Bays celebrate Good Friday victory against Port

Good Friday presented the opportunity for us to play our first game back at Stratarama Stadium in 2023 as part of a triple header with both our Women’s teams. On what has been traditionally a good day to play in the SANFL over the last few years, this was the case again with a strong crowd on hand, which is pleasing.

The focus this week was completely on being able to bring a much more consistent effort over four quarters in all areas. There is no doubt a lot of work to do in this space, but a strong first half, together with some determination to win in the last quarter, allowed us to walk away with a 17-point victory. Although our third quarter wasn’t how we wanted it to play out, we are able to take away some good lessons that will be valuable as we seek improvement moving forward.

One of the focuses for us in how we want the game to look is our ability to play in our forward half for long periods of time. Over the night that was a strong part of our play, with 62 inside 50 opportunities. While that didn’t turn into scoreboard reward as much as we had hoped, we are confident that will take care of itself as we continue to improve. What it did show us is if we are engaged in how we defend from our forward half of the ground, and get the contest part of the game in order, we can play the game this way and it will allow some of what we feel our strengths are to shine more often. From these aspects we take away some confidence in the work we are doing.

We head into the bye week with some clear focuses on areas for improvement, some areas to keep refining and some confidence in the direction we are taking. It also gives us a great opportunity to look closely at our next opponent, Woodville West Torrens.

Our Reserves team also walked away with a strong win against West Adelaide. Like our League team, we were really pleased with how the group went about it in some sometimes-tough conditions on Friday morning. They were able to play the game in our forward half for long periods of time. This group has started the season well with several guys playing strong consistent football and pushing for selection over the coming weeks. This a good position for the club to be in at this point of the year.

We look forward to seeing all our members and supporters here at Stratarama Stadium on Monday April 24th for Round 3.

– Darren Reeves, Senior Coach

Goal Kickers: L. Hosie (6), L. McBean (3), L. Reynolds

Best Players: M. Proud, L. Hosie, M. Snook, C. Lyons, D. Bailey, B. Turner