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The Tigers looked like they had learned a lesson from their shock loss to
Norwood in the qualifying final by dominating the opening 20 minutes of the
sudden-death clash against the Eagles. They kicked a goal in the opening
30 seconds through Mark Ruwoldt and broke to a four-goal lead entering
time-on before former Crow Trent Hentschel steadied the Eagles ship with
two quick goals.
From that point on, the Eagles - coached by dual Glenelg
reserves premiership mentor Michael Godden - seized control, kicking 11 of
the next 14 goals to win easily by 38 points.
The Bays were still in the contest
at the final break, trailing by only two points, but with the breeze at its back
Godden’s outfit ran over the top of them, despite finishing the game with just
17 fit men.
For the second week in a row, Glenelg had too many passengers,
with only eight players polling club champion votes and the team managing
just seven goals. Incredibly, perhaps embarrassingly for the rest of the group,
first-gamer Seb Tape was the Tigers’ best player, performing strongly in
defence.
Ty Allen and Daniel Kirk had solid finals series but, for the second
straight year, Glenelg was left with plenty to ponder in the off-season after
another botched finals campaign.
COACH’S COMMENTS
“There’s no question of the players’ work ethic or the fact that they put an
effort in and are united as a group but at the moment it’s not a successful
club by any means and it’s a club that’s really bleeding.
We were the highest scoring team in the minor round (but) it means nothing, we’ve just got to
learn to execute and play well in big games and make sure we’ve got the
right personnel. Maybe that’s the thing we’ve got to look at in the future,
players who’ve got silky skills get selected before those who have got a lot of
grunt.
We have to look at that for sure who makes up the side, who you give
opportunities to going forward .... we’ve got some good young talent coming
through. Look at Seb Tape - he was our best player by a fair way today - it
was his first game. He won’t be here next year because he’ll be playing for
an AFL club, but it opens my eyes to the fact that you give young talent a go
and you get richly rewarded. I take responsibility for it.
I feel that what we do during the year, if you win 17-and-a-half games last year and 15 this year
there’s something there that is worth pursuing, persevering with. I really think
that there’s a pile of quality players who have let themselves down in big
games and I’m a big part of that because I’m the coach and I’ve got to take
responsibility for their education and for selecting them in the first place.’’
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