ROUND ONE
Saturday 28th of March.

GLENELG 1.0 3.3 5.3 8.8 (56)
EAGLES 3.3 3.3 4.3 5.4 (34)

Glenelg commenced the season in promising fashion with a hard fought victory against a somewhat undermanned Woodville-West Torrens. Mathew Bode was clearly best on ground and if this is indicative of his season he is not likely to line up for Glenelg very often. The most pleasing aspect of the win was the solid efforts of several "name" players- Grenvold, Rouvray, Viska and Jameson, in particular. The match report is extracted from the "Sunday Mail," photograph from "The Advertiser."

BODE INSPIRES NEW-LOOK BAYS.

By Doug Robertson.
Glenelg began its planned march up the premiership ladder with a decisive first step by out-working Woodville-West Torrens in atrocious weather to win its season opener by 22 points at the Bay yesterday.
The new-look tigers, with nine debutants, withstood a legitimate challenge from a tough, if inexperienced, Eagles outfit for a little over two quarters, then Glenelg stubbornly ground the Eagles down to win in comparative style - 8.8 (56) to 5.4 (34).
The brilliant Matthew Bode shone in the first half in pouring rain and strong winds, then continued to stamp his class so completely as the skies cleared that he provided Glenelg the important edge and first touch in the pivot.
Bode racked up 23 effective touches including two stylish goals from long range - and teamed with ex-Sydney reserves follower James Byrne to push Glenelg repeatedly into attack as the Eagles seemingly slackened off the pressure.
The Eagles were first under the packs and quick to the ball in the opening quarter, then matched Glenelg easily until midway through the third term.
Glenelg skipper Nick Chigwidden tagged the industrious Adam Pearce and Josh Carr picked up Nick Pesch after the break. When the hard yakka was left to the others, the Eagles' system faded.
Glenelg lost Mark Harwood to the Power 25 minutes before the game and brought Todd Wistanely on to the benchbut it lost nothing in defence.
Veterans Paul Rouvray, Rod Jameson and Mark Viska made a mockery of conditions, repeatedly running the ball forward with with flair under instructions to take risks and create flow to a hard-working Chad Cornes at half-forward.

And, importantly, Glenelg sustained its work-rate and attack on its opponents for the full 100 minutes-unlike recent seasons.
"The movement of the ball invariably comes from the half-back line and the more the weather dried out, the more we were able to use the ball better and create some run,"Tiger coach Tony McGuinness said.
"The major reason (for the win) was when crunch time came we were able to maintain the pressure." The Eagles opened the game with aggression and neatly scooped the ball forward despite the steady rain and a 5 goal cross-wind. Wade Kingsley was good in the ruck and Pearce, Pesch and bustling John McCarthy moved smoothly into attack. They had system but when the weather changed so did the Eagles' performance.
"It had nothing to do with conditions we just fell away with our effort at the hard ball," coach Mark Mickan said. "In the first half I thought we won the hardball contests and as a result the scoreboard was even. In the sense of competitiveness we were probably ahead. After half-time it just fell out and that's the really disappointing thing."

BEST PLAYERS:Bode, Rouvray, Byrne, Cornes, Raidis, Hele, Golding.
SCORERS:Grenvold 3.1, Bode 2.1, Cornes 1.2, Higgins 1.1, Hosking 1.0, Radis, Hele 0.1, rushed 0.1.

RESERVES:Glenelg 13.13 (91) defeated Eagles 5.12 (42)
UNDER 19:Glenelg 3.5 (23) lost to Eagles 11.16 (82)
UNDER 17:Glenelg 9.9 (63) lost to Eagles 9.10 (64)