first break with a handy 31 point lead.

We came out of the blocks just as fast as we did in the first quarter and kicking the first goal in the second and we were looking like a well drilled and focused group. Unfortunately the concentration levels lapsed for the next 20 minutes and players starting leaving the contest too early expecting an Eagles jumper to win the footy rather than working together to win the contest. Sturt started winning the contested ball and beating us on the run and spread kicking 5 goals applying real scoreboard pressure. We were expecting Sturt to come at as but it was more a lack of team orientated work rate that was what got Sturt back into the game.

The main break we spoke about a few key areas that had dropped away from the first quarter and had a real high focus on getting numbers at the contest. It was now only a 9 point game and a real test of character of if the group had it in them to get back the ascendency. Angus Poole and Nick Joyce in the midfield were outstanding in setting the standard for the midfield group; Todd Culley and Aaron Killian were providing a hard task for the Sturt Forwards with basically zero contested mark or scoring opportunities from their marking talls. Our run and carry from rebound 50’s was excellent giving our forwards a real 1 on 1 contest and we started to score quite heavily kicking 5 goals 3 behinds for the 3rd term to 0 goals, giving us a 37 point lead at the last break.

The final quarter was a similar storey to last week against Norwood with dominating play but missing easy opportunities in front of goal kicking 4 goals 6 behinds which didn’t “put the nail in the coffin” as early as we would have liked., but very pleased with the 100 out of 120 minutes of football played by the boys.

We go into the double break with a real focus on finishing the year strong and we will be setting goals for the last 5 games of the year. There is still a heap of room for team and individual improvement which we will be looking at over the break. To the reserves group credit they deserve a good physical and mental rest this week but ready and focused for the middle bye week for some solid training.

Eagles 16.16 (112) defeated Sturt 10.11 (71)
Goal kickers: McDonough 4, McMahon 3, Rae 2, Fitzgerald 2, Eddy 1, Schwarz 1, T Sumner 1, Martyn 1, Poole 1
Best Players: Poole, Culley, Joyce, McMahon, Killian, Martyn


Shane Grimm – Under 18′s Coach Report

Our Round 17 game against Sturt was the second game in a row against a top 2 placed team and was going to be another challenge for the group. The last time we played Sturt they beat us convincingly by 47 points.

We had 12 changes to this week’s team from the Round 16 team that played against Norwood due to college commitments as well as an appendix injury to Caleb Lloyd, which was certainly going to test our depth but it also gave some players the opportunity to play for the Club.

We hadn’t started well in the past 2 weeks and it was certainly an area we focussed on Pre game, and for the first 10 minutes it worked, we kicked the first 2 goals of the game and were following instructions well and playing the brand of football that we had spoken about Pre game and everything was looking good. Unfortunately Sturt proceeded to kick the next 7 goals of the quarter and we were unable to get the momentum back and had to wait until the quarter time break to try and regain some normality.

One area we were being beaten in was Clearances and we focussed on that at quarter time as well as each player’s individual preparation and effort. Our effort was much better and we also held our own in the Clearances. We managed to outscore Sturt by 3 goals to 1 but Sturt also kicked 6 behinds which was helping keeping us in the game at Half time but we still had a lot of work to do if we were to get back into the game.

Last week against Norwood we held a good lead at half time but were very disappointing in the third term, so we needed a complete turnaround for us to force our way back into the game. Again Clearances was an area we focussed on as well as being a little better in each contest we were involved in individually. We started the second half very well and improved in all the areas that we spoke about and through hard work and intelligent play we managed to be in front by 3 points at three quarter time.

We managed to kick the first goal of the final term to extend our lead to 9 points but unfortunately we were unable to go on with it and eventually went down by 17 points. Our second half effort was very pleasing considering the position we found ourselves in as well as only having 2 fit players on the bench which affected our ability to give our midfielders enough of a break.

All in all a very disappointing result but a lot of good signs for the future.

Eagles 14.9 (93) were defeated by Sturt 16.14 (110)
Goal kickers: L Dunstan 3, A Dunstan 3, Ruiz 2, Batty 2, Press 1, Rigney 1,
Toole 1, Everett 1
Best Players: A Dunstan, Muller, Batty, Rigney, L Dunstan, Clift

Michael Godden - League Coach Report

Coming off the long break you are never sure what to expect. You know you have done everything you believe is right but until the ball is bounced you’re never sure how the players will react, more importantly how they will go hitting targets under pressure and maintaining a strong effort for 4 full quarters. I guess the answer came in the first 10 minutes. The players really made a statement which put North on the back foot, and then we were able to maintain that level for most of the game except for about 20 minutes in the 3rd which got a bit scrappy.

