Tigers with a Dominant Start in Round 1

There was certainly some apprehension and nerves leading into Round 1 against Port Adelaide on my behalf. While I have been thrilled with how our players have gone about every moment of preseason, it hadn’t necessarily turned into strong form in our two trials games leading in. There was some significant planning around managing our players and making sure we were ready to go round 1 and beyond as well as a couple of senior players missing some valuable game time with little niggles, but it certainly had me a little uneasy.

Thankfully the form and efforts we had seen in a lot of training over the last few months held strong and we were able to play some solid football over 4 quarters on Friday. Port Adelaide started the game with great energy and pace on the game as we had expected, we didn’t help our cause with some sloppy turn overs and together with the loss of Cam McGree early in the game with a broken collar bone we were relieved to get to quarter time only 1 point behind. After being able to readjust a few things and reinforce what is important to our method, the players were fantastic over the next 3 quarters playing some exciting football with the ball and defending the ground with great intent.

From the coaching group perspective, we are really pleased with our offence and some growth that was evident in how we want to move the ball, but some of our most pleasing aspects were how we set up the ground defensively to allow our offence to have big impact. We made a few errors along the way and let some goals in that we can do better with but overall, it was a really pleasing performance. Equally after losing Cam, the efforts of Riley Holder and debutant Oscar Adams against two AFL quality ruckmen was impressive. Our midfield went to work around contest and got the game on our terms despite the advantage Port had in the ruck area.

Our Reserves group started the season with a solid win against South Adelaide on Friday morning. With several new players playing their first game or first senior game for the club, it was pleasing to see how the group went about their work. There are a number of players that have had impressive preseasons and are applying strong pressure on the players above. There is lots to look forward to as we move forward with some of the talent in this group.

A huge thank you to our outstanding Glenelg supporters that got out and supported on Friday. It’s great to be able to play some big home games at this point of the year and we look forward to seeing you all there again over the next few weeks.

While we head into a bye this weekend, we will have 7 of our players representing South Australia against Victoria at Stratarama Stadium this Saturday at 12.40pm. Congratulations to Liam McBean, Lachlan Hosie, Luke Reynolds, Matt Allen, Corey Lyons, Max Proud and Darcy Bailey on your selection – outstanding achievement.

Bring on Norwood at Norwood on Friday week.

Go The Bays

Reeva

– Darren Reeves, Senior Coach

Goal kickers: Hosie (5), McBean (5), Allen (3), Lovelock (3), Reynolds (2), Stagg (2), Bell, Snook, Adams

Best Players: Allen, Hosie, McBean, Holder, Curran, Snook, Lovelock