Under-18s Match Report

South Adelaide vs Glenelg
Round 17 - Hickinbotham Oval - 18/08/18

Goals: Freitag 3, Sladojevic, Clifton 2, Beeche, Tarca, Colwell
Best: Lovering, Bogle, Manuel, Clifton, Spicer, Freitag

Our Under-18s locked in a top two finish thanks to a come-from-behind win over Glenelg, claiming a 10.12 (72) to 8.9 (57) victory at Hickinbotham Oval on Saturday afternoon.

This week we played Glenelg at home in average conditions. They are sitting out of a finals race, but their Reserves had a bye and they got a few players back into the team.

We also had a few changes this week with Tate Coleman and Tate Lovering back from the Reserves, James Grimley back from college football and Jake Spinks, Reece Milsom and Jonty Manuel returning from Injury.

We also had Jason Horne play his first game for the Under-18's after playing Under-15's and Under-16's for South Adelaide, as well as SA State Under-16's this year.

It was an important game for us. We entered the round in a position where if we lost our last two games we could miss the finals, but win this one and we could lock away a top two finish.

We lost the toss and were kicking into the wind, with Glenelg kicking with about a three-goal breeze. The Bays came out with a good intensity and had the first couple of shots at goal but missed. We got it down the other end and kicked the first through Max Clifton.

Glenelg controlled the rest of the quarter having 50 more disposals and 27 more handball receives. Luckily for us they didn't make the most of their dominance and they were only 14 points up at the first change.

The second quarter we had the wind, but didn't make the most of it. Glenelg kicked the first goal four-and-a-half minutes in, before we started to get into the game. We evened up the disposals for the quarter and felt like we played most of it in our front half, but we couldn't convert kicking two goals and seven points. Even though we won the quarter, Glenelg still had the lead at halftime by three points.

After halftime we came out with great energy and kicked the first goal through Damon Freitag to take the lead. However, this was short lived as Glenelg kicked the next three to get out by 16 points half way through the quarter.

The second half of the quarter we settled. Clifton kicked his second for the game and Freitag kicked his second for the quarter we went into the last change just five points down.

Six minutes into the last quarter Jake Tarca kicked his first and we hit the lead. We controlled the quarter and again had most to the footy in our front half. Daniel Sladojevic kicked two for the quarter and once Joel Beeche kicked his first we looked home.

With the win and a couple of other games going our way we have locked in second spot on the ladder with one game left to play in the minor round.

Next week (11:00am, Saturday, August 25) we play the Eagles at Woodville for the third time this year, which will be a preview the first week of the finals. Its important we have a good game to get some confidence going into the major round.

Mark Clayton
U18s Coach

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