Levi Greenwood Greenwood in charge for SA
Adelaide Advertiser
ZAC MILBANK
July 02, 2007
SOUTH Australia started its under-18 national championship campaign with a convincing 50-point victory against Victoria Country at AAMI Stadium last night.
Setting up the win with a strong first quarter, the Croweaters handled the greasy conditions far better than the visitors and with a 32-point lead at the first change, were always going to be difficult to chase down.
"We talked about that beforehand, that winning the first quarter had to be high on the agenda," SA coach Brenton Phillips said.
"Their eyeballs were hanging out of their heads when they ran out of these rooms so it was really good they could compose themselves, get after the footy and be strong at the contest. I think that's where we set up the match."
Victoria Country - with forward Haelen Kay leading strongly - surged during the second term to close the gap to 17 points at half-time.
But after regrouping at the main change, SA booted the first three goals of the third term to steady and take a six-goal buffer into three-quarter time.
Port Magpies pair Levi Greenwood and Brad Ebert, who have both sampled league football in the SANFL this year, showed the benefit of playing against bigger bodies by dominating for the Croweaters.
SA captain Ebert started in attack and proved to be too strong in several marking contests while Greenwood continually hit the ball hard and rebounded off half-back.
"Wasn't Greenwood good? He just straight-lined every ball he went for," Phillips said.
"I thought our efforts to tackle, harass and smother were really first-class."
Crumbing forward Matt Wright, who kicked four goals and set up one other, was a livewire in attack for SA while Hamish Hartlett - younger brother of Carlton's Adam - contributed three goals.
SA takes on arch-rival Victoria Metro - which lost its opening match to Western Australia - in its second game on Friday at Skilled Stadium, Geelong.
SA 6.2 9.3 13.5 17.10 (112)
Vic Cty 1.0 6.4 7.5 9.8 (62)
BEST - South Australia: Greenwood, Ebert, Fairclough, Wright, Petrenko, Hartlett, Day.
Victoria Country: McKenna, Curnow, Kay, McEvoy, Suban.
GOALS - South Australia: Wright 4, Hartlett 3, Carr, Jesson 2, White, Millar, Hicks, Broadbent, Ebert, Staple.
Victoria Country: Kay 3, Blaser, Hockey, Steven, Michaelides, McKenna, Normington.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22000156-21546,00.html