Sport
8 July, 2025
Thunder ground Eagles' flight
The Thunder grounded the Eagles' flight on Saturday as the home side at Beulah Memorial Park recorded a 30-point victory.
Playing against the hefty wind meant the Eagles were down by 13 points after the first quarter, but a better following quarter from Warrack meant the gap was reduced to just five points at half-time.
The Thunder in the third, making the most of the wind, piled on six majors to just one point to lead by 40 points going into the final quarter before Warrack were able to reduce that lead by 10 points in the last term, defeated 12.8 (80) to 7.8 (50).
Billy Lloyd was in brilliant form for the victors, named among the best on ground, as was Sam White, who contributed four goals for his side.
For the Eagles, Kyle Cheney led the way along with Sam Hanna, who also booted four majors for his team.
Eagles coach Matt Walder said his side held up well in the first quarter despite the advantage in scoring from the wind.
"Thunder kicked a couple of early ones but we did hold on pretty well to be at arm's length at quarter-time and then it took us more than half the first quarter with it (the breeze) so we didn't really take advantage of it, even though it (the score) closed up at half-time and there wasn't much in it," Walder said.
"We should have made more of it as a group and then obviously the following (third) quarter was the difference, how they came out and kicked two in probably a couple of minutes and put us on the back foot from there."
Walder said his side came at the Thunder again in the last quarter but it was too late.
"It's disappointing: for three quarters we were seven goals to six our way and for the one quarter they kicked six with it (the breeze) and we didn't register, so our Achilles' heel, the third quarter, brought us undone again," Walder said.
Walder said the side has changed their approach a bit after half-time to attempt to conquer the demon that is quarter three – but going against the breeze on Saturday in that quarter they were always going to be up against it.
"Our pressure did drop slightly and, subsequently, good sides get hold of you," Walder said.
"But we will continue to work our way through it.
"We do hold up in areas like contested ball, our defence holding the opposition out, and there are other metrics we are good on in two thirds of the ground, but the one metric we are down on is our power to score.
"We are trying to manufacture a score, moving personnel around now to attempt to be a bit more unpredictable and a bit more potent.
"We stack up well in a lot of areas of the game except for the one that hurts the most – and that's the score.
"It's obviously a heavy work in progress for us, and we know we don't have weapons as big as some of the other teams, but we know we are feisty, we are full of fight and we are spirited."
