Round 16, 30 July, 2022 Kalamunda V’s Willetton
This game was almost a carbon copy of the game In round 7 against the Willetton ‘Blues’.
In that game at Burrendah Oval, the Cougars won by 63 points in a very ‘Scrappy’ affair, where the Cougars were forced to attack around the flanks, a tactic that suited the Blues backs and enabled them to work the ball out of trouble.
During that game the Cougars ‘bombed’ the ball into the forward line enabling the Blues backs led by their tall defenders to mark and easily clear the ball from their zone.
In this round, the Blues used their physical presence and fierce tackling in the damp slippery conditions, to shut-down the Cougars ‘run and carry’ game. This forced them to kick under pressure into the forward line where packs developed resulting in goals being hard to kick!
When marks were taken by the forwards they were usually on acute angles on or around the 50 meter arc and because of a strong ‘South Wester’, kicking goals became extremely difficult.
The Cougar backline stood out once again preventing the Blues from scoring in two quarters of football and only conceding one goal in the final quarter!
Mitch Price and Mitch Massam led the defence aided by Lachlan Harty, Rhys Cushing and Ben Dupont who spoilt everything the Blues taller players threw at them, in reducing their final score to 21 points.
I have mentioned on several occasions, the need for a more strategic approach to forward line attack. This must be practiced regularly, and new team inclusions must be made aware of it. (We can’t rely on one of our ‘usual suspects’ to play on-the-ball and be our leading goal kicker)
Final scores: Kalamunda: 11.16 – 82, Willetton: 3.3 – 21
Best players: The usual suspects
Goals: Josh Harris 3, Dustin Brown 3, Blair Southcott 2, Ben Bowness 2, Joel Peters 1 
Most noteworthy: Dustin Brown, polished performance! Blair Southcott, heavy duty performance for his 100th.
(see The Alex Haigt Report for a full tribute to Blair)
Bruce Glover’s report:
Plays of the Day: Quarter 1, Trent to Blair, two great marks one very accurate pass culminating in a goal. Quarter, 3 Mitch to Dustan Brown with another great pass resulting in a goal.
Goal of the Day: Quarter 1, Josh on the boundary with a very tight angle and battling the wind.
Next weeks game: Saturday 6 August 2022, 2.20 PM Thornlie Oval.
This post is dedicated to IGA Lesmurdie, proud sponsors of the Kalamunda ‘Cougars’ Football Club.
Sanderson Road Shopping Centre, Lesmurdie WA 6076 (08) 9291 7181