One very important thing to acknowledge is North had a lot of key players out; these players would have made a big difference to their structures. I am not downplaying the lad’s effort because it was great but we also need to be realistic. The key element to all successful Clubs is always team. You must always think team before self and this week was the first time this year I could name multiple team efforts for each individual and with that foundation normally comes success.

The sobering fact to the big win was having a look at our win/loss for the year. It is still a long way from where we would like it, but the good thing is we still have 4 games to go so we can go part way to rectifying that. That starts this weekend vs. Port. Port had a very good win vs. Glenelg and is in a very similar position to us, so the team that comes out on top Saturday is the team that looks more likely to challenge Glenelg for that 5th spot.

So as I tell the players every week all we can do is prepare to the best of our ability and make sure the first contest is a good one and then the next one and so on. This week more than ever it’s going to be important to get as many Eagles people here for this crucial match which will shape our season, so if you can get down here please do so because the players will really appreciate it and we will do our best to put on a good show.

Eagles 20.14 (134) defeated North Adelaide 6.6 (42)
Goal kickers: Grocke 4, Knights 3, Lane 2, Sumner 2, Grieger 2, Staple 2, Goldsworthy 2, Hall 1, Cicolella 1, Kane 1
Best Players: McKenzie, Hall, Parry, Knights, Shirley, Sumner

Jarrad Wright - Reserves Coach Report

It has felt like an eternity since we had played footy after a 2 week break with the double bye, even though the senior group had a solid hit out the week prior as an internal trial but you still do not get the same feel for playing against an opposition for 2 points. In saying this, the senior group trained hard and kept a real focus on the weekend’s game. Congratulations to the League and U18 teams for 2 good wins.

You never know what you will get from a team with a 2 week break, I emphasised the fact on Saturday training that I we have to expect a scratchy 1st quarter with skill and decision making but we could minimise the damage if our intensity and pressure on the opposition was high. To the reserves group credit they came to play with a strong mindset, the first 15 minutes was “scratchy” but we overcome this as a team with hard running support and tackling pressure to lead at quarter time by 12 points.

The second quarter our ball movement started to come together with some really good passages of play which opened up the game and we started to score more frequently. More importantly was our defensive work rate, the back line was tight and strong in the aerial contests minimising North’s marking power and some of the chase downs applying pressure to their midfield was exceptional, Luke Dunstan (U18), Nick Joyce and Layton McMahon leading the charge in this area. At half time we had a solid hold on the game being 37 points up, the message was clear at the main break that we needed to continue with our running power and work rate to really put North Adelaide away. Unfortunately the first 15 minutes in third quarter was below par with our pressure on the opposition dropping by 15%,the Roosters managed to maintain possession due to the drop in work rate. The lads rallied late in the quarter kicking 3 goals to still win the third term by 2 points.

We addressed this at the break knowing that again a finals contending team we will not be able to get away with the drop in intensity and to the players credit the last quarter was full of hard running and some outstanding team orientated efforts, the team piled on 8 goals to 2 in the last to grab a 76 point victory.

In summary I was really happy with the way the team went about Sunday’s game, we knew the opposition was under manned with North’s Senior squad having a few injuries and players going up to the AFL, but after a 2 week break the will to work hard and execute the game plan is what I as a coach can take from the game as a huge positive. Some outstanding individual efforts was Charlie Rae kicking 7 goals, Nick Ramsey continuing his solid form and playing a role in the structure which is different to his normal game also Cameron Ellis-Yolmen, Layton McMahon and Jake Von Bertouch putting in solid performances.

With only a 6 day break the players need to recover and focus on a very hard game this week against Port Adelaide who got the chocolates against us last time to make this year’s encounters one apiece.

Eagles 20.10 (130) defeated North Adelaide 8.6 (54)
Goal kickers: Rae 7, Ramsey 4, Fairclough 2, McMahon 2, Fitzgerald 2, L Dunstan 1, Huppatz 1, McDonough 1
Best Players: Rae, McMahon, Ellis-Yolmen, Ramsey, Von Bertouch, Poole, Fitzgerald, T Sumner

Shane Grimm - Under 18's Coach Report

Our Round 20 clash with North was a game I had been looking forward to over the past 2 weeks of our last Bye of the year. We have had players playing school and local Club football over the past 2 weeks and have not been able to get a lot of continuity on the training track so I was interested to see how we were going to handle North.

As I expected we were a little rusty early although our effort was very good. We were definitely the more dangerous looking team and we were continually pushing the ball forward, unfortunately our execution going forward as well as some of our leads from Inside 50 were also not great. We went Inside 50 on 14 occasions and had 8 scoring shots which is not bad but only 4 of those 8 scoring shots were goals. On the other hand North entered their forward 50 on 7 occasions and kicked 2 goals 1 behind. We also had about 30 more possessions than North at quarter time, but we really needed to clean up our skills.

Our second quarter was not as productive as I would have liked, we mirrored our first quarter effort statistically but were even less efficient going forward, with 1 goal from 14 Inside 50 entries. Another area of our game which had been so good before the Bye was our defensive pressure and tackling. This was not evident in the first half against North where we gave our opponents too much space and had not real intent to tackle when we had the opportunity. At half time we held an 8 point lead and we were looking like a side that had not been together for a couple of weeks. We needed to clean up our act and work a bit harder and smarter if we wanted to come out on top of North.

Our second half was a lot better and we were definitely more efficient but we still did not play to the high standards we had set ourselves before the Bye. We outscored North 10 goals to 5 goals in the second half to run out 37 point winners, but this should have been more with North kicking the last 3 goals of the game due to some poor defensive efforts in our back half, when it looked like we were going to have a strong win. But we will always take a 6 goal win if it is offered.

We do have a huge scope for improvement over the remaining 4 games and then finals and I am sure that some of the players who did not perform to the standards will put in much better efforts over the next month or so.

Eagles 15.13 (103) defeated North Adelaide 10.6 (66)
Goal kickers: Northeast 3, A Dunstan 3, Lloyd 2, Gates 2, Evans 1, Miller 1,
T Fitzgerald 1, Karpany 1, Batty 1
Best Players: Rowland, Lloyd, Clift, Karpany, T Fitzgerald, Evans

Michael Godden - League Coach Report

This week didn’t start well but it certainly ended nicely. Losing Parry to suspension early in the week and Knights up to the Crows made selection a bit tougher, but then to lose John McCarthy Saturday morning made getting the balance right very difficult.

Early in the game I thought we looked sluggish and not as confident in our skills as we had been the previous week. When you don’t work hard the ball carrier doesn’t have as many options so the team looks predictable and disorganised. When players run and create it gives you numbers to the contest and multiple options which makes a team look and play a lot better. When we lost Grocke to concussion and Giuffreda to a hamstring early it was obvious it was going to take huge effort by the group. From the coaches box we needed to make some structural changes to help the team with our lack of height and lack of rotations but really a day like this comes down to the playing group and their desire to win. This is the area I was most impressed with, resilience, especially after we worked so hard to hit the front with only a couple of minutes to go but then Port kicking that great goal from the boundary to recapture the lead. At this point it’s very hard to get yourself up again but the players never gave in and ended with a crunch set shot from Angus Rowntree with 15 seconds left to win the game. In particular I was impressed with the persistence of the forward line to keep offering all day under duress, and then other than Angus’s goal the nerve to kick 4 tough goals in that last quarter. Even though it was 3 and half quarters of slow unimpressive footy sometimes you just have to do whatever you can to win and to the players credit they did this which keeps our slim finals hopes alive.

This brings us to another huge game vs Norwood at Norwood. Last time we met we felt we had our chances to win and with the importance of this game I am sure we will be up and ready. I also would think Norwood wouldn’t like to lose two games in a row at this time of the year so that makes the day a bit more difficult. Hopefully our injuries in both the League and Reserves pull up ok so we can have as many options as possible at the selection table. As I wrote a few weeks back we need to be process driven and this week is no different, we must improve in a lot of areas especially with our work rate off the ball. This game’s preparation started straight after the game so we can be as ready as possible to test ourselves against the best in the competition.

Eagles 11.6 (72) defeated Port Adelaide 11.3 (69)
Goal kickers: Rae 3, Goldsworthy 2, Lane 2, Grocke 1, Hall 1, Rowntree 1, Jarrad 1
Best Players: Jarrad, Rowntree, Hall, Grieger, Raymond, Shirley

Jarrad Wright - Reserves Coach Report

It was a tough and frustrating day in the coaches’ box on Saturday, and it was even tougher on the players on the field. Right from the get go there was disruptions to the continuity of the day with Nick Ramsey being pulled out 30 minutes before the game to play his Club debut in the league, we were left trying to find a player to make up the team. Not what you would call “ideal” but something that is out of your control you have to run with it and keep focused.

The Reserve team came out to play in the first quarter against a very good Port Adelaide team. The game plan was set and was being executed pretty well with multiple scoring opportunities in the first quarter. Our inside 50m entries were pretty sloppy and seemed to be going wide more often than not which was not what we want, but to the players credit we still kicked 5 goals to 2 in the first term to have a handy lead. Unfortunately we lost our Full Forward Jake Von Bertouch at the 10 minute mark of the first with injury which was disappointing for him and the team as he was looking dangerous already kicking a major.

The second quarter was much different to the first with Port making a charge with good pressure making us turn the footy over and over possess with hand balling into trouble, not kicking the ball into our forward 50 instead of going lateral trying to get the perfect play. We still managed to hold our own but it was clear Port’s work rate was 20% higher than ours. Going into the main break we had a 5 point lead and time re-access the movement patterns but more importantly the work rate needed to lift.

The third term was quite honestly disastrous with losing another 2 players to injury in the first 5 minutes, Christian Bock (Ruckman) & Aaron Killian (Full Back) leaving us with only 18 fit players and no bench to rotate our mids. Port really threw down the challenge and piled on goals to take a handy 3 goal lead at the last break. The message at three quarter time was pretty much asking the boys to dig deep and find something as it was 30 minutes of tough work to try and get some ascendency back. The last quarter started slow with Port kicking the first goal but the lads stayed strong fighting back all the way to the siren but fell short by 2 goals.

As disappointed the players and I were after the game, when I sit back and gain my thoughts on the day it was a terrific effort the players put in after being dealt a pretty rough hand right from the time the warm up started. I can quite honestly say that 8 weeks ago if this had happened the score board would have been a lot more demoralising which is a mental strength development that the group has been working on this year. We still have to get better at adapting to different teams and certainly still get better at shutting down opposition players when they start to win more of the footy. Unfortunately the wins had to come to an end but we gained a huge amount from the game.

We look to Norwood next week as another big challenge for the group but having beaten them only 4 weeks ago the group will be confident but know a huge amount of hard work is require to get a result.

Congratulations to the U18’s on another win and need I say any more about the League’s hard fought performance. Great win for the Club.

Eagles 10.8 (68) were defeated by Port Adelaide 12.8 (80)
Goal kickers: Fitzgerald 2, Joyce 2, Muirhead 1, T Sumner 1, Fairclough 1, L Dunstan 1, McMahon 1, Von Bertouch 1
Best Players: Day, Irons, Fitzgerald, McMahon

Shane Grimm - Under 18's Coach Report

In last week’s game against North Adelaide we had been very fumbly and our disposal was very poor so we made an effort to improve on these areas during the week at training.

Our first quarter on the weekend was very positive and we started well kicking the first 2 goals of the game before a slight lapse enabled Port to kick the next 2 goals before we regained the momentum and scored 3 of the next 4 goals to go into the first break leading by 10 points. The stats showed that we were completely dominating the Hit Outs and Clearances but we were giving the ball up a little too easily with either poor execution or our inability to keep possession of the ball.

Our second quarter was disgraceful. Players were undisciplined and selfish and showed no respect to the opposition, we constantly gave away silly free kicks as well as at least 4 25 meter penalties which cost us 3 goals. We were lucky to go into the Half Time break only 14 points down.

The third quarter didn’t start well with the Magpies kicking the first 2 goals of the term to stretch their lead out to 26 points and things were not looking great. Then players seemed to settle down and started playing their roles and following the instructions given at the half time break and we started to overrun and outwork Port, managing to kick the last 7 goals of the quarter to change the momentum of the game back into our favour. We went into the three quarter time break with a 20 point lead but were looking the much stronger team.

The final term was a solid effort again which saw us remain in control and push our lead out to the 5 goal range, with another 5 goal quarter. In the second half of this weeks game we played the type of Football that we have been trying to play over the course of the year, with player understanding and playing their role as well as following the instructions given to them by the coaches, whilst also enabling players to play with some natural flair when the opportunity arises.

Eagles 17.12 (114) defeated Port Adelaide 11.15 (81)
Goal kickers: Batty 5, Carey 5, Rowland 1, Northeast 1, Appleton 1, A Dunstan 1, Enright 1, Toole 1, Lloyd 1
Best Players: Appleton, Carey, Rowland, Grimm, Toole, Fitzgerald

Round 22 - Eagles vs Norwood

Michael Godden - Senior Coach Report

A day of missed opportunities is the best way to describe Saturday. 9 more inside 50’s, 23 more possessions and 15 more clearances would normally win you most games but unfortunately we didn’t make the most of our chances and Norwood did scoring 3 goals from frees inside 20 and kicking 4 set shot goals from the 50, and in those conditions that is definitely making the most of your opportunities.

When the weather is like that and you are playing a team like Norwood you need to make sure when you get the ball forward you score and we only did that 30% of the time compared to 44% which is about where the game was at. As a coach there isn’t a lot you can do and to be honest I felt a bit helpless but I did feel the lads never gave in and fought all the way to the final siren. The short burst of 3 goals late in the first really hurt us and we were never able to come back when the rain really set in.

There isn’t a lot more I want to say about the game because all it showed me was our ball winning ability is there but our ability to kick opportunist goals wasn’t as good as Norwood along with their accuracy.

We have really improved our ball movement over the last month but unfortunately we couldn’t display that Saturday so hopefully we have a dry week and we can go out to Unley and put on a good show in order to keep our season alive. With the style of play we have been working on we know we can put it all together when it counts so this weekend is another chance to continue with that and make sure we come away with a win.

