The penultimate round of the Mortgage Choice Hills Football League campaign is here. Where has the season gone! Round 17 sees the Blackwood Football Club faced the fourth placed Uraidla Districts Demons in a very important clash.
Currently the sides are separated on the ladder by two points and 4.19 percent (204.5 points). A win for the Woods will secure third position and most important, a double chance in finals. Coach Damien Salievic reiterated the importance of the match on Tuesday evening. “A win here is really important. It could be the difference in a playing in a qualifying or elimination final”
Round details
Who – Blackwood vs Uraidla Districts
When – Saturday, 18 August
Where – U-Install-It Kitchens Oval
Start times – U14s (8.45am), U16 (9.55am), U18 (11.10am), Bs (12.50pm), As (2.30pm)
U-Install-It Kitchens Oval
The Woods have recorded two victories from two matches played against the Demons in 2018. In Round 3 the Woods blew the march open in the third quarter piling on six goals to none whilst in Round 10 at Uraidla Oval the Woods held off a last quarter comeback from the Demons to run out 12 point winners.
Statistics are in favour of the Woods in Round 17. From the 12 matches played the Woods have a 83.3% winning percentage (10 wins) with an average score of 102.4, the highest average of any minor round. The largest win occurred in 2009 when the Woods defeated the Bridgewater Raiders by 240 points whilst the smallest victory came in 2011 when the Woods won by 5 points against Lobethal. Blackwood has only played Uraidla Districts once in Round 17, that occured in 2007 under then coach Paul Page where they Woods by 15 points. On that day Ben Badenoch booted three goals whilst Matt Golding, Danny Cramp, Tim Way, Josh Cock and Steve Woods were named as the best players.
The opponent – Uraidla Districts
Currently, the Uraidla Districts Football Club have recorded nine wins, six losses and one draw. From these matches, the Demons have the fifth best attack in the competition averaging 69.4 points for and the fourth best defence averaging 64.3 points against. This compares to the Woods who average 69.6 points for and 54.4 points against.
The Demons have used a total of 34 players with 23.5% (8) having played every match. This is the second highest percentage of players playing every match with Hahndorf having the highest 29.0%.
Of the matches the Demons have played, a total of 23 different players have featured in the best players (67.7%). Nathan Remnant has featured the most times (75.0% or 12 times). Of the 159 goals kicked by the Demons, Travis Oakley has kicked 21.4% of them (34 goals) with their top 5 goal kickers (Oakley, Kluvanek, Renshaw, Evert and Sutton) having kicked 67.3%. This compares to the Woods where the top five goal scorers (Dijksman, Hopton, Macreadie, Anderson and Atkinson) have kicked 57.1% of goals.
Key Target
To date in 2018 the Woods have won 36.1% of quarters against top five sides (13 of 36). The Woods will be looking to play a full match this weekend having not won more than two quarters in any of the nine matches played to date against fellow top five sides. In comparison Uraidla Districts have won 52.5% of quarters (21 of 40) against top 5 sides.
Other HFL matches
B Grade – Fourth v First, the Woods will be looking to put in a competitive match. In the two matches the sides have played the Demons have won both games by 42 points in Round 3 and 23 points in Round 10. The Woods have both the fourth ranked attack and defence whilst the Demons rank number one in both areas.
Under 18s – Second v Third, this game will be a close match with neither side scoring above 50 points in the previous two matches. A win for the Woods in this match will secure a top three position. Currently the Woods have the second best attack and third best defence whilst the Demons have the sixth best attach and first best defence..
Under 16s – First v Sixth. The Woods have won 12 matches in a row including 103 and 93 point wins over the Demons in the previous two matches. With college football finished, the Woods should be boosted by several players returning and looking to fine tune their game coming into the finals.
Under 14s – Fourth v Seventh In Round 10 the Woods secured a 7 point victory. The statistics show the young Woods start the match 37.0 points ahead on differential with averaging 42.3 points for compared to 17.5 whilst also conceding less per match on average (23.7 to 35.9). The Woods will be looking to continue their strong win having won the last two matches conceding only six points in both.
