Round 16: Woods suffer first defeat

The winning ways of the Blackwood Football Club came to a sudden hold in Round 16 of the Hills Football League with the club recording its first defeat of 2017 after going down by 44 points to the Uraidla Districts Demons.

U-Install-It Kitchens Oval presented itself in great condition for the clash. Blackwood made three changes to the side which defeated Echunga by 6 points the week before with James Catford, Lachlan Furness and Jess Watchman returning the side. The sides entered the clash very even in the statistics with both sides sitting in the top three in most categories. The traveling Demons started kicking down the slope and got the first goal on the board with just under four minutes gone on the clock. With plenty of numbers around the ball, the game was a scrappy affair during the first half of the quarter. When Uraidla kicked three goals in the eighth, tenth and thirteenth minutes the home crowd was silent as the Woods have not faced a deficit this great in the previous 13 matches of the season. Blackwood clawed one back late in the quarter through Jess Watchman to trail by 21 points at the first break, the first time they have trailed at quarter time in seven matches.

This goal by Jess Watchman at the 21 minute mark was the latest time the Woods had scored a first goal in any match across 2017. From the 13 matches Blackwood had played before this Round 16 game, they had been the first goal scorer in eight of them. The average time when they had been the first goal kicker was 4 minutes and 15 seconds. Where the Woods haven’t kicked the first goal of the game, their first goal had come on average after 11 minutes and 36 seconds.

Vice Captain James Catford gets set to kick the ball long into the forward line

Phil Hopton takes a mark in front of defender Darren Loffler

Blackwood coach Damien Salievic provided a stern message to his players at the quarter time break suggesting his players needed to lift around the contest and not leave it up to someone else when the football was there to be won. The strong message by coach Salievic seemed to have an immediate impact on the Blackwood players with Catford kicking the first goal of the quarter after only two minutes. The game then turned into a tight battle with neither side giving at inch. Blackwood had a lot of the football during this period but was unable to capatalise. Crafty forward Ryan Dijksman bobbed up in the 14 minute to record the next score of the match. With Blackwood closing in, one more goal before half time would see them have all the momentum. However this was not the case with Uraidla kicking three unanswered goals through Tom Kluvanek, Matt Down and Nathan Remnant to a commanding 26 point advantage into the main break.

Trailing at half time was an unfamiliar place for Blackwood in 2017 having lead at half time in all but two of the opening thirteen matches. Blackwood came out all guns blazing in the third quarter controlling the play for the opening ten minutes. Poor kicking in front of the big sticks saw the Woods unable to capatalise like the second quarter. Nick Homburg who had plenty of early touches managed to find space and convert truly in the 10^th minute to draw the margin closer. When centre-half forward Phil Hopton kicked his first goal, the Woods closed to under three goals at the final change.

With the momentum at the final change the home crowd tried to lift the Woods players. For Uraidla, playing Coach Luke Ivens presented a calm figure at the final change talking about the first goal being very critical and suggesting they had to shift momentum if they were going to win the game. Feeling like a final, the first few minutes of the final term was a very contested period. When Blackwood’s Nick Homburg kicked his second goal of the game, the home side closed to within nine points and looked as if they were going to run over the top of the traveling Demons.

Then enter the Nick Amato show. Having been shifted forward in the final quarter with the forward 50 to himself, he kicked five final quarter goals to all but single handily stop Blackwood having any chances of winning the game. He kicked them from all angles and showed why he is one of the best players in the competition. The game ended in a sour note with Blackwood captain Kurt Thompson being helped off the ground after receiving a hit to the head late in the final quarter. When the final siren sounded, Blackwood had its first loss for the 2017 season with the scoreboard reading 6.12.48 to 15.2.92.

The better players for the Woods were Kurt Thompson, Brad Jones, Harry Wake, Daniel Bennetts and Matt Waldron.

Jess Watchman competes for a mark against Uraidla defender Paul Richards

Nick Homburg switches the ball inside

Summary

Overall, whilst the final margin reads as 44 points, the game was a closer match for a lot of the game with Blackwood being only nine points down five minutes into the last quarter. Uraidla managed to control the Woods not allowing them to get a lot of time or space. With numbers being the ball, they were able to take numerous intercepting marks and stop the Blackwood forwards from being able to have any easy shots on goal.

The saying of bad kicking is bad football came to raise its head once again with Blackwood having one more scoring shot than the winning Demons. Taking chances is critical in front of goal with Uraidla having the best goal scoring accuracy in 2017 (55.2% accuracy) whilst the Woods sit in fifth for accuracy (49.7%).