The Eagles continued their undefeated start to the season on Saturday with a convincing four-goal win over the Saints. Chris “Sos” Piwarski lead the Eagles out of the box with an impressive five-goals in the first half (three in the first quarter) to take the team to a nine-goal lead at half time.
Eagles’ coach Adam “Frodo” Kelly was impressed with the set-up early which isolated Piwarski one out with plenty of space. “The boys were really disciplined in that first half and played the structure that we’d been working on throughout the first half of the season” said Frodo. “While Sos (Piwarski) was the man getting the goals credit really needs to go to the midfield group and the rest of the forwards for following team rules.”
Frodo was particularly impressed with the performances of new recruits Adam “Lulu” Simpson and David “Smarty” Smart playing their best games for the club. “We were able to release Lulu up the ground a bit more this week and he showed what an impressive user of the ball he is – except when he’s within 30 metres of goal on the boundary and gets his ability confused with ambition” added Frodo. “I thought Smarty was terrific today too. We gave him an important tagging job and such was his commitment he continued that tagging role well into the early hours of Sunday morning.”
Also having their best performances of the season were James “Jimmy” Oertel coming back from a knee injury, emerging ruck talent Zak Sperber, Joel Kirk (Pictured) and Mad Al. While the story was the Eagles’ forward structure the backline performance deserves credit also with Jared Ferguson continuing his good year ably assisted at ground level by playing coach Adam Kelly who between them thwarted several forward thrusts and cleared the ball with ease.
Asked if he was disappointed with the second half fade out coach Frodo remarked “I was a little hard on the guys after the fadeout after the game but in fairness we played a few blokes out of position and took the opportunity to try a few different structures so in hindsight the lads will be better for it.”
With the Saints’ key forward Clint Joy going down in the second quarter, the team could have been forgiven for rolling over and the game becoming a walkover. But Credit must be given to the team who fought the match out to the end narrowing the gap and reminding the competition they remain a genuine premiership threat.
Earlier the Bayhawks put in their best performance of the season going down to the Cougars by just 7 points. The Bayhawks ran the ball impressively throughout the game and looked a much improved side on their early round performances. Matt “T” Payne, Graham “The van man” James, Clayton Lund, Justin Connie all put in season best performances. Steve “Gibbo” Gibson was a welcome inclusion providing a rock solid performance in defence before having his nose straightened back into position. The side is a much better one with him in it and hopefully he’ll have a speedy recovery.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the game was how well the Bayhawks ran the game out – coming from several goals down to almost run over the top of the flagging cougars. With BC Footy 2010 Best and Fairest Matt McDowell and the Whistler ski season coming to an end – that first win isn’t too far away for the Bayhawks.
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Eagles 13 – 8 – 86 def Saints 9 – 11 – 65 Match report
Goals: Piwarski 5; Perry, Simpson 3; Kirk, Payne 1;
Best: Kelly, Simpson, Perry, Madhavji, Piwarski, Isberg, Ferguson, Kirk, Ortel, Nebel, Hobbs, Brailsford
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Cougars 8 – 4- 52 def Bayhawks 6 – 9 – 45
Bayhawks best: Lund, Chatterston, Gibb, Payne, Connie, Sceney, Gibson,Barnes
Goals: Sceney 2, Lund, MacDonald, Brailsford, Nebel
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(Photo Credits – Alessandro Roethel - http://www.roethel.ca/ )
Eagles stalwart Joel Kirk was in and under all day
This image dispels any rumours I can no longer get off the ground.
James Gibb gets first hands onto this ruck contest
Jared Ferguson closed down saints star Clint Joy who later tore a hamsting