Tigers slog it out against Eagles

Sunday afternoon was a drizzly wet affair at Oval Avenue in Woodville. After watching the Reserves boys play some very good wet weather footy and return to the winners list, the League boys were ready to front our biggest challenge this season so far. The Eagles had won 4 in a row and they had been playing some very good football so we knew we had to be up for the challenge.

The first quarter was a good contest and we had 8 more inside 50’s than the Eagles, but were unable to capitalise on our entries. We went into the break 5 points up with Matthew Snook having a very good first quarter.

The second quarter saw the Eagles getting their hands on the ball first and applying a lot more pressure than the first which caught us off guard a bit. With some costly free kicks we went into the half time break 9-points down, lucky not to be down by more.

After a good honest discussion at half time we came out and started to win the ball again and get our hands on it first.

Andrew Bradley, Matthew Snook, Luke Partington and Brett Turner were instrumental in winning the hard ball and giving our forwards opportunities. But once again, we were unable to capitalise on our chances. The game had turned into a real tug of war and it was going to come down to who could take their chances in the last quarter.

The Eagles kicked an early goal in the last quarter which put us down by 7 points, but we were able to respond quickly with a free kick and 25m penalty to Andrew Bradley who kicked truly. It was a trigger that the boys needed and we then kicked another 4 goals to the Eagles 1 goal which had us running out winners by 19 points. It was a sweet victory with Woodville Oval proving to be a hard place to win in the past few years.

I was proud of the way we adapted to the conditions, and our effort and intensity didn’t waver for the game. Luke Partington, Matthew Snook, Andrew Bradley and Dylan Landt were very good all day and Liam McBean, Darcy Bailey and Marlon Motlop all made the most of their opportunities, kicking 2 goals each.

It was another good weekend for the club on a Sunday and we look forward to returning to Saturday afternoon footy this weekend when we get to take on the Adelaide Crows, who have regained a number of their AFL listed boys back from injury. We are expecting another very solid encounter against a team that won last weekend’s game against West convincingly. I look forward to seeing you at ACH Stadium on Saturday at 1:10pm.

– Brett Hand, Senior Coach

Goal kickers: L. McBean (5), M. Motlop (2), D. Bailey (2). L. Reynolds (2). A. Bradley, R. Kuller