Round 9 - Senior Development Match report with Ass. Coach Shannon Cole

Tuesday, June 5, 2018 - 10:42 PM

The Senior Development team had the task of taking on top of the ladder side in the Claremont Tigers at Claremont Oval on Saturday.

The group started the contest with great spirit and had a ferocious appetite for the contest going to quarter time within 6 points of regular grand finalists Claremont. Flying starts to James Kirby, Brett Millward and Kalani Scarrot saw our defensive unit on top of the game dominating in the air and providing plenty of drive of half back. A knee injury to Millward took him out of the game and soon followed by a concussion injury to Ash Humphreys which ruled him out for the remainder of the contest.

The Thunder continued to battle hard in the second quarter but could not put the score on the board and went into the main change 4 goals down.

Unfortunately for the guys, the weight of numbers started to tip the contest in the Tiger’s favour after half time and with some poor skill execution from Peel, Claremont kicked away running out winners by 12 goals despite relentless effort from the likes of Kirby, Matthews, Tassone, Wrigley and Jakeb Shine.

While the coaching group was disappointed at the result, we were also buoyed at some positive signs including the recapture to form of Calvin Thorne (18 disposals), the return to the side of Henrico Madhi and Mitch Lewis for their fist games of the year. As well as debutants Jarlath Duke and Rakeen Pickett.

A primary duty of the senior development side is to provide a platform for the club’s younger players to hone their craft and earn promotion to the league side and we congratulate league debutant Alex Cohen as well as Brad McGowan, and Keegan Power for their return to WAFL league football.

The players and coaches will review the game strongly and continue to focus on building the skills and conditioning of the playing list as we head into West Perth at Bendigo Bank Stadium for Round 10 action.

Hope to see you all there!

Shannon Cole - Assistant Coach/Senior Development