“Proud of the way we played” – Round 14 Coach’s Review

Norwood Senior Coach Jade Sheedy was pleased with how his team played in thrashing Woodville-West Torrens by 131 points at Coopers Stadium on Saturday.

With the Eagles missing some key players through injury, Norwood looked the dominant side from the outset and continued to put the foot down in a true four-quarter performance.

“We can talk about the result, but I think the thing we are most proud of is the way we played and keeping them to a low score and being able to turn the footy over,” Sheedy said.

“I thought our mids did a great job of giving our forwards first look at the ball, and our ability to close out opposition and play the game in our front half was very strong early, and that set the game up.

“We scored 90 points off turnover, which is a big part of our game, so to get those parts of our game right was really pleasing.”

After a disappointing loss against Central District last week, Sheedy was proud of the Redlegs’ response and ability to execute the game plan.

“We were really disappointed last week with how we played and how we played around the contest, which wasn’t us, so that was a real focus this week on getting back to being in the contest and hunting opposition.”

Kicking a mammoth 24 goals for the afternoon, Norwood’s quick ball movement into the forward line was a feature across the day.

“We have done a fair bit of work on our ball movement and the ability to transition from defence to offence, and what that looks like.”

“We parked it this week, but the boys just did it out of natural instinct. Once again, it comes off the back of turnover and reaction time and making the ground really big, which they did really well.”

With leading goal kicker Jackson Callow missing through suspension, Norwood took the opportunity to try some different setups in the forward line, which Sheedy was pleased with.

“To play some smalls out of the goal square and rotate more mids through the middle of the ground, with Baynen (Lowe) and Billy (Cootee) and Alec Wright as well out of there, gives us different options and makes us more unpredictable to the opposition as well.”

“Our mids did a great job sharing the load, which is the way we want to play. We had 10 different goal kickers, which is a good brand of footy to play.”

Although Norwood had many star contributors on the day, Sheedy saved particular praise for midfielder Billy Cootee, who amassed 39 disposals, 12 marks, six clearances and two goals.

“He’s a different player at SANFL level. He moves very well laterally, has really clean hands, kicks the ball well and can get from contest to contest very strongly.”

“Billy has had a great last 5-6 weeks and we’re looking forward to him continuing to grow.”

Another bright spot for Norwood was the debut of Max Hodges and Tyson Walls, who both impressed Sheedy in their first match at senior level.

“It was good for both of them and gave us the opportunity to have a look at something different, and both of them were good.”

“Max is from North Adelaide but has been with us for a while and has gone through significant injuries, but he put in a big pre-season and has been knocking on the door now for probably five or six weeks and finally got his opportunity.

“Tyson is a junior of ours and a kid that brings some good leg speed in the front half and good tackling pressure, and his form has also been excellent throughout the year.”

Norwood also fielded four U18 National Championship players (Sam Ainsworth, Noah Daw, Jim Kelly and Balyn O’Brien) in the Reserves team that beat the Eagles by 27 points.

“They all played in the state program, and we wanted to have a look at them against some bigger bodies and see what that looks like. They are highly talented kids and all good Norwood juniors, and we’re looking forward to them being in the program.”

Norwood now have a bye next week before taking on Adelaide at Coopers Stadium in Round 16, with Sheedy keen to finish the season strongly.

“We will do our review tonight (Monday) and give all the players their feedback and then give the players some time off. They will head away after tonight and come back next Monday for a four-week block starting with the Crows here (Coopers Stadium), which we are really looking forward to.”

Watch Jade Sheedy’s full interview here: