Round 8

It was ugly and far from convincing but it was a hard fought victory on Saturday against Port Adelaide. Our disposal was pretty ordinary all day and our inability to stick tackles made it difficult for us all day. When we play well our pressure on the opposition is good but on Saturday for some reason we just didn’t get at them enough and thankfully their inaccuracy kept us in the contest all day. The good news is we found a way to win. Our ability to hang in there all day was terrific and our persistence was rewarded in the end. It must be said that we have not played particularly well throughout the last month so I am very happy that we continue to find a way to keep winning, it tells me that our best form when we are playing well can be competitive with the big teams.

Ian Perrie once again provided us with a big target up forward kicking 5 goals and handing off another couple. Andrew Whiteman relished the conditions and was sensational across half back, his hardness, tackling and attack on the footy was great. In fact our defensive group as a whole performed their roles very well again. Paynter, Sharples, Sheedy & McGlone also contributed very well in their respective positions. It would be remiss of me not to mention Brant Chambers 150th game for the Club, Chambo has been terrific for the Club over a long period and I was pleased to see the boys win on Saturday to honour his milestone. It is a wonderful achievement for a great Club man. Congratulations Chambo.

We now have a couple of weeks off before we take on North Adelaide at home on Monday the 9th of June. We are currently sitting on top of the ladder after playing everyone once but after we have our turn at the bye this Saturday we will probably drop to second or third which is a very solid start to the season. It gives us a foundation to build on in an attempt to gain a spot in this year’s finals series. We will use the next two weeks to freshen up our boys and iron out some kinks in our game and look forward to the next challenge ahead.

In summary, the first third of the season has seen us play some terrific footy and some very ordinary footy. The challenge we face each week is to maintain our intensity throughout the whole match and even out the gap between our best and our worst. I believe our best footy is good enough to compete with the big boys, we just need to make sure we are up near our best more often. It has been a good start to the season and gives us some confidence moving forward.

You might get sick of hearing this from me, but remember we have done nothing yet, there is still a long way to go and we will need to improve to be a serious challenger.

Thanks for your support so far and see you all in a couple of weeks at House Brothers Oval.

Rick Macgowan
Senior Coach

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