Walkerville 15 5 def Athelstone 5 4

Lots to like about this performance and a few things to “tweak”. We proved again that quick ball movement , through play on and trusting our team mates on the receive, gives us the opportunity to win games. Being able to carry our kicks over the next line on the back of that sort of play (consider a number of plays involving James Serotzki), means we can get the ball into our scoring zone, threaten the opposition back line and set up goal scoring opportunities on a regular basis. On the other hand we were able to identify a couple of areas that, unless we can improve them, may create costly opportunities for better opposition teams.

Firstly we need to go at every ground ball with our hands low, as a statement to the opposition that we have no intention of letting them get their hands on the ball first. That way they will second guess their attack on the loose ball and we will take the ball from those contested situations more often.

Secondly we need to make sure the opposition never take a mark uncontested if we have a player in range to attempt a spoil. A few times today we didn’t commit enough to make the opponent doubt his ability to mark. When we did, as Patty Farrugia showed a couple of times, fumbles happened and kept us in the contest.

Thirdly, our on-ballers need to transition more quickly from offensive run to finding their opponents defensively. A number of times today the opposition had free players running down the corridor who, with better delivery from their team mates, could have scored easy run in goals from 30m or so.

Plenty for us to focus on this week at training with a massive game against TTG coming up. See you Thursday boys!

Goal kickers: Callum Wilkie 7, Nick Wundke 2, Max Marslen, Patrick Farrugia, James Duncan, Tom Kaldis, Earl Kellie and Nick Palmer 1

Best Players: James Serotzki, Daniel Costalonga, James Duncan, Harrison Wigg, Callum Wilkie,  Cameron Pritchard, Harry Hayward, Key Peterkin, Harry Cudmore, Matt Burgess

Awards: Danial Costalonga, James Serotzki, Tom Kaldis