Eagles 5.5 (35) were defeated by Norwood 9.2 (56)
Goal scorers: Goldsworthy 2, Sumner 1, Grocke 1, Staple 1
Best Players: Powell, Rowntree, Redden, Thompson



Jarrad Wright - Reserves Coach Report

What a great result on Saturday from the Reserves team, after disappointing loss the week prior but yet a good effort the Reserves had a big test against the top team in Norwood. We had 4 changes to the team which gave first game opportunities to Tas Fitzgerald (younger brother to Zac) and Matt Carey who have both been performing in the U18’s squad and providing the group with a new dynamic.

Travelling back to the Parade brought back some nightmare memories from Round 2 but we used this as driving force and keeping in mind the confidence from our victory against them 6 weeks ago. The game started a very physical affair with the ground conditions being quite slippery and shifty under foot with a fair amount of rain during the week . There were repeat stoppages time after time with both teams really finding it hard to get some flowing football happening. We yet again failed to control our aggression at the contest and gave away some free kicks which has been hurting us in the reserves for quite a while, which is hard to delete as a coach as I love the fierce approach on a contest but the players have to be a lot smarter if they know they are going to be 2nd to the ball. The game was a real arm wrestle at half time with Norwood taking a 6 point lead to the main break.

The message at half time was a reiteration of sticking to the match day plan, and to confirm all the hard work we had done in the first half would eventually pay off if we just stay focused and play the entire 4 quarters out. We had clean up on a few areas of ball movement and free kick and we knew we had real chance to break the game open.

Norwood jumped us in the third term kicking 3 quick goals extending their lead to 28 points at one stage and signs did not look good. To the team’s credit and some lessons learnt from the previous week they kept at the task in the third quarter and worked back into the game to be with in a shot at the last break being 2 goals down. The reason Norwood getting the jump on us was purely skill execution and decision making for the first 10 minutes, our work rate and pressure on the opposition was still very good and still the game was there to be won with all of our KPI’s on target.

The last quarter was some of the best football we have played this year even more so the mental resilience and fight the group had against a quality team in Norwood. We kicked 5 goals 3 behinds in the final quarter to Norwood’s 1 behind, running out the game very strongly. This was a major step forward for the group’s mental development as we now know we can fight from being behind in a game although late in the season this will give us a solid stepping stone for the final 2 games in the minor round and who know what can happen from there. Aaron Day was a terrific leader down back providing us plenty of rebound along with Tim Sumner and Peter Lindsay. Nick Joyce led the midfield with an exceptional second half and young 18 year old ruckman Karl Muller gave us plenty of help in the Ruck.

We have 2 tough games again Sturt (3rd) & West (4th) in the final 2 rounds but we have high expectations knowing our capabilities we just have to keep working hard as a team and working on the individual development of the players.

Eagles 11.11 (77) defeated Norwood 8.9 (57)
Goal scorers: Carey 3, Schwarz 2, Sinor 2, McMahon 2, T Fitzgerald 1, L Dunstan 1
Best Players: Day, Joyce, Summerton, Lindsay, Muller, T Sumner


Shane Grimm - Under 18's Coach Report

We have had 2 good wins since coming back from the Bye against North and Port but they were both sides who are below us on the ladder and even though I have been very pleased with our consistency throughout 2012 we were still yet to beat one of the three teams above us on the ladder. That was the challenge put in front of the players during the week and I was very interested to see how each player presented themselves on game day.

The first quarter was an arm-wrestle with our players struggling to come to terms with Norwood’s negative style of football, but we maintained control of the ball well and managed to make the most of our entries Inside 50 to score 2 goals from 5 entries. At the quarter time break we held a slender 1 point lead even though Norwood had outscored us by 6 scoring shots to 2. Norwood’s only goal of the term actually came from a 50m penalty, which was very disappointing and is an area we have to get better in. The stats showed that we dominated the possession count and we had the feeling that if we kept up the pressure and continued to play the way we were we would get on top.

Unlike last week’s disappointing second term against Port Adelaide, this week our second term was outstanding. I would have to say that it was the best quarter of football we have played for the year and to play that way against good opposition was the most pleasing part. The only down side to the term was our efficiency in front of goal. We kicked 6 gaols and 7 behinds from 15 Inside 50 entries and kept Norwood to 1 behind from 6 Inside 50 entries. At half time we lead Norwood by 43 points.

The players remained very focussed at half time realising the job was only half done and that a team of Norwood’s quality would mount a challenge at some stage throughout the game.

The third quarter was similar to the first being very congested around the middle of the ground. The quarter was going to plan until 2 more execution errors by players switching play in defence cost us 2 goals and gave Norwood some hope entering the last break 30 points down.

The final term was a positive way for our players to finish the game outscoring Norwood 4 goals to 1 and finishing 52 point winners in a very positive display against good opposition.

