Round 8 - Q & A with Colts Coach Brad Dodd

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ocean Hill Estate Peel Thunder Colts were back in action last Saturday, taking on East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval. After the game, we spoke with Head Coach, Brad Dodd.

 

 

BD: James Sturrock was added to the squad, taking our Peel representatives to 5. It’s great reward for James, who wasn’t a part of the talent day earlier in the year. James had a great pre-season and has started off the year really well. In the end, his form was too good to ignore. 

 

 

BD: Jackson is a 17 year old who predominately plays Forward but we see him as being able to push into the Midfield when he gets a little stronger and increases his tank. He has a knack for kicking goals and was in the mix for an early season game but he kept getting injured. Jacob, or LJ as he’s commonly known, is a rangey type, plays mainly Forward but we’ll use him through the Wing and Half Back as well. He’s a really popular member of the group, he was challenged to improve his training habits early in the year and he did that. He uses the ball well and has good natural instinct. 

 

 

BD: A little misleading!  We were kicking with a 3-4 goal breeze. East Fremantle opened up the scoring through a really poor stoppage set up in defensive 50, which was really disappointing considering how important goals into the breeze would be. Be we managed to settle and managed to open up a little break with Deon Welhan kicking 2 opportunistic goals for the quarter. 

 

 

BD: It's a fundamental type of game. Being clean, flat hands in the marking contest, keeping the ball in front, forward momentum, tackle pressure. But we try and still encourage aggressive ball movement. Back your skills in. You learn a lot about players in these conditions- do they still run? How do they go in traffic? Can they be disciplined for the 4 quarters?

 

 

BD: We were a little frustrated about the late goal but we quickly debriefed the 2nd quarter before moving onto what we needed to reinforce, or change, heading into the 3rd quarter. We felt we played a little close to the boundary line in the 1st quarter and we looked more likely to score if we broke up the play short. We encouraged more aggressive ball movement. 

 

 

BD: We created the chances but couldn’t convert, kicking 1.5 and a few out on the full. A few rushed snaps when we had time to steady and some missed set shots. We’ve worked really hard on our goal kicking, coming into the game we had been operating at nearly 70% over the last 3 games, but those missed opportunities left us with a big mountain to climb in the last. 

 

 

 

 

BD: We were quite clear in what we needed to do in the last Quarter. We changed our Forward and Midfield structure. We reinforced that goals had been kicked into the breeze in each Quarter. That we needed to play with a Soccer Goal mentality. To run and carry the ball if the ground opened up. 

 

 

BD: There was a steely resolve there. It was a real arm wrestle for the first half of the quarter before we kicked 2 quick goals to create a buffer. Really pleased that defensively we were difficult to score against, for the 2nd week we’ve conceded just 1 goal in the 2nd half. We’re really starting to play some strong, consistent defensive football. 

 

 

BD: A really even performance over the group. James Sturrock had an excellent first half, finding plenty of the ball and was really clean around the stoppages, Jake Howes continued his rich vein of form, doing plenty of heavy lifting through the Midfield.  Lachlan Riley was solid for most of the day but really gave us some drive in the last. Up forward, Jack Sears continues to move his game forward, in tough conditions he took 6 marks and provided a strong target. Clifton Stack, Deon Welhan and Tyrone Thorne were all busy- having 10 shots at goal between them. Down back, Lee Chapman continues to improve, Jye Kimpton was excellent while Jarvis Pina gave us some strong run from behind. 

 

 

BD: On the road again which gives us a chance to once again show we can perform away from home. The Tigers are always strong and will be looking to bounce back after we beat them a few weeks ago. Should be a great challenge for our guys.