WEEKLY REVIEW | FUTURES ROUND 5

Good Friday football saw Peel host East Fremantle in Round 5 of the Futures program at Lane Group Stadium on April 7th. With the opportunity of starting the club’s marquee day’s proceedings off, Peel selected a strong side which saw the inclusion of 2 more of their South West based players into the 25 man team whilst choosing not to add any of their developing bottom aged colts players.

In front of a big home crowd, Peel were keen to kick the day off with a good result. However, East Fremantle were having none of that and within the blink of an eye, had stretched the margin out to 24 points at the first break with a 4 goal to nothing term. Peel struggled to get the game on their terms and were well behind in all measurable stats.

When Will York goaled on the run for from the 50 arc with some opportunistic play, Peel got some spring back in their step. The result was more control around the ground but without any marks inside the forward 50 for the quarter and a lack of movement, the ascendency across the ground proved relatively fruitless. Peel continued to battle hard throughout the quarter before giving up 2 goals to trail by 30 points going into half time.

The 3rd quarter saw Noah Midani and bottom ager James Whelan get first hands on the ball in the ruck to ensure that Peel got the ball going their way. Eventually, the swell of repeated forward 50 entries was rewarded with fellow bottom ager Saul McCann popping up to be the target that Peel needed and bagging 3 classy goals from all different angles. This proved to be Peel’s best quarter of the game and the margin had been reduced to 28 points with a quarter to play.

Respect was chosen from the THOR trademarks as the theme of the week and Peel were out to seek just that from the home crowd in the last quarter. The messaging was to go out and throw everything at East Fremantle and risk it all to get the win.

Riley Crowd and Lexcen King were both holding firm in defence for the home side in the face of many entries from East Fremantle. While at the other end, Saul McCann added to his tally and put through his 4th for the game. In the end, the flood gates opened and East Fremantle were able to break the game open and run out victors by 47 points.

Peel’s players of note were:

Riley Crowd who built on last week’s game to be solid in defence.

Saul McCann with 4 goals who moved well and provided numerous options.

Will York who found his groove the longer the game went in a new side.

The Futures play their final game against Perth on Friday 14th at Lane Group Stadium at 4:10pm.