Tigers make a huge statement against Double Blues

With a perfect winter morning greeting us on the Queen’s Birthday, it provided the ideal weather for a bumper crowd and a good game against a highly rated young team in Sturt. We knew we hadn’t played our best footy over the past couple of weeks, and so after the 10 day break we came in well prepared for a tough contest against Sturt.

Our defensive pressure and full team defence was as good as it has been for the year, and in the first half we managed to keep Sturt goalless while kicking six goals ourselves. Our stoppage work was very good and I was happy with our tackling pressure which allowed us to capitalise on turnovers. Jordan Moore has been waiting for his chance to cement a spot in the league team and he grabbed his chance this week with both hands. He was very good with his 1v1 contests, started some good ball movement and looked comfortable at this level. Cole Gerloff was playing a role for us in the midfield and was providing great tackle pressure and nullifying Sturt’s influence at stoppage.

Sturt came out after the main break with some real energy and were able to kick the first two goals of the quarter. It was pleasing to see that we had learned from the last time we played them, where they kicked a few in a row and we were unable to stem the flow. Our midfield played a significant role winning the next few stoppages and getting the ball inside 50 and allowing us to score the next two goals of the quarter. We were able to keep the ball in our half of the ground, kicking four goals five and restricting Sturt to two goals one.

This week we had a real focus of playing a full four quarter game, and I was pleased with the way we went about the last quarter of football. We kicked five goals straight on the back of some very good stoppage work, but more pleasing was our defensive set up which allowed us to score on turnover. Leading the way with our contested ball effort was Matt Snook, who was instrumental in the middle of the ground with 11 clearances but was able to sneak forward and reward himself with a couple of goals. Cole Gerloff and Jack Yates both played critical roles on the day and applied outstanding pressure across the ground. Our backline was ably led by a couple of our more mature men in Andrew Bradley and Max Proud, but it was Darcy Bailey (our 100-gamer) who was instrumental in setting up a number of our movements from the back half of the ground.

It was wonderful to see so many  members and supporters coming out to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday at ACH Group Stadium and a Glenelg victory. We are going to enjoy a break for a week now and freshen the group up before we return to training next Monday and prepare for our next challenge against Port at Alberton. Enjoy the week off and we will see you next week.

– Brett Hand, Senior Coach

Goal kickers: L. McBean (4), L. Hosie (2), L. Partington (2), L. Reynolds (2), M. Snook (2), C. Lyons, B. Searle, J. Yates