THIS week saw the commencement of the first week of South Australian National Football League (SANFL) finals. We review the notable performances of the SA draft talent, including those invited to combines.<\/p>\n
League:<\/strong><\/p>\n Playing in the Eagles\u2019 21-point win over Sturt,\u00a0Jack Lukosius<\/strong>\u00a0was dominant in the first half when given some space by his opponents and hurt them by hitting up marks across the wing and half forward, then lacing out his teammates with his kicks. And if he couldn\u2019t grab it, he caused a contest. Finished with 18 disposals, including seven marks.<\/p>\n For Sturt, mature-ager\u00a0Shane McAdam<\/strong>\u00a0kicked two goals from his 11 possessions, as well as a couple of crucial contested marks.<\/p>\n North Adelaide defeated South by 20 points in the Elimination Final, and for the Roosters mature-ager\u00a0Cal Wilkie<\/strong>\u00a0was again solid across half-back with his intercept marking and rebound. Wilkie finished with 19 disposals including eight marks.\u00a0Connor Rozee<\/strong>\u00a0was also effective playing between the arcs with his 15 disposals and looked most effective helping the rebound from defence.\u00a0Boyd Woodcock\u00a0<\/strong>playing up forward had the nine disposals and was always looking to find space and apply pressure.<\/p>\n For South,\u00a0Nathan Kreuger<\/strong>\u00a0started well with a mark and first goal of the day and always looked dangerous, finishing with nine disposals.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n Reserves:<\/strong><\/p>\n Centrals defeated West by 25 points in the Elimination Final.\u00a0Jackson Hately<\/strong>\u00a0for Centrals playing as a midfield\/forward was in the best with his 27 disposals, eight clearances, seven tackles and two goals.\u00a0 However it was his work inside getting his hands on the footy at the clearance and dishing to teammates which was impressive, as well as then being able to slide forward and hit the scoreboard. Teammate and defender\u00a0Jez McLennan<\/strong>\u00a0was also solid with his 18 disposals and seven marks. And again it was his composure in getting the footy in the back half and using it well, combined with rebound run which was impressive.\u00a0Aaron Nietschke<\/strong>\u00a0with 22 disposals including a goal was solid all day and played an outside role with some poise.<\/p>\n In a game of two halves, North triumphed by 10 points over Glenelg after being down by 25 points at half-time. For the Roosters, forward\u00a0Oscar Chapman\u00a0<\/strong>(backing up from his five goals and 10 marks from last week) worked just as hard for his nine disposals including six marks and showed desperation in applying forward pressure.<\/p>\n For Glenelg, small forward\u00a0Declan Carmody<\/strong>\u00a0was in the best with his 11 disposals, two goals and eight marks, and it was his contested marking which was a real highlight. Midfielder\u00a0Tobin Cox<\/strong>\u00a0was also good with his 22 disposals, seven tackles, seven clearances and one goal, working hard around the ground all day, even after being crunched backing into a marking contest just before half time.\u00a0Finn Betterman<\/strong>\u00a0had 13 disposals and was solid, particularly in the first half, getting things done with a minimum of fuss.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n U18s:<\/strong><\/p>\n In the elimination final, Norwood defeated North Adelaide by 37 points. Norwood\u2019s high possession game was reflected in a number of performances. Under 17 talent,\u00a0Dylan Stephens<\/strong>\u00a0was best with his 28 disposals, nine marks, 11 inside 50s and four goals. Winger\u00a0Jacob Kennerley<\/strong>\u00a0was prolific with 39 disposals including 14 marks and seven clearances and also managed a goal to also be in the bests.\u00a0Kade Chandler<\/strong>\u00a0joined him with his 22 disposals, seven clearances and one goal coupled with his fierce attack on the ball.\u00a0Isaac Saywell<\/strong>\u00a0with 27 disposals was effective for the Redlegs and was named in the bests.\u00a0Jacob Collins<\/strong>\u00a0had 21 disposals and Ben Jarvis had 13 disposals whilst also pinch-hitting in the ruck and finished with one goal.<\/p>\n The Eagles defeated South by seven points in thriller coming from 19 points down midway through the last quarter. Bottom-agers\u00a0Jackson Mead<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Kozzie Pickett<\/strong>\u00a0were best, with Mead having 22 disposals and two goals, and Pickett with his 16 disposals and when thrown in the middle in the last quarter sparked the comeback.\u00a0Kai Pudney<\/strong>\u00a0also had 25 disposals playing through the middle.<\/p>\n For South, midfielder\u00a0Tom Sparrow<\/strong>\u00a0was at his best with 27 disposals (21 kicks), seven clearances and 10 ferocious tackles. Lively small forward\u00a0Jake Tarca<\/strong>\u00a0with three goals (and seven frees against) was also named in the bests, whilst\u00a0Hayden Sampson<\/strong>\u00a0had 16 disposals mostly contested seven clearances, but looked sore.\u00a0Tate Coleman<\/strong>\u00a0had 22 disposals including a goal and six tackles. U17 forward\u00a0Daniel Sladojevic<\/strong>\u00a0was also named in the bests with his three goals and eight marks (five of which were contested).<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n This weekend\u2019s games:<\/strong><\/p>\n League: Norwood v Eagles, Sturt v North<\/p>\n Reserves: Norwood v North, Glenelg v Centrals<\/p>\n U18s: South v Norwood, Eagles Bye<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THIS week saw the commencement of the first week of South Australian National Football League (SANFL) finals. We review the notable performances of the SA draft talent, including those invited to combines. League: Playing in the Eagles\u2019 21-point win over Sturt,\u00a0Jack Lukosius\u00a0was dominant in the first half when given some space by his opponents and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":38321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3130,15],"tags":[3265,457,6812,249,2566,4590,2628,2543,269,4490,922,248,3980,2741,5021,3655,2507,2434,6710,190,2540,236,6221,2706,2370,2506],"class_list":["post-39747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-australia","category-state-leagues","tag-aaron-nietschke","tag-boyd-woodcock","tag-cal-wilkie","tag-connor-rozee","tag-daniel-sladojevic","tag-declan-carmody","tag-dylan-stephens","tag-finn-betterman","tag-hayden-sampson","tag-isaac-saywell","tag-jack-lukosius","tag-jackson-hately","tag-jackson-mead","tag-jacob-kennerley","tag-jake-tarca","tag-jez-mclennan","tag-kade-chandler","tag-kai-pudney","tag-kozzie-pickett","tag-nathan-kreuger","tag-oscar-chapman","tag-sanfl","tag-shane-mcadam","tag-tate-coleman","tag-tobin-cox","tag-tom-sparrow"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}