Underage Reports Round 5

Round six saw Norwood’s U18s go down to Sturt by 44 points. We made it hard for ourselves from the start of the game as we gave up 5 goals in the first quarter. Inaccuracy in front of goal and a failure to compete hard and play the Norwood brand of football resulted in Norwood losing every quarter and the game going the way of the double blues. 

Despite the loss, Tyson Walls competed hard throughout and finished with 32 disposals, 6 marks and 4 tackles. Damon Pitt was also a standout throughout the day as he kicked 2.1 and finished with 16 disposals. Alex Van Wyk dominated in the hit-outs in the ruck, resulting in 30-13 hit outs. Isaiah Wilksch also consistently ran hard throughout the day on the wing and finished with 20 disposals and was a key player for Norwood.

With many college players being required back at their colleges from this week there will be a lot of new opportunities for players leading into next week. We are excited to see how our team continues to develop and plays Norwood football in future rounds.

SCOREBOARD:

NORWOOD: 3.2 5.5 7.7 9.11 (65)

STURT: 5.2 9.4 13.10 16.13 (109)

GOALS: Pitt 2, Pratt 2, Rahui, Foster, Baldwin, Cristancig, Blacker

BEST: Walls, Wilksch, Pitt, Pratt, Baldwin

Michael Knoll

We headed into round six looking to bounce back after the loss to West Adelaide the week before. Our EP boys were back up for selection after spending a week back home so injecting those boys was exciting.

We knew Sturt would be a tough outfit as they had matched it with the strong sides of the competition already in 2022. The game started fast, and Sturt got off to a strong start. We as a coaching group thought our backline held up strongly considering Sturt kept having repeat entries. We managed to only be a couple of goals down at quarter time.

In the second quarter, Sturt started strong kicking some early goals to open a lead. To our boys credit, we managed to gain some control back and the second quarter was a great battle. We went into halftime with a positive mindset as we felt we were within striking distance.

We allowed an early goal in the third and to the Double Blues’ credit, they were always able to keep us at arm’s length. In the second half of footy I feel we played a good brand to match with Sturt. We just need to fix up our ability to maintain concentration for longer periods when playing strong outfits and need to play with real intent to not give up easy goals.

Polkinghorne finished with three goals and 16 touches. Mustaca and Newton were good around the ball laying 11 tackles between them. As we have already used over 50 players, we now go into the weeks where we lose plenty of players to college football. We feel we haven’t had the chance to build much continuity, but a positive to come out of this is that we have provided plenty of opportunities to see our depth in our zone.

SCOREBOARD:

NORWOOD: 2.0 5.2 7.2 10.5 (65)

STURT: 3.5 8.5 10.9 13.11 (89)

BEST: Mustaca, Johnston, Prescott, Polkinghorne, Newton

GOALS: Polkinghorne 3, Barilla 2, Mustaca 2, Prescott 2, Newton

Craig Roberts