Reeva’s Match Wrap | Round 5

Our Round 5 contest with Sturt always promised to be a cracking contest and while a strong swirly wind made conditions a little tricky at times, the game certainly delivered for the crowd there to watch 2 really good teams. While it’s disappointing not to get the win, and frustrating that we didn’t play our best footy for large parts of the game, there are still some positives to takeaway and a few things to keep finding improvement in.

Our first 5 rounds have thrown up some high-quality opposition and we expect each week to have teams really coming after us in all aspects. It is certainly a challenge our playing group are up for and embracing so it’s about looking at areas to keep our game flowing. Sturt have been and continue to be as good as anyone that we come up against and that is even more a factor when you play them at their home ground. The conditions meant it was important to capitalise when you were favoured, while we did a lot pretty well for most part in the first quarter, we did miss some good scoring opportunities, and also allowed a couple of goals against that didn’t help. In the second quarter, Sturt made good use of the conditions and had us under pressure and scrambling for the most part. We had our chances to score through that period also but were not able to finish those opportunities. In these types of games when you are chasing from behind, there is a tendency to overdo – we felt that was the case in the third quarter when again we were doing a lot well without great reward. A late goal against was not ideal and left us with a lot of work in the last period.

Our last quarter was strong and we felt that we had some flow and energy back in our ball movement which is an area we are really focused on. Some really strong footy allowed us to get in front in the game with five minutes left to play. As the game had played out, Sturt had been able to win more of the big moments over the day and were just a little sharper when it mattered – credit to them for their last five minutes, they deserved to win the game.

Our Reserves group probably mirrored our game for most part with a number of scoring opportunities missed in the first half that had them always chasing the game. Credit to them as they stuck to task and kept toiling away right until the end. They have played really strong over the first part of the season, and will continue to take away good learnings week after week coming up against good opposition.

The competition doesn’t get any easier as we head into Round 6 on Mother’s Day back at Stratarama Stadium against Woodville West Torrens, who are playing as well as anyone at the moment. We will be looking to find some improvement in all aspects, and we look forward to the challenge that awaits us. We look forward to having a big crowd there, in what is shaping up as a cracking contest.

Go the Bay’s

Best Players RD 5: 1. M Allen 2. C Gerloff 3. M Proud 4. O Adams 5. A martini

Darren Reeves

SENIOR COACH