Under 18 Grand Final

Next week, Eagles v West Adelaide.

West have come from 5th, winning their Elimination Final against Sturt by 13 goals, their Semi Final by 10 goals against Norwood and their Prelim against North by 4 goals.

The Eagles have been top 2 and defeated North in their Qualifying Final comfortably.

A lot of talent on display.

Slight Correction,

Eagles finished Minor Round 3rd

Defeated Norwood in qualifying, North in Second Semi

Aiming for a hat trick of U18 premierships.

So every lower ranked team has won the finals?

West to win then.

edit: West 8 wins, 10 losses and a % under 50 and now into grand final. Fair effort.

Thanks for that correction, Phil.

Results in Under 18's finals can be heavily influenced by availability of players. For example, college players are often unavailable during the season and in finals, if a team is still playing Reserves finals, some of their Under 18's may be playing Reserves.

Wrst's finals side is immensely stronger than any of their regular season sides, but Eagles will benefit from their week off.

this game surprisingly is on Friday night at the bay oval

Played 61 Eagles 36 West 24 Drawn 1
Finals 1 Eagles 0 West 1
This year 3 Eagles 1 West 2

The Eagles will be going for their sixth premiership at this level, the previous titles being 1996, 1998, 2000, 2012 and 2013.  West Adelaide are going for their seventh - 1943, 1944, 1968, 1978, 2002 and 2004 being the six.

The only finals meeting was the 2006 Preliminary Final, which West won by 100 points, 24.11 to 7.13.  West Adelaide is the only side the Eagles have not beaten in any grade Grand Finals.  The only GF meeting between the two sides in any grade was the 2001 Under 17s Grand Final which West won under lights at Adelaide, 18.7 to 11.7.

6 premierships ''at this level'' surely can't be right, we haven't had u/18's for that long, have we ?

bayman wrote:6 premierships ''at this level'' surely can't be right, we haven't had u/18's for that long, have we ?

I regard the Under 18 competition as a continuation of the Under 19s, as at least when it was implemented, clubs were allowed 6 Under 19 players.

The 2001 final you referred to, spelly, would have had some fair players running around, I think.

spell_check wrote:

bayman wrote:6 premierships ''at this level'' surely can't be right, we haven't had u/18's for that long, have we ?

I regard the Under 18 competition as a continuation of the Under 19s, as at least when it was implemented, clubs were allowed 6 Under 19 players.

that's your call my friend but i disagree with it, it to me is a new competition

Waiting for the SANFL live stream to start and noticed West isn't playing after all, it's WWT v Sturt apparently.

1/4 time

Eagles 6.1.37
West 2.6.18

1/2 time

Eagles 6.5.41
West 6.7.43

3/4 time

Eagles 6.9.45
West 10.9.69

final score

Eagles 7.13.55
West 13.12.90

from 1/4 time it was 11.6 to 1.12  


seemed to be a fair crowd looking at the live streaming


i thought i spotted Spelly standing in the forward pocket near the fence

Good effort by the Bloods

A fantastic win by the West Adelaide under 18's against a very good Eagles side to claim the premiership for 2014.
They fell into the five after the last home and away game (only won 8 minor round games) and won all 4  final games they played in, don't know whether it has been done at this level.

A great game indeed -

To very different game styles - Eagles smaller players but very very fast - A game based on running from the back lines in waves

West a taller side with more inside players with longer kicking game-plan

Some talented kids in both sides

Congrats to Westies, probably the only reason why it was what is now the whole clubs "customary 4 goal lead in the 1st quarter only to lose it" was because West were inaccurate first up...it was 6.1 to 1.6 at one stage and I didn't think West were out of it at that then.  I don't mind it if we can't win a flag at least it goes to West or say South.

spell_check wrote:Congrats to Westies, probably the only reason why it was what is now the whole clubs "customary 4 goal lead in the 1st quarter only to lose it" was because West were inaccurate first up...it was 6.1 to 1.6 at one stage and I didn't think West were out of it at that then.  I don't mind it if we can't win a flag at least it goes to West or say South.

South couldnt win an U/18 flag with 20 goals head start.

I see Ben Hook has written confirming what we said a week ago about West being the first side in SANFL history to win a premiership after winning only 8 games in the regular season.

I was lucky enough to be asked by their coach, Jarrod Meers to tell them this as a group at the Club after the game.

Hat tip to Flag No 9, who passed this on to me after the siren. I hadn't realised it until then.

Good work, Flaggie.

Lee wrote:I see Ben Hook has written confirming what we said a week ago about West being the first side in SANFL history to win a premiership after winning only 8 games in the regular season.

I was lucky enough to be asked by their coach, Jarrod Meers to tell them this as a group at the Club after the game.

Hat tip to Flag No 9, who passed this on to me after the siren. I hadn't realised it until then.

Good work, Flaggie.

very good sanfl writer, ben. seems to have his finger on the pulse on most things

how many years was he the runner at Norwood ?

The Hatchet wrote:

Lee wrote:I see Ben Hook has written confirming what we said a week ago about West being the first side in SANFL history to win a premiership after winning only 8 games in the regular season.

I was lucky enough to be asked by their coach, Jarrod Meers to tell them this as a group at the Club after the game.

Hat tip to Flag No 9, who passed this on to me after the siren. I hadn't realised it until then.

Good work, Flaggie.

very good sanfl writer, ben. seems to have his finger on the pulse on most things

Has pretty good sources, though, including football forums...

Especially football forums