This weekend marks the run home for the Blackwood Football Clubs Hills Football League sides with four minor round matches left. As there are eight teams in the competition, the last four games fall against the opening four opponents of the season: Mt Lofty, Echunga, Uraidla Districts and Hahndorf.
This weekend the Woods face the Mountain Devils at U-Install-It Kitchens Oval. From the two times the sides have met in 2018, the Woods have recorded two victories by nine points in Round 1 and twenty-three point in Round 14. This weekend’s game details are as follows:
Round details
Who – Blackwood vs Mt Lofty
When – Saturday, 4 August
Where – U-Install-It Kitchens Oval
Start times – U14s (8.45am), U16 (9.55am), U18 (11.10am), Bs (12.50pm), As (2.30pm)
U-Install-It Kitchens Oval
The opponent
From their opening four matches in 2018, the Mt Lofty Football Club have recorded four wins and ten loss. From these matches, the Devils have the sixth best attack in the competition averaging 70.4 points for and the third worst defence averaging 90.0 points against. This compares to the Woods who average 71.2 points for and 56.7 points against.
The Devils have used a total of 42 players (most in competition) with 9.5% (4) having played every match. This compares to the Woods who have used 37 players with 13.5% (5) having played every match. The competition average across the same period is 17.2% (or 6.1 players) playing every game.
Of the matches the Devils have played, a total of 26 different players have featured in the best players (61.9%). Sam Miles has featured the most times (71.4% or 10 times). Of the 142 goals kicked by the Devils, Daniel Gonzales has kicked 19.7% of them (19 goals). This is the second lowest percentage of the leading goal kickers from any club with Hahndorf’s Darcy Hourigan having the highest percentage (38.7%). This compares to Blackwood where the leading goal kicker (Ryan Dijksman – 19 goals) has kicked 13.6% of the 140 goals the Woods have kicked.
The first 14 rounds
Across the first 14 rounds of the Hills Football League season, the favourite (ie the team with the better differential) has won 46 of 56 matches (82.5%). Of the upsets which have occurred, the last one occurred in Round 10 (Game 37) when the Mt Lofty Devils defeated the Echunga Demons by 48 points, this was despite the Devils starting the match -19.6 points on differential. The full list of matches which the side with the worse differential has won are:
- Round 2 (Game 6) – Onkaparinga Valley defeated Mt Lofty
- Round 2 (Game 8) – Echunga defeated Blackwood
- Round 3 (Game 10) – Lobethal defeated Onkaparinga Valley
- Round 3 (Game 11) – Mt Barker defeated Hahndorf
- Round 6 (Game 22) – Onkaparinga Valley defeated Echunga
- Round 7 (Game 25) – Blackwood defeated Mt Barker
- Round 8 (Game 30) – Echunga defeated Mt Barker
- Round 10 (Game 37) – Mt Lofty defeated Echunga
Of these eight matches, their seven of the eight have been the lower ranked home side winning the match with only Game 6 seeing the travelling side with a worse differential getting the victory.
Key Target
To date in 2018 the Woods have won 51.8% of quarter they have played (29 of 56). The Woods will be looking to play a full match this weekend with the last time they won every quarter in a match coming back in Round 5 against Onkaparinga Valley.
Other HFL matches
The other HFL matches poise to be quality battles with all sides currently placed within the top five:
B Grade – Fourth v Third, the Woods will be look to secure a victory and close the four point gap between third and fourth spot. In Round 8 the Woods beat the Devils by seven points with big-man Lucas Herbert kicking five majors. Currently the Woods have a differential of -0.1 whilst the Devils have a differential of +21.9. The difference in this comes with the Woods only averaging 51.7 points for compared to 72.0 for the Devils.
Under 18s – Second v Third, this game will be a close match with the two previous encounters between the sides being decided two points in each match. The teams are very evenly matched with the Woods having the slightly better attack (67.9 to 63.9) whilst the Devils have the slightly better defence (43.9 to 41.4).
Under 16s – First v Third. Coach Waldron will have the young Woods at the top of their games looking to continue their eleven match unbeaten streak. In Round 8 the Woods secured the victory by 10 points with a blistering opening quarter kicking six goals to one. So far the Woods have both the best attack in the competition averaging 91.4 points for and the best defence averaging only 18.7 points against.
Under 14s – Fourth v Fifth. In Round 8 the Woods secured a seven goal victory keeping the Devils to only 1 major whilst kicking eight themselves. The statistics show the young Woods start the match 22.5 points ahead on differential with averaging 40.6 points for compared to 32.9 whilst also conceding less per match on average (26.6 to 41.5). Its more than likely these teams will face each other come the Elimination Final on September 2.
