NORWOOD was able to build on a “pretty good” Round 1 performance to come away with an impressive 20-point victory over South Adelaide last weekend to hand Brad Ferrall his first SANFLW victory as head coach.

The Redlegs mentor said personally the emotion of “relief” was the main element, but he took plenty out of not only the win over the Panthers, but the tight two-point defeat to reigning premiers Central District in the opening round.

“You don’t want to be a new coach at zero and two after finishing third the year before,” Ferrall said. “It was a good relief, we thought we played some good footy in Round 1, we just got beaten by a very good club. While we didn’t get the job done in Round 1 I thought we played some pretty good footy.”

A key difference between the two games was Norwood’s ability to take greater field position against the Panthers down at Noarlunga, doubling South Adelaide’s inside 50 count, 34-17. While taking territory hasa been a key theme over the off-season for the Redlegs, Ferrall said there was no more emphasis between the two weeks than any other time.

“It’s been a focus for us all preseason so I don’t know that we focused on it any more coming out of Round 1 into Round 2 but it’s certainly been something we’ve focused on the whole preseason and in the trial games,” he said. “We certainly executed better and more efficiently than we did in Round 1.”

Of the State Academy members currently in the League side, Ferrall said he was impressed with the learnings they were all taking, with Coby Morgan (wing), Charli Hazelhurst (key defender) and Kate Alexander (ruck) all stepping up.

Morgan previously played as a small forward, Hazelhurst has been utilised in multiple positions, and Alexander is in her first year of SANFL Women’s footy.

“[Morgan’s] learning that role as well, she played as a small forward so moving up the ground to the wing is going to take her a little bit of time to learn and develop in that, but she’s certainly showing signs of doing what we want her to do and she can work and grow in that area,” Ferrall said.

“I think she (Hazelhurst) is just learning to play as a key defender, we didn’t really use her in that way last year so she was All-Australian Under 16s as a key defender. We’re going to just keep working with her, obviously the talent scouts and AFL clubs think that she’s a defender or are considering her as a defender, so we’re just going to try and help to grow in that role.”

“She’s (Alexander) 15 years-old and she had her first game of proper footy obviously not trial game but first game of proper footy (SANFLW in Round 1). She’s going to continue to grow and develop, and we might look to manage her a little bit during the year and rest her during the year to make sure she gets through.”

Unfortunately for fellow State Academy member Emma Daley, her season has had a delay after injuring her ankle in a tackle against Central District. The former Bendigo Pioneers defender will be out for at least the next month and a half, with Ferrall hoping she would be available “about Round 7 to 8 at this stage”.

“That’s what we’re working towards whether we get that or not, but that’s what we’re aiming and looking down the road to at the moment,” Ferrall said.

Looking ahead to Round 3, Norwood takes on a winless Woodville-West Torrens side, but ladder position means little to Ferrall who is under no qualms about just how tough the contest will be.

“They’ve changed their ball movement quite significantly so we just need to make sure we can shut that down because we know they can move it quickly end-to-end so we need to make sure we can negate that and they’re very good in the contest so we just need to win the hard ball and win the contest from stoppages to give us a chance of winning the field territory also,” he said.

The Norwood coach said his side would need to be “at our best” in order to knock off the “dangerous” Eagles at Thebarton Oval on Sunday from 11:30am local time.