Under 18 Match Report

The final fixture of the first round of matches saw us come up against the top of the table Bays. This game saw another two debutants for the football club and a new and exciting challenge to see where we rate amongst the ladder leaders.

The first term showed a heap of pressure from the boys, really ramping up the heat around the contested ball and leveling to contest. Despite our run of form, the numerous changes week in week out, and the opposition – we matched the ladder leaders in almost all facets of the game. While this small sample size provides a lot of positives for our depth players – matching an unchanged side again with a lot of talent – we made the same mistakes we have made for the last month and a half – regressing to a more conservative and basic model of football.

We retreated into this unfortunate scared brand that has crept into this ground and once we did so the game was very much always in Glenelg’s terms from there. There were a few individuals doing their best to stem this change and bring us back to what we expect of ourselves. Connor Kent once again carried the side by his bootstraps inside the midfield contest with supporting roles from Peter Minervini and Aidan Lake. Outside these few, and perhaps Taj Rahui in his first game back after a long absence, we were happy to be spectators rather than invested participants in the match. As a side we can see these small glimpses of our best and take confidence that despite our record reflecting a poor season – we have yet to feel outclassed by any opposition, rather we continue to undermine ourselves – a problem we continue to strive towards resolving.

This week, with the return of 60% of the squad we look to have a more competitive selection process and only accept our brand that we have come to forget in recent times. We host South Adelaide at Cooper Stadium on Saturday under no illusions. The season is running thin now, and we have a mountain of work to do, but we trust fully that once we can finally exhibit what we train and what we expect of ourselves – we are a far better side than any mere win loss record could quantify. Our nine week block to redeem our brand, improve ourselves as individuals and play once again as a team begins here.

SCOREBOARD:

GLENELG: 2.4 8.5 11.11 15.12 (102)

NORWOOD: 1.1 1.4 1.4 3.5 (23)

BEST: Connor Kent, Taj Rahui, Peter Minervini

GOALS: Verrall, Catalano