Mixed Fortunes Again for Sharks at Peel

East Fremantle once again had a day of mixed results, with the Development League kicking off the day with a solid win, but both League and Colts teams suffering defeats.

Development League

With the Country Week Colts grand finals being played early in the day, the Development League boys were first to play against Peel on Saturday.  The Sharks began slowly and Peel took the advantage kicking the first three goals of the game, before Perham and C.Green steadied late in the quarter, kicking the last two goals to head in to the first break just the 5 points down.

The second quarter our Sharks started very much the same way as the first and it looked like it was Peel going to take control of the match.  But with Cripps and Howson (both returning for their first matches in some time) marking and repelling from key defensive posts, plus Bannister and Anthony racking up the possessions through the midfield and half forward line, the Sharks were able to hang in there.  Tim Bristow, in his first game of the year, started to get the ball outside and from the midway point of the quarter you could sense the control was swaying our way.  Then in a 6 minute burst late in the quarter, East Fremantle piled on four goals, one to Holmes and  three to Ellis (all from marks) and all of a sudden our boys went in to the main break holding an 11 point lead.

The third should have seen the Sharks ice the game, however poor kicking at goal enabled the Peel side to keep in touch.  During that period East Fremantle kicked 1.7 to the opposition’s 2.2, which meant the game was very much on the line heading in to the final quarter.

Again the defence held firm, restricting the Peel side to just four points, whilst goals midway through the quarter to Ellis and Bowey sealed the match and saw the Sharks their second straight win.

East Fremantle    9.15 = 69     def.    Peel Thunder     6.12 = 48

League

The League side came in to their match against a strong Peel side that had 15 Fremantle listed players.  After an excellent week on the training track the boys looked ready for the fight and hopefully turn around a form slump in terms of wins and losses.  The Sharks went in to the game with their 13^th debutant for season 2015, in Jacob Green.

The Sharks came hard out of the blocks and had eight of the first nine scoring shots, but as has been the case previously, that dominance wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard with poor accuracy and at that stage we were sitting at 2.6 for the quarter.  Amongst that was the terrible knee injury to Jordan Dorotich, who was ruled out for the rest of the game with a suspected ACL knee injury.  However the boys continued to apply pressure and two late goals was the reward for effort that the Sharks deserved and headed in to the first break with 4.6 on the board to Peel’s 1.2.

When Henson kicked goal of the year contender to start the second the Sharks’ boys were up and about, but again two more gettable chances didn’t enable our boys to blow the margin out and when the Peel boys flicked the switch in the second half of the quarter, where they kicked 3.4 in a 16 minute burst the margin was reduced to just the eight points at the main break. 

Just like the first two quarters the Sharks came out and controlled the game and it was our boys applying the pressure, but again like the first two periods we couldn’t apply the scoreboard pressure.  In a four minute period in the early part of the third the Sharks had four shots on goal resulting in 4 points.  With players tiring due to being essentially two rotations down, this proved costly in the end.  East Fremantle continued to dominate the inside 50s, but kicked 2.6 for the quarter.  At the other end it was the Peel big boys starting to take control and with only eight inside 50s Peel were able to slot five straight goals, all from marks inside 50.

When the final quarter started Peel had a 4 point lead, but when Williamson was awarded a free kick early in the term and slotted a great goal from outside the 50m arc the Sharks had hit the front.  However that proved to be the only goal for the quarter for the Sharks and by the time the Thunder had kicked the next four the game was out of reach.

The effort of the Shark’s boys could not be questioned on the day.  Again the opportunities weren’t taken, but the boys will keep hitting the track hard to turn this around.  Some pleasing signs came in the form of Brock O’Brien, playing forward, who looked dangerous all day and could have kicked more than his two goals.  Jacob Green, in his debut, had 25 possessions and looked very comfortable at League level and Ryan Lester-Smith, who has had his battles up forward in recent times looked damaging across half-back.

East Fremantle                  8.18 = 66              def. by                  Peel Thunder                     14.8 = 92

Colts

The day didn’t finish so brightly for East Fremantle, with the Colts receiving a reality check to the tune of 74 points against an inform Peel side that had won 5 games on the trot.  With most of the State 18’s representatives returning for both sides the game was expected to be a tough, hard-fought contest, however it was the Peel boys who brought that to the Oval.

After an early goal each in the first Peel rattled on seven unanswered goals to the mid-point of the second quarter, through dominance in the midfield and a strong couple of options up forward, and by half time the game looked beyond reach for the Sharks as they went in to half-time 42 points down.

A mini fight back early in the third gave the Sharks boys some hope, but Peel turned the screws, kicking the next four goals during the third to put the result beyond doubt and led by a massive 65 points heading in to the final quarter. 

With the fizz out of the game in the last both teams traded goals, but Peel won the quarter again to hand the Sharks a football lesson, eventually winning by 74 points.

East Fremantle                  5.4 = 34                 def. by                  Peel Thunder                     16.12 = 108