Scrappy Eagles outmatch dogs.
It was not pretty, but a win is a win.
Euston were well below their best but did enough for a comfortable 38 point win over South Mildura at Euston on Saturday.
Eagles coach Andrew Richardson was positive but realistic post-match.
“We’ve come away with four points,” he said.
“We’ve had a win, it wasn’t a good win and we didn’t play near our best footy but to South’s credit they set up really well behind the play and they transitioned well.
“I’m really confident we’ve got a lot to improve on.”
After a great win against Ouyen United the week before, Richardson noticed the Eagles were somewhat sluggish.
“I feel like a few of the boys were probably stuck in last week a little bit, it was a fantastic effort from them, I didn’t think the effort was there (Saturday) anywhere near last week,” he said.
“Our work rate was off and I thought our positioning was a little bit questionable.
“It’s a difficult ground to play on as well, it’s a weird shape and we seem to go into that when we play here – it’s something we’ve got to improve on going forward.”
The focus now turns to a match against Imperials next week, second versus third on the ladder which the Eagles will need to be switched on for.
“I think when you do play teams below you on the ladder, whether you like it or not, it’s hard to get yourself up for it, or the boys up for it,” Richardson said.
“When you are playing someone who is right next to you and trying to take your spot, we are definitely looking forward to that challenge.”
For the Bulldogs and their coach John Pratt it was a familiar story.
“We’re just really competitive most weeks, I think there’s been three where we haven’t been, we were in it today being a competitive bunch we just missed our opportunities going forward and the skill level hurts us week in week out,” Pratt said.
“But it was a pretty competitive effort once again, we just didn’t quite finish our movements off.”
Pratt said it would be a matter of his young team maintaining its development path.
“We had seven to eight under-18 players, so it’s just getting games under their belt to hit targets and finish their kicks off,” he said.
“There’s no secret to it, it’s just time together.”
The following is the round 12 summary from the weekly footy guide (R13)
With round 12 run and done our day out at Euston was a clean cut affair between Football and Netball…….Football results fell the way of the home side however our Netball results was all South, a 50/50 split if you like. There were debutantes across many grades for South Netball, Yazmin Thompson in A-Grade, Sister Holly in B-Grade and Emma Webb in C-Grade. One thing is for sure, our Netball teams are in very good shape with all the talent we have coming through the ranks and with LT (Loretta Thompson) at the helm you can be assured that we will be well represented come September.
Our footballers had the rougher end of the deal with a 4 to 5 goal wind blowing for most of the day straight down the ground from the Highway End……The U16’s kicked of proceeding kicking into it and immediately found the going tough the boys fought a good fight and to their credit out scored their bigger bodied opponent’s in the last…..a great effort boys. The U18’s started on fire taking it right up to their more fancied opposition to lead the first quarter 4 goals to 1……but that’s about where it finished, the delivery made all the difference and Robinvale scooted away with a comfortable win. Chicken’s Ressies have been a bit out of sorts the last week or so and have struggled to take the chocolates……a few outs with players unavailable due to injury and work commitments has put the pressure on and constantly getting U18 lads to double up takes its toll.
Pratty had the youngest team we have put on the paddock in Seniors in many years and 2 senior debutantes in Tyson Giles and Steve Sellens making up our 22 for a game that could have tipped over in our favour early had some easy shots on goal gone our way, subsequently it didn’t but again with this young group of developing players Robinvale didn’t get it all their own way. Tyler Curtis again for the last 3 rounds picked up best on, great work Milko. The work this bloke is putting in has been tremendous.
Today we welcome Wentworth to #3 for Indigenous Round, a highlight on the SFNL and SMFNC calendar to celebrate not only the aboriginal culture and the land that we play our great game on but to build and unify our community through sport. I behalf of the South Mildura Football Netball Club and the Wentworth District Football Netball Club we thank the aboriginal elders here today to perform the Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremonies at 2.20pm.
Story & photo courtesy of Sunraysia Daily
Football score
Netball score