Eagles 14.13 (97) defeated Norwood 6.9 (45)
Goal scorers: Daly 3, Hayes 3, Batty 3, Toole 2, Giles 1, Lloyd 1, Knight 1
Best Players: Hayes, McDonough, Rowland, Appleton, A Dunstan, Evans, Whittlesea

Eagles vs Sturt – Round 23 – 2nd September

Michael Godden - Senior Coach Report

With the slow start we had to this season it makes this time of year very difficult for planning. Over the last few weeks while other Clubs are able to plan their run into the Finals we are fighting for our life every week. You need to make sure if you make Finals and have the personnel and the game style to win them you also need to be fit and strong. This has been a constant problem for us late in this season; do you do the extra work at the risk of making the players tired? Or do you make them as fresh as possible so we can just make the Finals and then hope? My thoughts as always is if you make Finals you need to be able to win them so our preparation started as normal a couple of weeks ago which makes the game vs Sturt even more impressive with the extra load put on the players recently.

It was great to see the team move the ball the way we did to score 20+ goals and have 62 inside 50's while staying strong defensively to restrict Sturt’s scoring. This is always the balance you need to get right at this time of year, have the ability to score well but also be able to shut down the opposition scoring capabilities.

This week is another big week for the Club. We take on West who have had a great year and beat us earlier this season by 24 points. With the minor round winding up it’s a no brainer; win and we give ourselves a chance. With this week’s scenario it will be easy to get caught up worrying about other results, but this is something we cannot control. What we need to do is stick to our processes and our Key Performance Indicators that work for us. Then make sure we meet them in order to give ourselves the best possible chance. It’s pointless saying we have to win and win by a certain amount because we will all be doing the best we can anyway so putting a number on it is irrelevant, we just have to play the way we want to play and leave nothing in the tank. If we do that we are confident we will be at AAMI next week to start the real part of the 2012 SANFL season.

Eagles 21.10 (136) defeated Sturt 14.9 (93)
Goal kickers: Grocke 5, Staple 5, Joyce 3, Goldsworthy 2, Grieger 2, Jarrad 1, Shirley 1, Rae 1, Rowntree 1
Best Players: Lewis, Staple, Rowntree, Jarrad, McKenzie, Joyce


Jarrad Wright - Reserves Coach Report

Reserves report unavailable – will be posted on website later in the week.

Eagles 10.10 (70) were defeated by Sturt 13.12 (90)
Goal kickers: Z Fitzgerald 3, Ramsay 2, McMahon 2, Lane 1, Carey 1, Martyn 1
Best Players: Schwarz, Lindsay, Martyn, Lane, Ellis-Yolmen, Z Fitzgerald


Shane Grimm - Under 18's Coach Report

With a good win against the top ranked Norwood last week, this week’s game against second placed Sturt was another challenge that our players were looking forward to. We have played Sturt twice this year and gone down on both occasions but had shown considerable improvement since our first encounter.

The first quarter this week was very encouraging and we played some very promising team orientated football. We were dominating the Hit Outs but were behind in the clearances, which meant we had to work hard defensively to get the ball back off the opposition. When we did have the ball though we were very efficient and we made the most of our Inside 50 entries kicking 5 goals straight from 11 Inside 50 entries, while keeping Sturt to 1 goal from their 8 Inside 50 entries.

The second term was more of a struggle with Sturt coming out hard and kicking 3 goals in the first 5 minutes of the term. As instructed, our players went one on one with their opponents all over the ground and arrested some of Sturt momentum back and managed to get a goal on the board ourselves. At half time we trailed by 4 points but I was confident that we could clean up a few areas of our game that would give us the edge over Sturt.

At the half time break we spoke about the areas of concern and all players were keen to improve certain aspects of their game and turn things around.

We were in control of the third quarter for the majority of the term but struggled to hurt Sturt on the scoreboard. We kicked 3 goals and 6 behinds to be quite wasteful in front of goals compared with our total efficiency in the first term, but we managed to go into the three quarter time huddle with a lead of 18 points and a lot of positive feelings about how we were playing.

We made some minor positional changes for the final quarter kicking into a reasonable breeze, designed to give us an extra number behind the ball and more space Inside 50 for our forwards to lead into. We started the final quarter well and kicked the first 2 goals of the term to stretch our lead out past 6 goals. We had control of the ball for the majority of the term and it was late in the game when the job was done and our players were all spent that Sturt managed to kick the last 3 goals of the game to bridge the gap to 17 points.

It was the second week in a row that we had defeated a team above us on the ladder and sets up the opportunity for us to get a top 3 position and a double chance going into the Finals.

