R4 Eagles v North Sunday 2.10PM

[Magellan]

From what was heard during yesterday’s scuffle the North “fans” have a very limited vocabulary. Especially the bearded one and his mate still wearing the North guernsey from the 80’s.

Really? Jesus wept, who'd have thought the fashion police are making regular patrols of Woodville Oval. Good luck finding a Woodville-West Torrens guernsey from the 80s.

[ferret]

Good to get the win. I’ll take the points but this wind was certainly nothing to get excited about. A couple of my observations:

1. Our defence was absolutely terrific. The amount of pressure they withstood in the last half was terrific. Glad to see Rowland awarded the medal for his game. Too often the contribution of defenders is overlooked by neutral commentators in favour of midfielders who accumulate more of the ball. Rowland well deserved but thought Giuffreda and Thompson also played superb games.

2. We are not playing footy that will win us a premiership. Our movement forward has been diabolical all season to date with the way we are bombing it in. In previous seasons this hasn’t been so much an issue with Jack and Nick Hayes there who could clunk a big contested mark. But with Hayes spending so much more time in the ruck this season we have lacked a tall presence there so this style does not work. We have replaced them with the mid-sized Menzels who can’t do this and are more opportunists or mark-on-a-lead players. Our midfield and wingers need to adjust to this and start kicking to their advantage.

3. On the Menzels…..not sure whether it is their leading patterns or not but when they do get the ball they seem to be having shots from the pockets. Makes it much harder to kick goals.

4. Riley Knight – continued his terrific season and would be vying with Hayes as our B&F this year to date. He will also give the Magarey a genuine shake which is great to see as we haven’t really had any serious contenders in the last few years.

5. Von Bertouch – needs to have a blowtorch applied to him. Pretty much since mid-last year he has been coasting. Every so often he takes a great contested grab and has the capacity to do this regularly but his work-rate is well down. Watching him on Sunday when he was stationed at CHF he just seems to be jogging around at half pace or standing flat footed not presenting as a target. He needs to be busting a gut leading up and making more contests because he is one of the few we have up forward with height. He will stay in the team so long as Redden is finding fitness and form in the reserves because we need him to support Hayes in the ruck but when the time comes to consider Redden in the team then the Coach will have a big call to make because the risk is we might be too top heavy and slow playing both Von Bertouch and Redden.

6. North – a very good team and I feel they will definitely be around the mark come finals time. The move of Keenan Ramsay to defence looks to be a masterstroke. Both him and Tanner Smith absolutely monstered our forwards marking it every time we went forward.

Very, very harsh "Mr Fuller" it was a good gutsy win. We can't always play perfect football but we should be excited about the way we hung in the game and found a way to get the winning goal by stinging together a fantastic passage of play. We go out with our plans to beat North but they also go out with plans to beat us, they are not going to let us win just because we are the reigning premiers. North have basically lost no one from their grand final team and added an excellent player in Aaron Young. With very little disruption to their team and the added incentive of revenge it was always going to be a tough match for the Eagles.

You MUST remember that the Eagles have lost 10 premiership players and for this match we also had West, Lonergan, Redden, Mcfarlane and Kobe Mutch missing. We have numerous new players to the club playing. It will take time for the team to gel, three out of four is not a bad result so far. Over the past three years we have had 20 players drafted so the top level of youngsters have vanished so we have to depend on developing the second level of youngsters, this will take a bit longer, be patient. REMEMBER there are still 14 matches left in the minor round. Sheedy is a very astute coach and will know what is to be worked on. As good as the coach is he is not quite a magician, be fair to him and give him a reasonable go. A premiership should garner a fair bit of tolerance. We should all be pulling in a positive direction, not being the grim reaper.

[Mr Fuller]

Good to get the win. I’ll take the points but this wind was certainly nothing to get excited about. A couple of my observations:

1. Our defence was absolutely terrific. The amount of pressure they withstood in the last half was terrific. Glad to see Rowland awarded the medal for his game. Too often the contribution of defenders is overlooked by neutral commentators in favour of midfielders who accumulate more of the ball. Rowland well deserved but thought Giuffreda and Thompson also played superb games.

2. We are not playing footy that will win us a premiership. Our movement forward has been diabolical all season to date with the way we are bombing it in. In previous seasons this hasn’t been so much an issue with Jack and Nick Hayes there who could clunk a big contested mark. But with Hayes spending so much more time in the ruck this season we have lacked a tall presence there so this style does not work. We have replaced them with the mid-sized Menzels who can’t do this and are more opportunists or mark-on-a-lead players. Our midfield and wingers need to adjust to this and start kicking to their advantage.

3. On the Menzels…..not sure whether it is their leading patterns or not but when they do get the ball they seem to be having shots from the pockets. Makes it much harder to kick goals.

4. Riley Knight – continued his terrific season and would be vying with Hayes as our B&F this year to date. He will also give the Magarey a genuine shake which is great to see as we haven’t really had any serious contenders in the last few years.

5. Von Bertouch – needs to have a blowtorch applied to him. Pretty much since mid-last year he has been coasting. Every so often he takes a great contested grab and has the capacity to do this regularly but his work-rate is well down. Watching him on Sunday when he was stationed at CHF he just seems to be jogging around at half pace or standing flat footed not presenting as a target. He needs to be busting a gut leading up and making more contests because he is one of the few we have up forward with height. He will stay in the team so long as Redden is finding fitness and form in the reserves because we need him to support Hayes in the ruck but when the time comes to consider Redden in the team then the Coach will have a big call to make because the risk is we might be too top heavy and slow playing both Von Bertouch and Redden.

6. North – a very good team and I feel they will definitely be around the mark come finals time. The move of Keenan Ramsay to defence looks to be a masterstroke. Both him and Tanner Smith absolutely monstered our forwards marking it every time we went forward.

Very, very harsh "Mr Fuller" it was a good gutsy win. We can't always play perfect football but we should be excited about the way we hung in the game and found a way to get the winning goal by stinging together a fantastic passage of play. We go out with our plans to beat North but they also go out with plans to beat us, they are not going to let us win just because we are the reigning premiers. North have basically lost no one from their grand final team and added an excellent player in Aaron Young. With very little disruption to their team and the added incentive of revenge it was always going to be a tough match for the Eagles.

You MUST remember that the Eagles have lost 10 premiership players and for this match we also had West, Lonergan, Redden, Mcfarlane and Kobe Mutch missing. We have numerous new players to the club playing. It will take time for the team to gel, three out of four is not a bad result so far. Over the past three years we have had 20 players drafted so the top level of youngsters have vanished so we have to depend on developing the second level of youngsters, this will take a bit longer, be patient. REMEMBER there are still 14 matches left in the minor round. Sheedy is a very astute coach and will know what is to be worked on. As good as the coach is he is not quite a magician, be fair to him and give him a reasonable go. A premiership should garner a fair bit of tolerance. We should all be pulling in a positive direction, not being the grim reaper.

Yes we do have quite a few out and this does demonstrate huge depth. But this then poses a problem for Sheedy because if four of those players are coming in then that is four players on the weekend who aren't playing. It is highly disruptive for the team to have so many players coming and going and this is another reason we have often struggled for periods with our fluency i.e. the team hasn't had time to gel.

I'm keen to see Mutch on the field as probably our main midfield signing over Summer. He can't be far away

Redden would make a huge difference if fit but he looks bigger and slower than last year so can't help wondering whether he actually makes it back in?

McFarlane has looked pretty good.

[ferret]

Looking at my records it appears the majority of changes have been forced due to injury. The only unforced changes were in round 3 where Redden and Lehmann played in the reserves and in round four when Hardie played in the reserves, this shows me that the selectors are trying keep a settled team, unfortunately injuries can't be avoided and do unsettle a team. With the implementation of the coach's game plan through U16s, U18s and reserves the transition by players to a higher level will help with the gelling process in the future.

[Booney]

No report from the North lads?

No need, there's plenty of reports on this thread already and Eagles supporters' views on football are always the most accurate and balanced.

Wasn't asking about the football.

Interesting Cocks are only deflecting from the issue.

[whybother]

I can never tell the difference between irony and sarcasm or just a Monty Python joke

[whybother]

But at least Jack (no 12) Hayes had a number on his back....all day !

[MJP1993]

I’ve got to say I’ve been enjoying the banter on this post even Booney has a sense of humour and he’s one of the port faithful lol.
Honestly good on wedgie stepping up even if he wasn’t there fun posts

[Jackal1]

I don't know why the North group got so upset, they should be used to coming second by now.

Their club must be so proud of them.

[StrayDog]

No report from the North lads?

No need, there's plenty of reports on this thread already and Eagles supporters' views on football are always the most accurate and balanced.

Wasn't asking about the football.

Interesting Cocks are only deflecting from the issue.

Can't really say I'd noticed, but, to each their own I guess. We are well into the 21st century after all.

[Eagles Nest]

Don’t know about other people but going back to work on a Tuesday after a long weekend when your Footy team has won a hard fought game is so much easier. Even sweeter when you beat the Cheats fair and square yet again.

[Brendan M]

North had a terrific second quarter, very dangerous when on song, and perhaps they didn't capitalise on that momentum. Most of the third quarter seemed to be played by 30plus players in the right forward pocket of WWT. As others have commented, excellent to have the North players back at the club, was a good vibe.

[Jackal1]

Good post Brendan, enough of the negatives, hopefully certain groups who attend the footy know they not helping their own club and the SANFL. It looks like the Eagle & North players get on pretty well off the field and it was excellent to see the North coaches and players welcomed into our club afterwards. Both groups commented on how tough a game it was and loved the contest. Had North got over the line we thought Barns would have won the medal.