The WAFL Eagles suffered another disappointing defeat on the weekend, falling to East Perth by 67 points at Mineral Resources Park.
Senior coach Kyal Horsley said while the scoreboard didn’t reflect it, the players were able to create more opportunities in the second half.
“We came up against one of the ladder-leaders in East Perth, we started well, and the effort and intent was a clear step forward from the week before,” Horsley said.
“As the game went on, our inability to defend their slick ball movement meant we were defending for long periods of time, and the margin continued to steadily grow.
“To the players’ credit, we challenged them at half time to make some adjustments, and while we didn’t make inroads into the margin, the players’ ability to defend better and create turnovers gave us more opportunities to score, and the game was more even in the second half.”
Top Performers
Rhett Bazzo
Another strong game from Rhett, he has strung together a strong run of form and is leading the way with defence and intent.
Luke Yeo
Luke was given the role on one of the competitions best rebounding halfbacks in the second half and he did a fantastic job in limiting his influence.
Jermaine Jones
JJ played a new role as an inside mid and his speed and agility was on full show and was a real point of difference.
AFL Listed Players
Jack Petruccelle
Jack played as mid forward this week and spent more time as an inside mid, he really grew into the role as the game went on and his ability to break the game open with his decision making in traffic and speed on the outside.
Archer Reid
Archer is growing and developing well as a key forward, he gets the best defender every week and always finds a way to impact the game.
Harry Barnett
He played multiple roles on the weekend and spent the second half down back where he competed hard and got to learn off East Perth’s key forwards.
Loch Rawlinson
Loch spent majority of the game up forward and was a constant threat when the ball was brought to ground in our forward 50, he took his chances and finished with two goals.
Jordyn Baker
He took on multiple match ups and limited their influence while also giving us some strong drive out of our back half.
Coen Livingstone
Coen worked hard all game and while the stats didn’t align with the role he played for the team internally, we appreciate the role he played.
Jai Culley
Jai battled hard inside, he showed is physicality and intensity and finished the game with eight clearances.
Matthew Flynn
Matt had an enthralling battle with the premier tap ruckman of the WAFL, and Matt’s form continues to improve as he builds his match fitness.