Round 21 Colts Wrap up with Coach Brad Dodd

Tuesday, August 28, 2018 - 12:53 PM

The Peel Thunder Colts were back in action last Sunday, taking on East Perth at Domain Stadium. After the game we spoke with Head Coach, Brad Dodd.

A Colts Super Round to end the regular season, 3 games being played at Domain Stadium on Sunday. Another 2 debuts with Tyrell Metcalf and Ben Roberts coming into the team, tell us a little about the day and the players debuting?

BD: This was the 2nd Super Round for the season- it’s a great experience for the players and they were all pretty excited to be playing at Domain Stadium. Like most teams this time of year, we had a few injuries so it was disappointing for the likes of Tyson Powell and Jye Kimpton to miss out. James Sturrock was joined by Lachlan Riley in the League team- which was great reward for Lachie- who has been playing some great football.

Tyrell is up from our 16’s program- making it 6 of our 16s that have played this year. He’s a hard running, skilful forward- he can do some pretty exciting things. Ben is one of our South West kids who has played the last 4 games in the Reserves which gave us a good chance to look at him closely. He mainly plays down back and generally uses the ball well.

Perfect conditions to start the game, a dominant start that wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard and East Perth responded to lead by 6 points at the break- thoughts on the quarter?

BD: We started the game really strongly but didn’t convert. At one stage it was 1.8 to nil. As is often the case, East Perth gained momentum and managed to convert their chances. So it was disappointing to be behind after creating enough scoring opportunities.

East Perth opened up a 14 point lead half way through the 2nd, before the Thunder rallied to go into half time with a 6 point lead. Where’d you see the turnaround?

BD: We started to use the ball better and that created set shots for our forwards- who converted. It was still a real arm wrestle through the midfield but we felt we worked our way on top by the end of the quarter.

A tight start to the 3rd before Peel exploded to open up a 31 point lead at the last change. You must’ve been happy with the response?

BD: We made some adjustments at half time but we kicked 5 goals from the centre bounce. Our inside mids went to work and our forwards managed to create space, which created one on ones. It was an exciting 8-10 minutes of play where we kicked 5 goals.

East Perth threw everything at you in the last, but the Thunder held on to win by 19 points. Was the fade out a concern?

BD: We’ve been pretty strong in last quarters but by the end we were down to 2 on the bench and we fought it out. We’ve had some really good battles with East Perth over the year so it was good to get the win. We had our lowest possession count for the year (219) but still managed 44 Inside 50s and 26 scoring shots.

Who were the better performers on the day?

BD: Tyrone Thorne was outstanding down forward, kicking 3.3 and proving strong defensive pressure. Michael Randall had a high impact game and was instrumental in our strong 3rd quarter. Jake Howes had one of his better games for the season and managed to hit the scoreboard. Down back, Rob Hutson and James Ewing continued their good form while Jack Sears had another strong game up forward.

That’s the end of the regular season, Peel finishing 2nd with 12 wins and 6 loses. How have you seen the season to date?

BD: We ended up playing 50 players and we were the 2nd youngest team in the competition. We managed to win more games than last year and give ourselves at least 2 finals- which is fantastic for our players and their own development. We had 2 players play League football in James Sturrock and Lachie Riley while another 6 played Reserves football. We also saw our assistant coaches in Jayden Heuer, Danny Chartres and Michael McCann take the reigns and coach the team through the week and match day. Overall, we’re pretty happy with how the season has panned out and excited to see our players under the pressure of finals football.

Swan Districts this week at Claremont Oval on Sunday, 9.15am - how have you gone against them this season?

BD: We’re 1-1, with both teams winning at home. As is often the case in Colts, the personnel will be quite different this time around. Swans have some very dangerous and exciting players that can rip games apart. It’s going to be a great challenge playing away but one we all look forward to.

Brad Dodd - Thunder Colts Coach