Eagles v Sturt Rd 7 2007

[MST]

Very interesting game this one.
If Sturt's the real deal, they'd want to put up a good contest against an Eagles ready to break out.

B. Oath! This is the time of year they usually get their act together, and along comes the Double Blues ready for.... I can't type it.....but we tend to be a "good work-out " for champion sides to really get their teams fine tuned. Like a nice stretch of country road for a new Ferrari.
Sorry guys, I'll shut up now.

I see the Hilltop Hoods line made an impression on you theri!!

We'll be right this week. I can't tip us with real confidence but I think the young lads will go to Oval Ave without fear, hoodoo's and losing streaks mean very little to them.

Expect us to be right with the Eagles. If we are in it at three quarter time, given our fitness, I would expect the boys to give the two points a real shake.

The incentive is a share of second spot with Port.

[Aerie]

Sturt have the advantage of MacGowan and Norman knowing how the Eagles play. As mentioned previously, this is a pretty important game for both sides and will show where each side is presently at. Both will need a win to keep in touch with the top 3. The Eagles depth is being tested, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[Aerie]

The Eagles team:

FF KLUN PASSADOR GROCKE
HF BATSANIS McGREGOR FITZGERALD
C JARRAD POWELL TREEBY
HB P. STEWART PEDLER P. FIACCHI
FB FAIRCLOUGH SALTER McKENZIE
RUCK LINDSAY SYMMONS COOPER
INT FROM DABROWSKI LOMAS R. FIACCHI REDDEN HIER

INS: HIER R FIACCHI

Reserves squad: PAPPS, BOCK, J STEWART, LEIGHTON, HICKS, PAVLICH, WILLIAMSON, DUNCAN, ARBON, GAUTESEN, HARRIS, JOLLY, LEE, PEDERSEN, PETRENKO, RUGOLO, LAMOND, MEHAFFEY, G PEDLER, McDONNELL, GIUFFREDA

[Mickyj]

Hopefully Batsanis will continue with his improving form didnt he look great last week.
And Aerie I see Heir and R Fiacchi have been inluded. Wonder who will be out ?

[Aerie]

Hopefully Batsanis will continue with his improving form didnt he look great last week.
And Aerie I see Heir and R Fiacchi have been inluded. Wonder who will be out ?

Batsanis was great last week. Looks a real promising player and a pretty handy pick up at number 9 in the mini draft, remembering Knights was number 8.

I'm not sure either Hier or R Fiacchi will get a game unless there is an injury cloud over someone. Most likely two candidates would be Redden and Pedler, but Redden was fantastic last week in only his 3rd league game and deserves another chance. Pedler is a proven performer and he may take Chambers, although I'd probably put Salter on him.

You never know what Fuller ends up doing. I can't ever remember the named team on Thursday night being the same as on the Saturday!

PS. Good to see McGregor playing again. That's 3 games and qualification for the finals should we make it and if he isn't injured or on Crows duty.

[phantom57]

Rumour has it that the Double Blues are going to enjoy "scrambled eags" on saturday...........

[godoubleblues]

the Sturt team

F - Thompson Chambers Weatherald
HF - Nelson Herring Button
C - Jaensch Sheedy Hardy
HB - Bratton MacLeay OKeefe
B - Gregory Smith Wark
R - DeLuca Evans Crane
IC - Feast Darling Gum Kay Hurse

In - Herring Kay Hurse
Out - Johncock

[Jimmy]

Is hardy for sturt really doing enough to keep his spot?? thought that another player, a sturt home grown boy could take his spot?

[sapaul]

who the maggot was that didn't pay a legitimate mark to Damien Kitshcke in the dying seconds and ultimately cost us an upset victory?

I am not bitter by the way

David Elliott and Gary Wyld were the umps. Not sure which one was the culprit.

[centrecirclelegend]

Hier may come into the side as he creamed Chambers the 2 times he stood him last year.......gave him nothing.......Pedler may be the unlucky one?

[Mickyj]

do we know if Kenny is definatley not playing for the crows ?

[sapaul]

Crows are unchanged as of an hour ago but Burton and Welsh still in doubt apparently.

