Tiger women cling on to win against Eagles

The opportunity to play on ANZAC Day was a very proud moment and the significance of the day was definitely not lost on us.

Coming off a very impressive Round 9 win against Sturt, we prepared for a strong and confident Eagles team knowing that they had a harder edge, are well coached and are a more challenging opponent than they have ever been.

Excitingly, Morgan Blackwell made her debut this week. Her trademark running was definitely going to be advantageous on the large Woodville Oval.

Despite the Eagles kicking the first goal within the first minute of the game, we managed to settle and kick a couple of goals. We looked to be heading into the first break up by eight points, but unfortunately a lapse in concentration resulted in a goal to the Eagles in the last 30 seconds of the quarter, meaning our lead was only two points.

Two goals saw us extend our lead to 15 points halfway through the second quarter. Once again a lapse in concentration saw the Eagles kick another late goal to reduce our lead to nine points.

A couple of early goals to the Eagles in the third quarter saw us fall behind on the scoreboard. The Eagles’ pressure and efficiency along with our lack of composure meant we were not able to get any ascendancy whatsoever. We headed to the last break down by two points and needing to lift significantly if we were going to give ourselves a chance to win the game.

Thankfully we lifted considerably in the last quarter to dominate the territory battle. Unfortunately, our inaccuracy in front of goals meant we only kicked four behinds, but we kept the Eagles scoreless.

In the end we did just enough to win by two points. It was a tough gritty win against a tough opponent. Sure, we would like to execute some things a lot better than we did, especially goal kicking, but this game will no doubt harden us up for the last two minor round games against a couple of very good opponents.

This week we play against South Adelaide at 11:50am Sunday at ACH Group Stadium before our men take on Port Adelaide. South Adelaide are fighting for a finals spot, so we anticipate this to be another tough and challenging game.

– Jason Fairall, Senior Coach

Goal kickers: Caitlyn Swanson (2), Ellie Kellock (1), Madisyn Freeman (1)

Best: Jess Bates, Tessa Kohn, Ellie Kellock, Chelsea Packer, Lauren Edwards