Round 7 Coach’s Review

Norwood Senior Coach Jade Sheedy says his side is in ‘a good place’ following a commanding 69-point victory over North Adelaide at Prospect Oval on Saturday afternoon.

The win propelled the Redlegs to a 5-2 record and second place on the ladder, with the visitors again racking up triple figures in an impressive display.

“The boys are playing some good footy at the moment, and it started around our contest and ability to play in our front half,” Sheedy told The Redlegs Review podcast.

“To win the inside 50s by 26 is a good starting point. I think the last couple of weeks we have really honed in on the way we want to play, and I think it’s given us some really good looks in our front half, which has been evident by kicking 134 and 117 points, but that’s a product of how we are competing up the field and how we are using the ball as well.”

“For us it’s all around our defence and contest. That’s what we value and train every week. Off the back of that comes our ability to use the ball and outnumber, and that’s a really clear strength of ours.”

“We work hard over pre-season and we value players who can run, and everyone in our team is a really strong runner. The game is played over 120 minutes, so we feel that if we can nail our game and do that for longer, it will give us a good chance to be in most games.”

Putting on 18 goals for the afternoon following a haul of 21 against West Adelaide a fortnight ago, Sheedy highlighted the work his team has done to get the ball to better spots inside the forward 50 in recent weeks.

“That was part of our review last night, around the areas where we are getting the ball. I think the hardest thing in footy is getting the kick inside 50 right, but that’s more a product of how you move the ball, so we’ve done a lot of work on how we train and how we want to look between the arcs and in defensive 50.”

‘Our forwards have been starting to reap those rewards. We had 10 goals between our key forwards on the weekend, and we’re getting some really good looks at goal through the spots where we are kicking them from.”

Key forward Jackson Callow again threatened to tear the game apart, registering eight scoring shots from 13 disposals, but finishing with 3.5 for the day.

“He has had a great fortnight. I think he has had 14 shots on goal, and outside of that, he brings the ball to ground another 14 or 15 times, so he’s doing a lot right.”

“We all know that he’s not finishing, but nobody is working harder on that than Jacko and there were some good signs on the weekend with his routine and his goalkicking, especially before half time, where he nailed some nice shots.”

Fellow spearhead Tristan Binder continued his good form with a blistering start to the contest, kicking three majors in the opening term before finishing with four for the day.

“Tristan has had a really good year, but especially the last month. He is really looking after himself off the field and he’s been really professional about his footy this year, hence the rewards he is getting individually and collectively for us as a team.”

Young forward Josh Murphy was another who impressed the coach, backing up his five-goal effort in Port Lincoln with another three against the Roosters.

“Murph has brought a new dynamic to the forward line and had a really good game on the weekend, and scored through multiple different ways. He took some good aerial marks, kicked a couple of nice goals at ground level and then got involved in some scores through defence, so he’ll keep growing his game.”

With the game all but over by half time, the Roosters took the ascendancy in the third quarter with four quick goals, which Sheedy noted as a learning opportunity.

“It was disappointing. Two of their goals were from free kicks, which we would like back. One was out of the ruck and the other was a 25m penalty, but footy is a tough game and you can’t dominate for 120 minutes.”

“North are a good side and they were always going to come, but we’ll learn from that on how we can minimise four goals into potentially two and take momentum back in our favour.”

Taking the chance to regroup at the final interval, Sheedy was impressed with his team’s response, with the Redlegs kicking four goals to no score in the last term.

“I don’t have to say much to the group. I went out there at three-quarter-time and they (players) were already talking about what I was going to talk about, so we’re reasonably connected at the moment and valuing the same thing, which is really good.”

“That is off the back of what we value, what we keep training and our KPIs for game day, so they knew when I got out there that the standard we were playing in that third quarter, especially defensively and around contest, wasn’t at the level that we can play at.

“For us it was about basics and getting back to our core values as a footy club and wanting to be hard to play against, which was reflected in our last quarter and keeping the opposition scoreless.”

With Norwood’s reserves side sitting in third place on the back of a five-game winning streak, Sheedy is pleased with the competition for spots currently being provided by the reserves squad.

“Every side wants good competition for spots, because that provides good training habits and good behaviours, so it’s a good position to be in.”

“There are a lot of players playing in reserves at the moment who could be playing league footy, but you can only pick 22 and we are very role-driven and role-based and the league side is going well, but we are always looking to improve.

“The group is very connected across both grades at the moment. We give a lot of feedback throughout the week and players playing reserves know what they need to keep working on to get into the league side and they’ll continue to do that.”

The Redlegs now turn their focus to a massive top-of-the-table clash with ladder leaders Woodville-West Torrens on Sunday afternoon, with Sheedy keen for the challenge.

“We don’t really look at the ladder too much. We just concentrate on what we can control, but we do have a really big challenge this week against a side that is kicking a lot of big scores, is very potent offensively and has good players all over the field.”

“It is another challenge for us and we’ll scout very heavily. We have match committee tonight and we’ll look at what we can take away from the Eagles but also focus on what we can do well to take away some of their game.”

“It will be a strong contest. They are a good contest team and so are we, so we’re looking forward to the challenge on Sunday.”

The occasion will mark captain Jacob Kennerley’s 100th match at SANFL level, which Sheedy is keen to celebrate and acknowledge his contribution to the club.

“He is a great young man who is passionate about Norwood. He comes from our local zone and it’s going to be a big week for our club to represent someone who not only plays the way we want to play but also leads that.”

“He leads the standards and that’s why he is the captain. We took it to a vote this year and it was unanimous, so that reflects the way the coaches and players feel about him and he’s well respected for his actions.”

Listen to Jade Sheedy’s full interview here: