2024 Finals – Week 1 Elimination/Qualifying Finals

The goal at the start of every season is to be playing football in September. While we’ve had moments of inconsistency, we have strong confidence in our long-term preparation and a method that we know stands up in big games. We also took confidence from how we played in the final round of the season heading into the Elimination Final against Woodville West Torrens. We were ready to play strong football, and we knew what the outcome could be if we executed well. Fortunately, our group did just that, starting our finals campaign with a solid 71-point win and advancing to the First Semi-Final against Sturt next Sunday.

It’s important to start well in all games, especially finals, and right from the first moments there was a real intent in our contest work, our ability to pressure the ball especially in our forward half and a want to defend the ground strongly and take away their ability to move the ball. When we get the game looking like this, we are confident in what we can do with the ball and the scoring power we have to take advantage of our opportunities. I had mentioned over the last few weeks while the results had been frustrating, the key elements and KPIs in our game were very good and if we could clean up some areas then we would be in good shape – one major area was finishing our work in front of goals. Through the first quarter that was important with scoreboard pressure, the best pressure you can apply. The other big take away from my perspective, was the contribution across the board of our group and the relentlessness that we continued to play with over the entire game. Really pleasing to see and fills us with great confidence. There were some little areas and things we can do better and continue to improve on and we will be getting to work on those throughout this week.

Our Reserves group came up against a really strong Sturt team in their Qualifying Final on Saturday afternoon. While it was disappointing how it played out, what we know this young group has done over the course of the year is learn quickly, get about preparing well and then responding. There are always great learnings out of setbacks, and we will take some of those on board. We will also move on really quickly and this group will prepare for their own First Semi Final against Woodville West Torrens at Stratarama Stadium on Saturday in a double header with our U18s playing in a Preliminary Final also.

One of our real focuses over the last period of time is to take it one day at a time, and not waste energy on things we can’t control. The first part of the week is all about recovery, get the review from the weekend out of the way over today and tomorrow and then move on into preparation for Sunday. It was great to see so many Glenelg supporters at Adelaide Oval yesterday and we can’t wait to get back there on Sunday and get after our next opportunity against a Sturt team that has been as good as anyone all season. We will be ready to go, that’s one thing I am certain of.

Go The Bays

– Darren Reeves, Senior Coach

Goals: Allen (3), Reynolds (3), Chandler (3), McBean (2), Stretch (2), Lyons, Window, Curran, Lovelock, Gerloff, Bell

Best Players: Bell, Gerloff, Proud, Allen, Lyons, Chandler