Under-18s Match Report

South Adelaide vs Norwood
Round 16 - Hickinbotham Oval - 04/08/18

Goals: Tarca 3, Sladojevic, Marshman, Spicer, Draper
Best: Davies, Tarca, Sladojevic, Juckers, Marshman, Clifton

Our Under-18s suffered a disappointing loss at the hands of Norwood on Saturday, falling to a 7.10 (52) to 14.9 (93) defeat at home.

This week we played Norwood at home in very windy conditions.

They are sitting in fifth spot on the ladder and desperate to make their way into the final four.

We on the other hand are sitting comfortable in second, and that was the way the game played out.

Only three changes for us this week. Jake Spinks out with injury, Tate Lovering went up to the Reserves for his first senior game and Matthew Coulthard was omitted.

This gave Zac Dowling another opportunity, Billy Wade returned from a week off with injury and Max Clifton another Under-16 player who was a part of our successful Under-17 State Youth Championship side played his first game.

We lost the toss and had to kick into the wind in the first. Norwood were kicking with about a six-goal breeze and with their season on the line came out with a greater intensity, more desperation to win the footy and just worked harder.

This translated on the score board with them kicking 7.5 to our two behinds.

The second quarter we had the wind and didn't make the most of it. Norwood controlled the ball and took 21 more uncontested marks than us, which denied us opportunities to score kicking 3.3 for the quarter to their one goal. We were still a long way behind.

After half time we moved Daniel Sladojevic to the backline and got some of our best players around the ball.

It worked for the first part of the quarter, but then we let Norwood kick three goals in the next seven minutes. The last half of the quarter was better and we did a good job to keep the score even.

The last quarter we again had the wind and Jake Tarca looked like he was single handily going to get us back in the game with two goals in the first three minutes, but we continued to miss chances and the game was out of reach.

Tyler Davies again worked tirelessly in the midfield, Danny Juckers was good down back and Sladojevic showed some versatility playing at both ends.

We now have a week off before playing Glenelg at home (11.00am, Saturday, August 18)in our second last minor round game. This now is a must win to make sure we can keep second spot and the double chance in the final series.  

Mark Clayton
U18s Coach

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