“All we can control is what we do” – Cotton

AFTER a nail-biting win over rivals Sturt last Friday night at Coopers Stadium, Norwood Coach Jarrod Cotton says his team need to quickly turn their attention to this Saturday’s important clash with South Adelaide.

The Redlegs recorded their sixth win of 2020 after holding off a fast-finishing Sturt outfit at the Parade.

Midfielder Nik Rokahr’s match-winner in the 26^th minute of the final term was enough to keep Norwood’s 2020 finals hopes alive.

“As a club, we were all disappointed in the way we lost to Centrals – but I thought our guys responded really well,” said Cotton.

“We didn’t start overly well, our effort was low and didn’t get at the opposition, but to the team’s credit, the resilience showed after that was brilliant and our second quarter was fantastic.

“We had 20 inside 50’s to three, nine scoring shots to one, however, we did not reward ourselves and could have led by more at halftime.

“To Sturt’s credit they came at us and it was a real arm wrestle in the third and fourth, but again we were resilient and able to stand up and make sure we got the job done.”

With all to play for this Saturday against the third-placed Panthers, Cotton said a few tactics will be tinkered with as they face South on another big oval.

“There will a few things we look at in terms of the way we want to play,” said Cotton.

“We need to bring the right effort and intent which I thought was really lacking at Centrals.

“It does not matter how big the ground is, our pressure acts need to be there and against Sturt it was over 200 which was the same as the Eagles game.

“We know when we bring that intent to the game and put the opposition under pressure and cause turnovers then we can score quickly, so that’s our focus as well as starting games better.

“Sturt and the Eagles both kicked the first three goals, so we don’t want to go Noarlunga and be chasing the game early.”

Heading into Saturday afternoon Cotton said are fully aware of the significance of this game and says training well and coming with the right attitude and intent will go along way in getting the two-points on offer.

“As a group, we did a review and reflected on how we need to attack this week,” Cotton said.

“Training was excellent last night, but we need to keep bringing the right intent every time we turn up.

“We don’t have to talk about it too much, the group understands where we are at in the season and what it means as a football club to get the result this weekend.

“All we can control now is what we can do, and despite other teams around us playing, we need to win both our last two games to give us the best chance of playing finals in 2020.”