Round 18 – League v Norwood
Norwood 11.10 (76) Sturt 10.16 (76)
Marty Mattner
Head Coach
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Round 18 – Reserves v Norwood
Norwood 9.9 (63) Norwood 19.7 (121)
The Sturt Reserves finished their home and away season in style defeating Norwood by 58 points to secure 3rd spot and the double chance for ourselves.
It was a game where we had to ensure we were set up well defensively and played with patience as Norwood’s unique game style required us to show patience and be very good with the footy in hand.
Once again we started the game well with a 5 goal to 1 first quarter set up by some fast ball movement and Sean Samblich looking dangerous in attack. Our midfielders were on top and the return of Dan Fahey-Sparks in the ruck was a massive contributor to this.
In the 2nd quarter we continued our dominance of possession and converting most of our opportunities in attack to take a 36 point lead into the long break. The boys were focused at half time and wanted to ensure we had no let off and ran the game out.
In the 3rd quarter Norwood upped the tempo and endeavoured to move the footy quicker and make it a faster paced game. We played into their hands a little by trying to match them with speed and it did not favour us at all. We were sloppy in possession and allowed Norwood to gain some momentum heading into 3 quarter time.
The message was clear in the last quarter, re-focus, play the game on our terms and pressure Norwood all the way through to the final siren and run the game out. To the boys credit they did this really well kicking 7 goals to 2 in the final term to run out 58 point winners.
Best Players:
- Mitch Crowden – made it 2 weeks in a row with Best afield performances, dominating the clearances and providing some real drive from stoppages.
- Tom Campbell – was very solid again down back, hardly beaten and rebounding opposition attacks.
- Campbell Wildman – showed off his superior workrate by running hard all day on spread for us and providing multiple outlets.
- Joel Thiele – was stand in skipper for the day and again led from the front in and around the contest.
- Dwayne Wilson – rebounded off half back for 4 quarters and really sets us up with ball in hand.
- Adam Trenorden – continues to play beyond his years. His composure and decision making with the footy is pleasing to watch.
Goals: Houlahan 4, Samblich 4, Applebee, Hayden, Trenorden, Veale 2, Wildman, Kennedy Crowden 1
With the Minor Round complete it is now into the business end of the season with our Ressies boys facing North Adelaide on Sunday in a Qualifying Final. We are looking forward to the challenge finals footy brings and hope to continue our winning ways.
Gianni Petrucci
Reserves Coach
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Round 18 – Under 18’s v Norwood
Sturt 14.14 (98) Norwood 7.8 (50)
The final round of the U18s Torrens University Cup saw the Sturt U18s travel to Football Park to take on Norwood as part of a quadruple header of U18s matches at West Lakes.
It was evident from the first bounce that the boys were switched on and had come to play. They got off to a great start kicking 4.4 (28) to Norwood’s 1.1 (7) in the first quarter with Norwood’s only goal coming from an anti-density rule free kick. We continued to display great commitment to 18-man defence in the second quarter and were able to turn strong defensive pressure into intercept marks. Unfortunately we didn’t have as much dominance finishing off with scores which meant we won the quarter by 8 points for a half time lead of 29 points. It was pleasing to see us continue to work hard and spread the big ground to great effect in the last half to eventually run out winners by 48 points with a final score of Sturt 14.14 (98) d Norwood 7.8 (50).
Best player for Sturt was tall forward Hugo Munn who was dominant in the air with 9 marks (6 contested) as well as having a major influence on the scoreboard with 10 score involvements, 4 score assists and kicking 2.0 himself. Second best player was Mt Barker product Malachi Lines who found plenty of the ball off a wing. He led the match with 147 rankings points, had 24 disposals (83% efficiency), kicked 2 goals and had 3 score assists. Third best for Sturt was key defender Dougal Grieve who showed great leadership in the back half and was able to intercept mark on a number of occasions. Ryan Weidenhofer was again solid, starting as a rebounding defender and then moved into the midfield after Ed Allan pulled up sore at half time. He had 27 disposals, 5 tackles and 6 clearances. Inside mid Rory Illman was named fifth best displaying his usual strength at the stoppage. He had 8 tackles, 4 clearances and 18 disposals. Rounding out the best players was ruck/forward D’Arcy Mitchell who also played as a tall defender in the last quarter. He took some very nice contested marks around the ground and set-up a number of clearances with his good ruck work finishing with 30 hit-outs (6 to advantage).
The U18 competition runs with a top 4 finals system meaning that we now look forward to face West Adelaide in the Elimination Final at Football Park on Saturday. The boys will look to train well in preparation for the game and there will be pressure on selections with college players now available after their season wrapped up last week.
Chris Trapp
High Performance Manager