IK outrun by Koo Wee Rup

AN impressive first quarter effort from Koo Wee Rup saw Inverloch-Kongwak concede the four points on Saturday.

Playing at the Koo Wee Rup Recreation Reserve, the Sea Eagles knew they were in for a challenge on the day and have come away with a clear idea about how to improve their game moving forward.

‘It was a bit of a disappointing day. They jumped us early - it was 6.1 to 1.2 at quarter time,’ Inverloch-Kongwak coach Leigh Cole said.

‘We put ourselves under pressure. We didn’t really use the ball as well as we would’ve liked, and we couldn’t really defend any of our forward entries.’

Inverloch-Kongwak was quick to shake off the shock of the first term to deliver a closely contested second quarter.

Playing with higher intensity, the Sea Eagles brought the margin right back to just three points heading into halftime.

‘We played well in the second quarter. We evened a few things up around the contest and put some goals on the scoreboard,’ Cole said.

‘We felt like we got the game back to where we wanted it. We thought we still had a bit of improvement to make with our ball movement and our pressure, but we were happy to get the game back on level terms.’

The third quarter was a slog and neither side got too much ascendency.

The ball seemed to be rebounding from forward line to forward line, but Koo Wee Rup managed to get a little break to be up by nine points with one quarter to go.

‘I think we got it back to under a goal in the last quarter early, but then once it got out by two goals, it was hard to chase down and they got a couple of late goals to finish up,’ Cole said.

‘We still feel like we’ve been playing good football, but we just have a couple of things to work on to keep improving our game.’

Inverloch-Kongwak ultimately went down by 28 points.

For the Sea Eagles, Jayden Sullivan played a strong game down back and Ethan Park was a dominant presence through the middle.

Playing his third Senior game for the year, Cooper Newman also gave a good performance across half forward.

Next week will be a top of the table clash between Inverloch-Kongwak and Nar Nar Goon.

‘That’ll be a tough game, but if we can get some things working right, then hopefully we’ll give a good show of ourselves,’ Cole said.