Eagles 11.16 (82) defeated Sturt 9.11 (65)
Goal kickers: Huppatz 3, Northeast 3, Karpany 1, A Dunstan 1, Hayes 1, Giles 1,
Ventura 1
Best Players: Rowland, Whittlesea, Karpany, Giles, McDonough, Grimm, Hayes

Michael Godden - Senior Coach Report

The 2012 minor round has been a long and tough one, but with the Finals now here and the sun starting to shine there is a strong feeling within the group along with a sense of excitement. If you rewind to the beginning of the season and what our expectations were, we feel we have underachieved in the minor round because we didn’t get the double chance we set out for. This is now all in the past and we can’t change that, what we can do is look forward to this weekend’s game vs North and continue being short sighted as we have done for the last half of this year and just keep meeting every challenge that arises.

I would like to give you an understanding of style of play and where we sit at the moment, the easiest way to show this is simply scoring capabilities. The last 5 games in 2011 we scored an average of 95 points vs. 87 this year and we have had an average of 57 points against vs. 59 this year. Both of these seasons we had a 4-1 record in that period. I acknowledge we are not sitting in 3rd with a double chance and the opposition is different but the style of play is clearly similar, we just haven’t scored as much in the same period. What this tells you is up to you, it’s just a snap shot at where we are at and it should stir some confidence.

Going back a few weeks I mentioned about having a game that can challenge in the Finals, we believe we have that now after some minor adjustments. History will tell us it’s going to be difficult, but what Finals campaign is easy? Two years ago they said we couldn’t do it and we were within a kick of a Grand Final, and we have learnt a lot from that experience. Last year after we lost in the Qualifying Final they all said we couldn’t do it because history says it doesn’t happen often. Coming from 5th doesn’t happen often either but it has happened. This Finals series is a huge undertaking and the players and staff are going to have to lift significantly, but we are ready for the challenge and very much look forward to it.

Eagles 7.10 (52) defeated West Adelaide 5.6 (36)
Goal kickers: Hall 2, Joyce 1, Grocke 1, Knights 1, Staple 1, Goldsworthy 1
Best Players: Lewis, Grieger, Fitzgerald, Goldsworthy, McKenzie, B Sumner

Jarrad Wright - Reserves Coach Report

Well what a nail biting end of the season for the Football Club, and an exciting last half of the year for the young Reserves group to propel confidence in each other for season 2013.

The Reserves came up against a strong west Adelaide Reserves team who were 3rd on the ladder and playing finals footy, a place where we would like to be but unfortunately a slow start to year had made it very hard to achieve this. With knowing we were playing our last game of the year I was pretty clear to the players that it is going to be a long summer if we were not to leave everything out on the field on Sunday, coming away without the 2 points and feeling like you did not give the effort would be mentally tough break if you were honest with self-appraisal.

To the players credit we did just that, we had a very young group on Sunday with 7 players still eligible to play U18’s and a number of the them having only played 1 or 2 games prior. We knew West would play a very strangling style of football with bottling numbers in our attacking half. We worked on a typical plan which we thought would counter play West. The lads stuck to their guns for the 4 quarters and came away with a stressing 4 point win to finish of the year with a high.

A very proud victory and final 9 games to the season with winning 6 and having a draw, the old cliché “what could have been” is definitely one that I have heard from the group, but another good learning curve for the young group going into next year that hard work has to start right from the beginning to see the fruits later on in the year. The Reserves group have played and beaten every team in the Top 5 this year to prove that we will be around the mark in 2013.

I would like to quickly take this opportunity to thanks Michael Godden and the Eagles Football Club for giving me an opportunity to coach the Reserves this year, First time coach was a big step but one I have loved and will be doing all I can over the break to better myself to hopefully deliver a better result in 2013.

Eagles 12.7 (79) defeated West Adelaide 11.9 (75)
Goalkickers: McMahon 3, Lane 2, Longbottom 2, Ellis-Yolmen 1, Irons 1, Von Bertouch 1, Huppatz 1, Summerton 1
Best Players: Muirhead, Lane, Ramsey, Longbottom, Poole, Grimm

Shane Grimm - Under 18's Coach Report

After beating the top 2 ranked teams over the past 2 weeks we found ourselves in a position that would give us a top 3 spot and a double chance in the Finals series, if we could get over West Adelaide who have been firmly entrenched in the top 3 all year.

We started well and kicked the first 2 goals of the game and I think that some players got ahead of themselves and thought that we had the game won without having to work hard for it. At quarter time we trailed West by 3 points, thanks to a goal to West on the quarter time siren. We were behind in most areas statistically and needed a lift, especially from our midfield and we needed to be more effective with the ball when going inside 50.

The second term started the same way the first term ended, with West having a shot for goal from a clearance. They missed the shot for goal and then after a few minutes to regain some momentum we totally dominated the quarter to put on 7 unanswered goals. Statistically we dominated the quarter having 113 possessions to West’s 64 and winning 14 Clearances to 2. This gave our Forwards a lot of opportunities and we perhaps could have been even further in front than the 38 point lead that we had at half time.

