Rnd 16 - Eagles v Norwood @ Woodville POST GAME DISCUSSION

[PhilH]

2,770 biggest crowd to an Eagles v Norwood game @ Woodville since 1999.

Quite relieved the weather cleared up by the league game,
Was feeling pretty depressed as the first quarter of the reserves was played under overcast conditions and constant rain. Would have taken any thing over 2,200 at that time.

[Jim05]

1700 of them were Norwood fans though!!!
All week most experts tipped an Eagles win yet your fans failed to show up, disappointing for a side with a decent membership.

[Aerie]

There were a lot of Norwood supporters there. The umbrellas were out in force.

[once_were_warriors]

Supprisingly their chardonnay was warm today as well.

[CENTURION]

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S CLICHE TIME!

[topsywaldron]

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S CLICHE TIME!

Nice work to post while you're also torching cars.

Woeful, woeful and a bit more woeful from Norwood today.

[PhilH]

Not disapointing at all Jim ... At the Eagles our memberships are gowing, our community links are strengthing, our general crowds (Home and Away) are the currently best this decade and our Home Match crowds are set for 3rd straight year of growth.

These are solid forward steps in what is a long journey to having a size of supporter base worthy of our one field achievements... one we are a long way from meeting .. but one we are heading in the right direction to eventually get to.

[Jim05]

Just thought you might have had a few more thats all. 2 top sides playing in a game a lot of scribes had you winning. Brought this up because i sat just up from a few Eagles supporters and their comment was "geez we are outnumbered 2 to 1 by these bandwagonners"
If your support had matched ours today the attendance would have been 3500-4000 which would have been fantastic and a great atmosphere. But the ones who stayed home missed u guys have a good win

[NFC]

Eagles simply wanted it more. More run, more desire.

Norwood were sluggish all day, couldn't hit targets, couldn't make tackles stick. Too top heavy.

Excellent turn-out by the Norwood fans, you wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that at least half the crowd were Norwood fans.

Lewis and Jarrad killed us and we didn't seem to want to get near them all day. Luke Thompson did as he pleased runing out of defence.

Pfeiffer comfortably our best player, as he has been most of the season. We really miss Campbell though.

[CENTURION]

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S CLICHE TIME!

Nice work to post while you're also torching cars.

Woeful, woeful and a bit more woeful from Norwood today.

GOOD ONE! THAT'S COMEDY AT ITS BEST!

[Jim05]

Eagles simply wanted it more. More run, more desire.

Norwood were sluggish all day, couldn't hit targets, couldn't make tackles stick. Too top heavy.

Excellent turn-out by the Norwood fans, you wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that at least half the crowd were Norwood fans.

Lewis and Jarrad killed us and we didn't seem to want to get near them all day. Luke Thompson did as he pleased runing out of defence.

Pfeiffer comfortably our best player, as he has been most of the season. We really miss Campbell though.

I thought Dawesy and Pfeiffer were 2 best by a mile.

[PhilH]

Jim you do touch on a key point ... traditional powerhouse clubs like Norwood, Glenelg, Sturt (& i hope Port) have a very large "latent" supporter base.

When the heat is turned up by the side doing well the crowds and memberships of these clubs grow
- Glenelg showed this about 4 years back (at one stage 2003-2005 their crowds were lower than the Eagles)
then from 2008 they shot up about 40% and are now among leaders in the league
- Norwoods overall crowds have been just above average for most of the decade but in over 2010 & 2011 they have jumped about 60% (3160pg in 2008 to 5005pg so far this year)
- Sturts overal crowds over past decade have fluctuated wildly between 4,100 per game to 2,600 per game depending on how thay are travelling.

Then when the team struggles things cool off.

The Eagles total crowds graph since 2000 is virtually a straight line.
Crowds (home & away) were always between 2447 and 2616 per game until this year where we sit on 2772 per game with 6 matches left.

Decades of non-success over a whole generation 1960s - 1990's, the merger happening as the same time as the Crows entrance and an inability to covert premierships into new supporters has left us with the fans base we have ... loyal but small.

However the club knows this is an issue, they have a project plan in place to develop new supporters and it has dedicated some considerable resources to make it a long term reality... stay tuned.

[The Sleeping Giant]

When did Glenelg become a "powerhouse"?

[PhilH]

TSG ... now that is a good question

All I know is growing up at school in the late 70's to mid 80's Glenelg had as many supporters as any club with the possible exception of Port or Norwood.

[Jim05]

When did Glenelg become a "powerhouse"?

Was thinking the same, 4 flags hardly entitles you to be called a powerhouse

[JK]

Much better! Thought it was going to be the Central game all over again, but the Eagles fought it out well. The first ten minutes of the 3rd quarter saw Norwood come out with some real intensity and it wasn't looking good at that stage, but Norwood couldn't capitalize on the score board and the Eagles went on to kick 3 goals in succession to take that lead into the final quarter. The wind towards the end of the game was not as strong as earlier and the last quarter saw the Eagles hold on pretty comfortably.

Some real positive signs in the form of Treeby, Staple and Redden. That was Treeby's best game since his best and fairest year a few years ago.

Norwood were surprisingly poor in defence and didn't tag any of our better players which allowed Jarrad, Lewis and co to roam around and create which generally means we'll win.

Next week becomes a huge game for the Eagles. A chance to cement a finals spot and strengthen a top 3 position before a two week bye which will be very handy for the likes of Grieger and Grocke who both look spent at the moment.

Excellent write up Aerie, think we both saw the game similarly .. Well done to the Eags, hope we can improve enough to get the Choccies next time around.

[areaman]

A good win that was overdue.

Godden must have been reading some of the comments posted on this site Almond and Rimmington dropped replaced by Lane and Batley. Redden spending significant time up forward.

We started to play a little better and more direct although there were plenty of moments throughout the match where we persisted going sideways and rather than kicking long. Thankfully these moments were not as often as the last 5 matches.

My best in no paticular order- Lewis, Goldsworthy, Giuffreda, Redden, Jarrad, Staple.

That bloke who wears #57 didn't have a bad game either.

[wedgetail]

Thought the Eags started to turn their season around in the last quarter of game against bays. Although many skill errors and poor decision making today, endeavour was good and we seemed more willing to take the game on than we have been. Lewis and Jarrad outstanding. Norwood, I'm sure can play much better. Was confident today as we just had to win and norwood's run had to come to an end. Must back up with a win against west though.

[areaman]

Decades of non-success over a whole generation 1960s - 1990's, the merger happening as the same time as the Crows entrance and an inability to covert premierships into new supporters has left us with the fans base we have ... loyal but small.

However the club knows this is an issue, they have a project plan in place to develop new supporters and it has dedicated some considerable resources to make it a long term reality... stay tuned.

Keep up the good work Phil.

[Pseudo]

When did Glenelg become a "powerhouse"?

That was my first thought too.

Did ya hear that, ma? We're a POWERHOUSE!