Reeva’s Match Wrap | Round 19

There was a lot to like in our Round 19 win over Central Districts Football Club, our last minor round game for the season. The opportunity to finish the season on a big oval with lots of open space presented a chance to play our brand of football that we have great confidence in against another top 5 team that has had some strong results in a good season. Our group produced a really strong display in all areas for the full 120mins of play.

As mentioned last week, we had taken the opportunity in the last few rounds to manage some players from the crash and bash of the week-to-week games which we believe is important, it also presented the chance for some strong contributors throughout the year in our Reserves group the chance that they also deserved. We have great confidence in our depth and capabilities that we have in our players and as we expected they added plenty of energy and enthusiasm and most importantly all played their roles exceptionally well.

What was most important was we got our game in good order, our pressure and intent around the contest as a start point, get control of the territory battle, be relentless in our forward half pressure and allow our defensive group to control the ground for us. If we do that, we feel our ability to put score board pressure will take care of itself. Our first half was exceptional in all of those areas, and we were able to play as well as we have for a period of time. Pleasingly we continued on in the second half and while the dominance of the first half not quite the same, we continued to work incredibly hard and have real control on the game. It was a really strong performance from the full group. It certainly creates a lot of selection headaches as we head into the first week of finals.

Really pleasing to see our Reserves group finish of the season strongly and on top of the table giving them the weekend off in the first week of finals. As we have been all season our group was particularly young with as mentioned a number of resting players, but we also had some players returning from injury and it was great to see them all play well. This group has put together a really strong season to date and have met a number of challenges over the year and worked their way through them well. Credit to all involved.

We head to Adelaide Oval this Sunday afternoon in a clash with the Adelaide Football Club. This is where we want to be, from the first night of preseason or probably from my point of view, started thinking about it the day after last year’s Grand Final. Our group is ready, we are confident in where we are at physically, we are really confident in what our game looks like, and we can’t wait for the challenge ahead. We have the best supporters in the competition bar none, the Bay army continue to be magnificent, and we look forward to seeing you there in big numbers this Sunday.

Go the Bays

Best Players Round 19: 1. James Bell 2. L Partington 3. A Martini 4. C Lyons 5. J Scharenberg 6. M Allen

Darren Reeves

Senior Coach