[therisingblues]

Very interesting game this one.
If Sturt's the real deal, they'd want to put up a good contest against an Eagles ready to break out.

B. Oath! This is the time of year they usually get their act together, and along comes the Double Blues ready for.... I can't type it.....but we tend to be a "good work-out " for champion sides to really get their teams fine tuned. Like a nice stretch of country road for a new Ferrari.
Sorry guys, I'll shut up now.

I see the Hilltop Hoods line made an impression on you theri!!


The incentive is a share of second spot with Port.

Not sure if your referring to the sig' or if you are contrasting it against my sour attitude...but I checked out the link that Dutchy put up to the 'Hoods' my space, and for a first listen I thought it sounded pretty good. Then checked out a bit of the gossip about them and caught up with their achievements. I'm stoked to have a nationally successful band actually referencing the SANFL for material in their music, shows a strong sense of where they feel they belong IMO, (where home is, like the Irish, a very musical people always singing about their homeland, the Hoods' make this a little more extraordinary as they sure aren't folk singers) the fact that they are actually singing about Sturt, just makes it that much better. The line I have preserved as my sig', describes an action I myself have repeated many times in my life, it may as well have been something I wrote myself. I think it is f*****n excellent!
I know the sig' contrasts fairly strongly with my attitude about our chances against the Eagles, but I was thinking during the first 5 games that we were showing what our level was and now I think we are there. If we had beaten North I would have rated us a top three chance, but to get done in that fashion, after getting done by so much by Norwood, indicates pretty well to me that we are "knocking on the door of the five" at best. The first three rounds were freakish performances against opponents that obviously didn't prepare too well. That luxury is now out with the cat, and I don't think we are going to catch any teams napping before a Sturt game from now. The Eagles are a quality side, and they are just warming up. This is real bad timing for us, I am worried there could be a real ugly scoreline after this one.
I love your optimism suggesting that there is a possibility of grabbing an equal share of second! I guess it is mathematically possible, but that would involve us beating the Eagles. I have to get my sleep cap on a dream a bit to consider that happening!

[sturt1]

Good luck to young Herring playing CHF today.

[Aerie]

Pretty average game in strange conditions. A cross wind, dark and raining one minute, then the next sunshine and a slight breeze.

I don't think this game told us too much about the Eagles. One quarter of really good football won the game, but still no where near 100%. Sturt are average and soon enough should join the Bays in fighting out that wooden spoon everyone predicted they would get at the start of the year.

Best players for the Eagles across all 4 quarters I thought were Powell and Peter Fiacchi. Symmons, Treeby, Cooper, McKenzie, McGregor and Stewart were reasonable.

Will take a 4 goal win, but will need a more solid effort throughout the whole game to match it against the better teams.

[Wedgie]

Eagles shake gnawing Sturt

DOUG ROBERTSON

May 20, 2007 12:15am
Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)


PERSISTENT Woodville-West Torrens ground out a 24-point win over Sturt to leapfrog into fourth spot in a dour contest at Woodville yesterday.

But it took the Eagles until the match-defining third quarter to look anything like the cohesive premiership outfit of 2006 as Sturt gnawed at their heels in a defensive first half.

Yet, when the Eagles horde of midfielders switched on after the main break, it took just nine minutes and four unanswered goals to stamp authority over the youthful Blues who appeared too timid to take on their more accomplished opponents.

The Eagles - lacking penetration in the first half - kicked 9.2 to 3.0 in the third term, including two runs of four unanswered goals as bookends to a quarter which virtually won the points.

For 30 minutes it was the Eagles in full flight as Luke Powell (27 disposals, three effective tackles), ex-Sturt premiership onballer Matthew Cooper (15, three), Peter Fiacchi (33) and Leigh Treeby (20) led the way.

The Eagles- roving to losing rucks - dominated the clearances and when they began attacking hard and fast down the corridor in the simplest remedy to wasteful football the Blues had nothing to stop the avalanche.

Eagles spearhead Mark Passador, who was held goalless by a clinging Darren Gregory in the first half, kicked two of his three goals in the third quarter because the midfielders were driving the ball in quick and long.

The Eagles were 53 points up at the last change and seemingly out of trouble but then the run, teamwork and hard work that makes good teams great just evaporated.

