First defeat for Bloods

THE Terang Mortlake under 18 women’s suffered its first defeat of the season in a top-of-the-table clash last weekend.

By wd-news

The Bloods clashed with reigning premiers South Warrnambool, with the Roosters kicking three goals in the first quarter to race out to an 3.0 (18) lead over the visits 0.1 (1)

The second quarter saw both teams add a goal as the Bloods began to find their footing, but South Warrnambool was able to extend its lead to 4.3 (27) to 1.1 (7) by the main break.

Coach Nathan Jones said the slow start proved costly against the South Warrnambool team which has proven dominant over the past few seasons.

“Our start let us down, we were a little slow out of the blocks,” he said.

“We competed well, which is what we wanted to do, but we’ll need a little bit of fine tuning because we dropped some marks.

“Our focus is our transition from the back to the forward line and that let us down a little bit.

“But you can’t fault the girl’s efforts, they had a good crack but we just a little slow off the start.”

The remainder of the match saw the teams locked in a tight contest, with flashes of great footy from both sides which would be thwarted by equally impressive defensive efforts.

Terang Mortlake was only able to add three additional behinds in the last half, while the Roosters were limited to four behinds.

Final scores- South Warrnambool 4.7 (31) defeated Terang Mortlake 1.4 (10).

“Our attacking pressures and structures, and setting up zones, were a lot better in the second half,” Jones said.

“Both teams are highly competitive and we just couldn’t get any space; they didn’t allow any freedom of movement, and we probably did the same to them.

“We’ve got a few things to work on at training; getting out in space and being a little more proactive instead of reactive.”

Best players for the Bloods were Tayla Bell, Maddison Wallace, Holly Jones, Jessica Bell, Molly Kavenagh and Matilda Curran.

Maddison scored the only major.

Jones said Bell and Wallace, both just 15 years old, had very strong performances and were emerging as threats with a sharp development curve.

“They are making huge improvements this year,” Jones said.

“I think Tayla has a really bright future with her footy, she’s our strongest player at the moment.

“Our leaders stood up, we were probably down 10 per cent and their pressure was first class, we just needed to get some scores on the board early and add that pressure ourselves.”

The Bloods will look to resume their winning ways with their next match up against Portland.

“It’ll be Friday night under the lights, and the girls are keen for that – they like their night footy,” Jones said.

“We’ll look to go back to basics; keeping the pressure up, keeping the ball moving, hitting targets and doing the simple things such as taking marks and getting handballs out with a bit of distance because at the moment we’re overusing the footy in congested areas, so we need to open it up.”