Bays outplayed by strong Adelaide unit

It is always a great challenge when you come up against the Adelaide Crows. Whether they have a full complement of AFL-listed players or not, they play a strong brand of football both sides of the ball, which means you must be completely on your game for the full four quarters to stay in the contest. If you are slightly off, they will make it difficult for you, and full credit to them on Saturday as they outplayed us for the first three quarters of the game and deserved the win.

As was the case in our first contest a few weeks back, they can move the ball quickly and apply score pressure on you in a short space of time. This occurred again on Saturday, as they were able to grab the ascendancy in the game from early on. It is important to grab hold of the score opportunities when they present, and while we didn’t do that in the first quarter, the start of the second quarter was positive and we were able to gain some nice momentum and apply some pressure of our own. Some missed opportunities always come back to hurt, and conceding some cheap goals leading into half time was far from ideal. We were left with some work to do in to the second half of the game.

Our third quarter wasn’t great, and to the Adelaide’s credit they were very good and we were not able to match their intensity and effort for long enough through that period. There are some great learnings out of this which we will certainly look at closely. In this competition against high quality opposition, you cannot drop off in these areas, and while we have been solid for a long period of time, this is just a good reminder that we still have lots of improving to work on.

We had a clear focus in the last quarter to get ourselves back into the game from a physical standpoint, and from there stay really brave with the ball in hand. We take away some positives in that we were able to do that and felt we had some strong moments throughout this final term. Thirteen scoring shots reflected that, but we don’t hide away from the fact we didn’t do well enough in the first three quarters.

Our Reserves team continued with their impressive brand of football and consistency in all areas. We were really pleased with the effort to keep challenging the opposition ball in hand. Equally the intent and endeavour around contest was pleasing to see. A mixture of experienced players and some of our younger players continue to play at a consistently high level and keep the pressure on the players above them to keep performing, not just in games but throughout training also.

We look to bounce back this weekend with our round 14 clash against West Adelaide at Stratarama Stadium this Saturday afternoon. We look forward to seeing all our passionate supporters out once again.

– Darren Reeves, Senior Coach

Goal kickers: Lachie Hosie (4), Liam McBean (4), Luke Reynolds (2), Brett Turner

Best Players: Corey Lyons, Lachie Hosie, Jonty Scharenberg, Liam McBean, Toby Pink