Some key dates in the SANFL season of Woodville-West Torrens.
Sunday, May 3: The only unbeaten team in the league after five rounds, top of the table.
Tuesday, May 26: The AFL mid-season draft.
The Eagles’ Facebook page sums it up: “BANG! BANG! BANG!” Lukas Cooke is snared by Melbourne, Max Beattie heads to Hawthorn and Liam Puncher goes to Collingwood, three stars gone in the blink of an eye with picks 11, 12 and 15.
Sunday, August 9: The Eagles, having lost their past three games, the most recent to Glenelg by 65 points, are grimly hanging on to fourth place and the Crows and Bloods are coming.
Against Adelaide, it’s looking dire. The Crows lead the Eagles by five goals midway through the second quarter.
Sunday, August 30: Sam Jacobs’ men are a point down against West in the elimination final – 28 minutes into the last quarter.
Sunday, September 6: It’s quarter-time in the knockout first semi-final. Glenelg 5.3, Eagles 0.1. Jacobs, in his third season in charge, has not yet beaten the Bays. Injuries have been mounting and superstar Riley Knight (hamstring) is ruled out in the second quarter.
Surely it’s all too hard now.
“BANG! BANG! BANG!” The Eagles win all three of these games.
One could be a fluke. You might possibly need more than your fair share of luck to win two games in these circumstances. But three out of three?
It says plenty about what the Eagles have become this year. It says plenty about resilience, courage, determination no matter what the odds. Belief. That’s been building at such a remarkable rate and they’ve been written off so many times and still prevailed no-one would be surprised however far they go on this remarkable rollercoaster ride of a season.
West Adelaide was supposed to be the fairytale story this year. Now, it’s become the Eagles. Jacobs at the start of the season thought his side had what it takes to match anyone, anytime but there were some times you would have expected he would have had doubts. But he has remained positive, believing in his men.
Now they will have to do it without Knight but they have received a boost with the overturning of a suspension for a semi-final tackle by sparkplug James Rowe.
Reigning premier Sturt won’t need any warning. How could anyone possibly think about writing off the Eagles now?
The Blues were pipped by two points at Unley in Round 3 when the Eagles were flying but won in heavy going at Woodville by 26 points in Round 14.
Again pointing to the Eagles’ fighting spirit, the two-point win against the Blues is one of five narrow wins – also beating Central by six points, Adelaide by seven, West by five and Glenelg by four – as against just one loss – and that was when Zane Williams skimmed the post as the siren sounded on a three-point loss against the Bulldogs.
The Blues were caught short by minor premier and flag favourite Norwood by 19 points in the second semi-final but you would expect a better performance with their survival on the line.
They have so many big guns – Magarey Medallists Tom Lewis and Will Snelling both average 26 disposals and eight tackles, Casey Voss and Zac Becker have made a huge difference in defence since returning from long-term injury absences and there’s also Will Coomblas – who wasn’t named in The Advertiser SANFL Team of the Year again for nothing – back there.
And there are heaps of players who can chip in for goals, Ash Johnson a huge X-factor.
The worry has been if ruck key Amos Doyle can come up from a neck concern. He and the Eagles’ Jordan Lukac have been huge this year and a battle between them would be immense.
Goalkicking key forward Connor Ballenden again looms large for the Eagles, with Ted Clohesy and Rowe likely to give him plenty of opportunities – and the Eagles have certainly been making the most of these lately.
Courtesy SANFL & Peter Cornwall
STURT VS WOODVILLE-WEST TORRENS
Sunday, 13 September, 3:15pm – Adelaide Oval
Channel 7 & 7Plus | Live radio on 1629 SEN SA & SEN App & FIVEAA
STURT
F Joshua Hone, Oliver Grivell, Lachlan Burrows
HF Jared Dakin, Tom Emmett, Sam Conforti
C Alex Holt, Tom Lewis, Luca Slade
HB Nick Sadler, Zac Becker, Casey Voss
B Rory Illman, Will Coomblas, Luke Edmonds
R Amos Doyle, Will Snelling, Martin Frederick
INT Isaiah Faddoul, Daniel Fahey-Sparks, Ash Johnson, Kobe McEntee, Charlie Parker, Loch Rawlinson, Sam Waltham
IN Isaiah Faddoul, Daniel Fahey-Sparks, Kobe McEntee
EAGLES
F Daniel Sladojevic, Connor Ballenden, Sam Nicholls
HF James Rowe, Jack Hayes, Jett Hasting
C Zane Williams, Blake Hansen, Nicholas Hayes
HB Jack Cook, Ethan Grace, Joseph Sinor
B Mitchell Harris, Jordan Moore, Sam Rowland
R Jordan Lukac, Ted Clohesy, Kade Herbert
INT Adam D’Aloia, Harrison Dawkins, Max Litster, Brody Mair, Kobe Mutch, Patrick Weckert
IN Max Litster, Brody Mair, Kobe Mutch
OUT Riley Knight (Hamstring)