They kicked just 1.1 in the final term - from Passador - while a harder-running Sturt piled on six goals to considerably cut the margin and give hope to their fans.

Staccato performances are becoming a problem for the Eagles.

"The way we play we've got to build momentum," coach Ron Fuller said.

"Once we established that and built an ascendancy in the midfield we broke it (the deadlock) up.

"But, as you saw in the last quarter, once we stopped working around the midfield we got exposed."

Sturt started without experienced Sean O'Keefe (groin) and Adam Thomson (knee) and their youngsters - 11 had played fewer than 10 league games - showed they lacked the edge needed to succeed at league level.

But when the Blues ran through the lines and looked for longer attacking options they were dangerous.

Unfortunately, they waited until the final quarter to do it. "The Eagles were more ferocious at the contested ball and they had a good attitude about getting the ball back from us," coach Rick Macgowan said.

"When we ran from behind and carried the ball, the kicks finally went long.

"If you just bomb it they (the opposition) will just zone off."

[Mickyj]

Eagles shake gnawing Sturt

DOUG ROBERTSON

May 20, 2007 12:15am
Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)




Eagles spearhead Mark Passador, who was held goalless by a clinging Darren Gregory in the first half, kicked two of his three goals in the third quarter because the midfielders were driving the ball in quick and long.

At one stage in the third quarter I said out loud that if the sturt fullback was any closer they'd be married .
I still think Sturt are not that good (dont get me wrong Ealges need to improve by heaps) they were picking out the eagles players with nice kicks in the third quarter .And two of the eagles goals I think came from sturt trying to clear the defensive 50.If the Eagles had worn their Blue jumpers there may have been more nice passes.
And sturt were not the only ones playing youth if fitzy had kicked the opening goal and not a point BUT he played very well as did Fairclough and not to to forget Batsanis what a player to pick up in the mini draft at pick 9.
And a special mention to Robert Fiacchi he put his body on the line and was carried off on a strecther and for me that spurred the eagles on and his brother as well looked to be spurred on after that.
Lets not forget cooper as well he was targeted at certain times by his ex team mates and i have never seen an umpire give a free for a head high sheppard before well done umpire.
cheers.

[Aerie]

And a special mention to Robert Fiacchi he put his body on the line and was carried off on a strecther and for me that spurred the eagles on and his brother as well looked to be spurred on after that.

Yes, that was terrible to see. Looked like some sort of leg injury after a heavy collision with a team mate. Very unlucky after finally shaking off injury to make it back into the senior side after hardly playing last year. Lets hope it's not too bad and he can make another comeback soon. And yes, Pete played his best game of the year and I reckon he was spurred on after Robbie went down in the first 10 minutes of the match.

edit - according to the paper today, suspected damage to ACL.

[sturt1]

Eagles shake gnawing Sturt

DOUG ROBERTSON

May 20, 2007 12:15am
Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)




Eagles spearhead Mark Passador, who was held goalless by a clinging Darren Gregory in the first half, kicked two of his three goals in the third quarter because the midfielders were driving the ball in quick and long.

At one stage in the third quarter I said out loud that if the sturt fullback was any closer they'd be married .
I still think Sturt are not that good (dont get me wrong Ealges need to improve by heaps) they were picking out the eagles players with nice kicks in the third quarter .And two of the eagles goals I think came from sturt trying to clear the defensive 50.If the Eagles had worn their Blue jumpers there may have been more nice passes.
And sturt were not the only ones playing youth if fitzy had kicked the opening goal and not a point BUT he played very well as did Fairclough and not to to forget Batsanis what a player to pick up in the mini draft at pick 9.
And a special mention to Robert Fiacchi he put his body on the line and was carried off on a strecther and for me that spurred the eagles on and his brother as well looked to be spurred on after that.
Lets not forget cooper as well he was targeted at certain times by his ex team mates and i have never seen an umpire give a free for a head high sheppard before well done umpire.
cheers.

The eggs are not that good this year. They died in the bike rack in the last quarter last week and its hard to see them making an impact this season even if they just scrape in the finals. Even though cicallela and inkster are due to come back, they dont have what it takes this year. No chance of getting any where near centrals, port or norf