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Round 1 v Eagles 2008
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Best Players: Ladhams, O'Brien, Archard, Sporn, Younie, Lonie Goals: Alleway 3.1, Archard, Younie, Ryswyk, Ladhams 2.1, Stribling 2.0, S.Motlop 1.2, O'Brien, Younie, McIntyre 1.1, Lonie 0.2, Sporn 0.1, rushed 0.1. Crowd: 2353 @ Prospect Oval The first match of the year finally came around and North won the toss electing to kick to the Northern Goal which enjoyed a 2-3 goal breeze for most of the day. The Eagles opened up the strongest but it didn't take Northlong to take control of the game although not making the most of the breeze to open up a small lead. North were carving it up in the middle with new recruits Archard and O'Brien with James Allen continuing on with his Magarey Medal winning form but unfortunately suffering a hip injury forcing him off for the rest of the match. North had made some prematch changes due to late withdrawls including Shane Schubert starting on the bench as backup to Michael Burford in his return game for the Roosters. The second quarter saw a clinical effort against the breeze outscoring the Eagles 6 goals to 4 and continued on the good form for most of the third quarter putting the lead out to 42 points and setting up what we thought was a match winning lead. Unfortunately we ran out of petrol with Luke Ivens joining Allen injured on the bench and Michael Burford being absolutely exhausted from his dominant performance in Ruck. The Eagles sensed it was time to make their charge and they stormed home in the end losing by only 6 points and totally against the grain of most of the day remarkably kicking more goals than North. Not much could be read into this with the Eagles only kicking one point off the boot (the other was rushed) and North somehow managed to hit the post 7 times! Even the Eagles assistant coach Andrew Rogers agreeing that the scoreboard flattered the Eagles! A win's a win and it's always good to kick off the season with 2 points on the board but neither side's supporters were sure of what to take out of the game with both teams having many players out, the Eagles playing 5 first gamers and North not far behind with 3 of their own. North only had 3 100 gamers on the field with the Eagles having 4. Both of the Jarmans renewed their call for 4 on the bench after the game, they cited the speed of the modern day SANFL game being the reason needed for this and are worried that one day a player may get seriously injured because of having to stay on the ground when injured. Unfortunately only Glenelg agree with North's recommendation so it seems doomed in a ridiculous stand by the other clubs in the SANFL. Earlier in the day the Reserves kicked off the season with a great win beating the Eagles reserves 14.8 (92) to 6.11 (47) with Krieg, Marlon Motlop, O'Keefe and Millar all in the best players. Onto Round 3, for the first time that I can remember everyone back at the club was stoked to have the bye in Round 2 as many players should be available for the big Round 3 clash at Prospect against Sturt in a couple of weeks time. I think we'll get a more accurate reflection of where we're at after that game. |