We controlled the game in the second half scoring 5 goals in each of the final 2 quarters to run out 65 point winners at the final siren.

It was another strong performance against another Finals bound opposition and the past month has proven to our group of players that when we play a team oriented game of football and when we all play our role and follow instructions that we can compete with the best teams in the competition.

We have finished the minor round in third position which gives us a double chance going into Finals. Now that we have put ourselves into this position we need to make sure we don’t waste the opportunity that we have worked so hard to attain.

Eagles 20.14 (134) defeated West Adelaide 10.9 (69)
Goal kickers: Hayes 3, Batty 3, McDonough 3, T Fitzgerald 2, Karpany 2, Muller 2, Ventura 2, Appleton 1, Northeast 1, Giles 1
Best Players: Schwarz, McDonough, Muller, Karpany, L Dunstan, T Fitzgerald

Michael Godden - Senior Coach Report

Firstly, I would like to respond to the comment in the paper about me not being interested in playing Finals only Premierships. This was based on what I spoke about a few weeks ago; that is, I have a belief if you don’t have a team that is capable of winning the ultimate prize then planning for the future is the first priority and then Finals are only a bonus. If you do have a team that you believe is capable, then Finals are very important because you have to be good at them and have experience in them to know what is required.

The comment was in response to some pats on the back to us for recovering from the position we put ourselves in. Clearly, I feel awkward with this as with the squad we had we should have done more and to fight back is the minimum that should have been expected from us. I just wanted to clear this up because I don’t want it to be said I don’t care unless you win a flag because that isn’t correct, I have been around long enough to know there is often a lot of years between flags, you don’t just click your fingers and win them without first having Finals experience.

Ok, now I have that off my chest.

Last night I went home feeling empty and not really sure what to do, but this morning coming into work I have the emotion of anger. I am angry because when you know the amount of work everyone in this Club puts in to help the lads succeed, it annoys you when it comes down to accuracy. I understand we didn’t play that well but we still had 14 more inside 50’s and 7 more scoring shots so on a normal day that should be a win. I am taking nothing away from North they deserve their win but I can’t help but feel what I feel.

One of the pleasing aspects is the ability of this Club to put together a core group of 25 years and younger players which will serve us well in the future. This was the big hole we had 3 years ago and now we have 13 of the starting 21, 25 years or younger and with an average games played of 40.

This number can sometimes be distorted in the SANFL due to players who have played a lot of senior footy interstate, but this number is genuine Eagles youth that have come through our junior program in the last few years. Some of these players are premiership players and some haven’t played a final before so all looks good for the future. We will need to continue to get consistent performances from our senior players and then add a couple over the pre-season to strengthen the list.

Since this is my final report for the 2012 season I would like to thank all of you, the faithful Eagles member. I often get a lot of feedback from my reports and I appreciate all of them. Doing this report is like therapy to me so as much as I hope you get something from it - I know I certainly do. Well this is it, once again thank you all, hope you have a great Summer and I look forward to seeing you all next year when we can hopefully right the wrongs from this season.

Eagles 12.15 (87) were defeated by North Adelaide 15.5 (95)
Goal kickers: Fitzgerald 3, Goldsworthy 3, Staple 2, Grocke 1, Powell 1, Lewis 1, McKenzie 1
Best Players: Powell, Goldsworthy, Sumner, Culley, Rowntree, McKenzie




Shane Grimm - Under 18's Coach Report

Qualifying Final - Eagles vs Sturt - Saturday 15th September

We entered the Finals series in very good form having defeated all 3 teams that were placed above us on the ladder to give ourselves the double chance. The week on the track was very positive with a very positive feeling and some quality skills on show during our training sessions. Before the game the players seemed focussed on the job at hand and were in good spirits and were excited about the opportunity that was ahead of them. Unfortunately that was all left in the change rooms.

Before the game we spoke as a group of the importance of playing our role and being accountable and the importance of winning contested possessions. This was something that was missing from the majority of the group that played on Saturday. The most disappointing aspect of the game was that the players within our group who I felt should have been setting the example to the rest of the players were the ones who were the most disappointing in their output.

We spoke after the game about learning from the experience of losing a Final that we were confident of winning, and players were challenged to bring a better response to training this week to give ourselves the best chance of beating Glenelg and having the opportunity to play in a Preliminary Final at AAMI Stadium. The players were disappointed with their effort on Saturday and I am looking forward to seeing how each individual player responds in this week’s Final against Glenelg. It will show us the character of the player and if they have the ability to learn from bad experiences and poor performances and it will help us as a Club see which of the playing group has a future in the Senior part of the Club.

Eagles 7.8 (50) were defeated by Sturt 10.14 (74)
Goal kickers: Northeast 3, Ellis 1, Lloyd 1, L Dunstan 1, Lloyd 1
Best Players: Schwarz, Karpany, Daly