The coaches review: Round 2

Norwood Senior Coach Jade Sheedy said he was pleased with the positive signs that came out of the Redlegs improved performance in a narrow six-point defeat to Woodville-West Torrens at Woodville Oval in Round 2.

After going down by 32 points against North Adelaide in Round 1, Norwood led the Eagles by 28 points at half time but conceded 10 goals to four after the main break to just fall short.

“First half footy was what it needs to look like for our footy club, with the ability to share the ball and deny the Eagles the footy at periods of time and play in our front half. I think at the end of the day we couldn’t capitalise,” Sheedy said.

Sheedy lamented his team’s inability to take its chances in front of goal, which he said kept Woodville-West Torrens in the game.

“It was 15 scoring shots to seven at half time, and when you keep teams in games and with momentum these days in footy – once a team gets it, it’s hard to pull that back.”

“It comes down to crucial moments and they won them. They nailed goals on the run and we missed a few set shots early that probably kept them in the game.

“In that first half we were coming pretty hard around keeping the ball in our forward half and we couldn’t capitalise.”

Reflecting on Norwood’s second half performance, Sheedy mentioned the Eagles’ work in the contest as a key reason for their resurgence.

“At the end of the day, they won a fair bit of footy around the contest and around centre bounce. (Eagles ruck) Jordan Lukac did a really good job for them and grabbed it out of the ruck a couple of times and kicked it forward, which resulted in goals and they got a bit of momentum off that.”

Sheedy identified leader and versatile defender Pierce Seymour as one of Norwood’s key players on the day.

“His balance to be able to come off his man and impact but also play one-on-one on his man when he needed was really strong throughout the whole game.”

Looking ahead to the week off, Sheedy said there was a good chance for Izaak Twelftree, Luke Surman and Alastair Lord to return for the Easter Thursday clash with Sturt.

“It (the bye) has probably come at a good time to give a few of the players that might be a bit iffy another week, like most clubs will be in,” he said.

“Twelftree, Surman and Lord should all be up for selection, so that is a good thing.

“Lordy (Alastair Lord) just has to see how he can go with his hand…and Izaak and Luke have been touch-and-go each week; it’s just about making sure they can get the loads in and that we’re comfortable with them getting through a full game.”

Watch Jade Sheedy’s full review of Round 2 below.