ROUND 4 of the SANFL season saw a number of Power players performing at both senior league and reserves level, with Central District and Norwood meeting in the traditional ANZAC Day match-up of the previous year’s grand final sides.

This week, Glenelg had the bye, while Thursday night footy saw two games being played - West Adelaide knocked off Sturt at City Mazda Stadium, and the Panthers defeated Magpies at Hickinbotham Oval.. The Saturday afternoon match of the round saw Woodville-West Torrens get the chocolates against North Adelaide at Prospect Oval.

All games were watched closely by development manager Daniel Healy and development coach Matthew Nicks. Their full report is below, but make sure you watch the video report to see some cracking footage of Simon Phillips, the ‘Player of the Week’ this week.

SANFL Player of the Week
Simon Phillips (for Redlegs vs Bulldogs)
Simon Phillips was having his first game back after an injury-riddled preseason and there were obvious concerns going into a match between last year’s grand finalists as to whether or not he’d be able to run the game out. He played over 90% of the game and came home strong, running really hard in the last quarter which was great to see - he kicked three goals and the standout aspect of his game was his forward pressure. The fact that he put his head in straight away after two broken jaws and had 11 tackles and around 4 or 5 hard-ball gets is exactly what we were looking for from him coming back.

Ben Jacobs (for Magpies reserves vs Panthers)
This was Ben’s first game for the year after battling a nasty bout of glandular fever throughout preseason. He was outstanding. He was definitely one of the better players at SANFL level this week, picking up 29 possessions in only 67 minutes of game time and should definitely push for a league position this week which is very encouraging.

Daniel Bass (for Panthers reserves vs Magpies)
Daniel played in the ruck again and is continuing to work on his positioning around the ground and he’s showing some real improvement there. He rucked reasonably well and took a couple of marks around the ground and is continuing to show some real progress.

John Butcher (for Magpies vs Panthers)
It was a night of missed opportunities for John - he had a number of marking opportunities but he couldn’t quite clunk them. He still kicked 2 goals 1, but it really was a case of one of that got away for John this week.

Kane Cornes (guest player for Eagles reserves vs Roosters)
The Eagles have commented to us on just how professional his attitude was going back to SANFL reserves level, which is a testament to Kane’s character. He obviously dominated the game at that level, picking up 40 possessions and being one of the best players for his side.

Andrew Moore (for Roosters reserves vs Eagles)
Andrew played on-ball and half-forward for North Adelaide, picking up 20 touches and laying 3 tackles. He’s getting better and better each week after having a difficult preseason in which he battled groin complaints, and he’ll be pushing for a league position soon.

Aaron Young (for Roosters reserves vs Eagles)
Aaron had a quiet three quarters playing on the wing and then went forward in the last, kicking 3 goals and being very impressive in that position, which was a really good effort to stay involved in the play after three quarters in which he wasn’t able to influence the play.

Jarrad Irons (for Eagles vs Roosters)
Ironsy had a quiet game and is still coming to terms with a new team with new teammates and new structures. He played across half-forward for the Eagles and laid a number of tackles but isn’t getting as much ball as we know he can, and once he gets to know his teammates at this level a little bit better this will change hopefully.

Matt Westhoff (for Bulldogs vs Redlegs)
Playing in a winning side, Matt started really well but didn’t have as strong a second half - he kicked a goal and had a number of opportunities that he didn’t take. He gave a couple off in what was an impressive win for his side in the meeting of last year’s grand final sides.

Matthew Lobbe (for Bloods reserves vs Double Blues)
It was good to see him back out there - he’s been sorely missed with his shoulder injury. He played three-quarters of footy changing in the ruck and a little bit of time spent up forward. He hasn’t really lost a lot of his run, which is great to see, and he’ll be a lot better for simply getting out on the park. He played up against Mitch Curnow…

Mitch Curnow (for Double Blues reserves vs Bloods)
…who is coming along in leaps and bounds - his first half on the weekend was probably the best half of footy we’ve seen him play thus far. He dropped away a little bit in the second, but he’s going to take some real confidence out of that first half and if he can expand that sort of football to four quarters he’ll be pushing hard for league selection.

Tom Jonas (for Redlegs vs Bulldogs)
He was solid in defence and is still doing a lot of work in the offensive side of his game. It was disappointing for him on the weekend to be on the losing side, but he’ll be keen to bounce back from a tough game next week.

Daniel Webb (for Bloods vs Double Blues)
Wests got up in the game and Webb kicked three behinds in the third quarter alone, which was disappointing for him not to cause some real damage on the scoreboard when he was stationed up forward. He played a little bit in the ruck as well and his ruckwork has been very strong over the last three or four weeks. He can definitely improve on his workrate in the forward line in the coming weeks.

Danyle Pearce (for Double Blues vs Bloods)
This was his second game at SANFL level this year, and he was probably disappointed in his game. He was a little bit quiet and needs to continue to work on his hard running off the ball - we need to see that a lot more, where he utilises his pace to get in the right positions to receive the ball. He’ll be keen to get back out there and work his way back into the Power side.

Previous SANFL Reports:
SANFL Report - Round 3
SANFL Report - Round 2
SANFL Report - Round 1