Talia’s Talking Points | Round 4

Round 4 saw us come up against Centrals at Elizabeth which is always a formidable task.

We were very excited to debut Glenelg junior and Brighton Bombers local, Maya Vonarx. Maya was our inaugural U18 Captain this year and her debut was earned through hard work, determination and a seamless transition into our league squad.

While Centrals got the jump on us with three goals in the first half, we felt we were in the contest, and our contested possession and tackle pressure was a significant improvement from the previous round. Unfortunately, we were wasteful with the footy in hand and were unable to take control of possession, giving up too many turnovers which proved to be costly for us on the scoreboard. We had a couple of good opportunities on goal which we couldn’t convert, but we headed into the main break with optimism.

Our third quarter was exactly the type of footy we have trained and know we are capable of, dominating Centrals in first possession, contested ball, tackles and clearances. Kori Webb added our first major for the day through a composed set shot and had 9 possessions just in the 3^rd quarter alone (finishing with 16 disposals, 2 goals, 5 marks, and 6 tackles). At the next centre bounce, ruck Chante Waters in her 3^rd game of league footy, tapped a hit out to advantage to our debutant Maya Vonarx, who drove us inside forward 50 to Kiana Lee, who snapped our second goal in two minutes. Lee finished with 17 disposals, 5 marks, 2 goals and 4 tackles in a strong forward performance. Our wings (Madisyn Newman, Tori Evans, Abbey Rigter and Deni Varnhagen) all played important roles to shut down Centrals’ outside run.

The 4^th quarter was an arm wrestle, but unfortunately Centrals scored in the first two minutes. On the back foot, we executed smart contested football and levelled the scores with 5 minutes remaining with Isla Wiencke centring the footy to Lee on the lead. The siren sounded and we traipsed off feeling disappointed to not execute earlier in the game and give ourselves a better opportunity to take the two points.

We had great contributors in our midfield in Asha Dufour (22 disposals, 7 tackles) and Georgie Fielder who linked us up with important run and carry from half back to half forward (21 disposals).

One point is better than none, but we move forward with a lot of lessons from the first four rounds and we are determined to bank the wins going forward.