Sheeds’ Round 2 Review

A disappointed Norwood Senior Coach Jade Sheedy says there are “a lot of things we need to keep working on” following an eight-point defeat to Glenelg on Good Friday.

The Redlegs controlled proceedings for most of the afternoon and held a 24-point buffer at the final change, only to concede five unanswered goals in the last term as they were eventually overrun by a surging Tigers fightback.

It is Norwood’s second narrow loss in as many weeks, having fallen five points short of reigning premier Sturt in Round 1.

Speaking to the Redlegs Review podcast, Sheedy admitted that the loss “hurts a fair bit” considering the position his team was in.

“We just got beaten up around the footy in the last quarter. Some of their good players started winning clearances and got the game going their way,” Sheedy said.

“The breeze picked up slightly in the last quarter and I think the weight of inside 50s mounted pressure on us and we stopped playing our way and being brave with the ball and get it off the line and run it like we had done for three quarters.”

“That’s the brand of footy we want to play that challenges opposition and if you play too straight for too long against any side you’ll end up giving the ball back to them. That can be challenging because sides do defend well and you’ve got to have the courage to hit those kicks at times.”

“We need to keep challenging opposition by playing our way with the ball in hand and not going long and straight, which we reverted to because we spent so much time defending in that last quarter. We only had 29% time in our forward half in that last quarter and you’re not going to win too many quarters with that number.”

Sheedy also lamtented his team’s inability to stave off Glenelg’s charge, noting the difficulty of halting a team’s momentum when they are chasing the game.

“I think sometimes in footy that 2-4 goal lead is a hard place to be because when you’ve got a lead you naturally try and hang on to it, and if teams are slightly behind they have more of an aggressive mindset, so it’s our ability to keep that aggressive mindset for four quarters of footy and to keep playing our brand of footy for longer that is our next challenge.”

Norwood arguably could have had a much geater lead heading into the last stanza but could not fully capitalise on the scoreboard, which was another area that disappointed Sheedy.

“Once again we didn’t maximise our score conversions, which could have put a bit more of a gap in a really tight game, so we were disappointed with that in the first quarter particularly.”

“Momentum is big, and we’re not taking our chances strongly enough when we have the momentum.”

Sheedy pointed out Baynen Lowe’s missed shot late in the first quarter that would have put the Redlegs four goals up as an example that had an impact.

“That can be the difference between going four goals up or them taking the ball down the other end and kicking a goal, and in a tight game all of those little moments matter. It was similar against Sturt last week in terms of not taking our opportunities.”

“Players don’t mean that, and we don’t talk about that because it’s just a skill execution error that nobody means to do, and if you want the ball in anyone’s hands inside 50 it would be him.”

Sheedy also acknowledged Norwood’s recent record in close games against the top sides needs to improve, having lost their last four games against Sturt and Glenelg by a combined 19 points.

“We’ve had a couple of tight losses including the prelim last year and a couple of close losses to Sturt as well, so there are areas of our game that are really positive and there are other areas that need to keep improving.”

Despite the disappointment of two narrow losses to start the new campaign, Sheedy insists there are plenty of positives to take away from how his side has performed across the opening fortnight.

“I think the players did a really good job of controlling the game for most of three quarters. The game looked like our game and it was in our favour.”

“The footy we were playing between the arcs especially and the way we were running the ball was really encouraging and we’ve been doing a lot of work on that, so credit to the players for that.

“There are lots of good things in our game and there are still lots of other things we need to keep working on to get to where we need to be to consistently win these games of footy.”

In particular Sheedy was impressed with Norwood’s defensive effort, having kept a star-studded Glenelg forward line to just two goals in the opening three quarters.

“I thought all of our backs did a good job, but especially Cooper Murley and Alastair Lord early and then Aaron Francis’ ability to get the ball off the line and get it to the open side of the ground and attack through there really tested Glenelg throughout the game and these are the areas of our game that we need to keep growing and continue to build on.”

After a relatively subdued evening against the Blues last week, Sheedy revealed that Norwood’s key defenders went to work on improving their game ahead of the Glenelg clash, with obvious results.

“Some of our key backs weren’t happy with their game against Sturt, and on reflection we identified that we got a few things wrong aerially in our back half, but they’re an experienced group and they wanted to really nail it this week.”

“To keep Liam (McBean) to two goals, which both came late, and Lachie (Hosie) to one goal, and Tom (Donnelly) did another amazing job off the back of his game against (Josh) Hone last week, there was really good defensive integrity and that is in reasonable order.”

While Norwood’s 0-2 start is not ideal, Sheedy’s attention will remain on continuing to embed his game style and improve different aspects of his team’s game.

“Our focus will be to keep building on our game. The coaches and players are very connected and we understand the areas of our game that we need to keep getting better at.”

“The way we want to play can be very challenging sometimes and it is a harder brand of footy than just kicking it long, but we know that if we keep training it, which we will continue to do throughout the year, and keep believing in it and keep nailing it, that eventually it will be very sustainable and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Norwood will have a chance to regroup as the SANFL heads towards the bye for Gather Round this weekend, with the players also taking some time off to recover over the weekend before gearing up for a Friday night clash with South Adelaide in Round 3.

“Tonight and Thursday night we will train at Athlestone Oval due to Gather Round and then the players will have the weekend off.”

“We will have a good review and discussion tonight around the game and we’ve got five sessions before we play South Adelaide, so we’ll really strongly prepare for them over the next five sessions and make sure that we nail Friday week, but it’s important also that the players get away from the footy club and have a good mental freshen up as well.”

Listen to Jade Sheedy’s full interview here: