Round 8: Sturt v West. Saturday 25 May @ Envestra Park

Sturt v West

Saturday 25 May
Envestra Park

Reserves: 11:25am
League: 2:10pm

Sturt are coming off a competitive loss to Centrals while West are coming off a big win over Port. Will West continue their successful start to the season, or will Sturt convert their competitive efforts into a win?

big danger game for West, i feel an upset is on the cards here, it may go down to the Duldig v Tippet clash, Sturt to win by 5 points at home

I don't think West's recent results, up until last year, are that flash at Unley, either, Bayman.

Your correct BP, I think it was about 13 losses in a row. Westies are a different team now though and have great belief in each other. Form has not been great and they looked very flat against Port but I still think they will win by 6 goals

Yeah it's generally been a graveyard for us. I've always liked the ground, but rarely the results.

Sturt seem to have forgotten how to put 4 quarters together and get a win. Westies by 3 goals for mind.

We've had some shockers at Unley over many recent years.

I remember sitting on the bench one game and Sturt had organised their cheer girls to do a short routine every time Sturt kicked a goal. Unfortunately they did this right near our bench.

Sturt kept on kicking goals, the girls kept dancing in front of us, we got more and more depressed.

They shifted after half time.

redandblack wrote:

Sturt kept on kicking goals, the girls kept dancing in front of us, we got more and more depressed.

hardly a thing to be depressed about r&b, oh unless you meant the scoreboard

Surely he should have cheered every time Sturt kicked a goal

West by 4-5 goals.

West's win at Unley last season, in Round 5, was their first at that venue since 2000, if the stats I read are correct?

While it obviously hasn't been a happy hunting ground for the Bloods over the last decade, I think they will win this clash on Saturday reasonably comfortably...

Congratulations to Josh Schiller who may play his first league game for West tomorrow.

We must be going OK if we can afford to play Shane Birss in the Reserves, along with James Ezard. I hope it dorsn't come back to bite us.

The Bloods to get up at Unley, a couple of reasonable defenders coming back in the side (Tippet & Hartlett).

When you've been starved of footy for several weeks, you can't wait to see a game, so I headed for Unley full of anticipation. It's unusual to see Jimmy Ezard and Shane Birss running around in the early game, but the headlines that West were arrogant in playing them in the 2's was well off the mark. Jimmy's form had been down and Shane hadn't played for a month. He'll be back next game after being BOG yesterday.

Nobody at West was over-confident and there was a fair bit of 'danger game' thinking. I was also worried, not about it being a danger game, more that I'd seen Sturt play some great football, but not for 4 quarters. The nucleus of their side is terrific, but their depth is perhaps not as good.

It's strange watching Westies now. Years of being smashed takes a while to get out of the mind, but it's being replaced with a nice anticipation of enjoying watching your team and thinking they'll win from difficult positions.

So it transpired, after Sturt were solid almost all day. It's obligatory to say that Angus Graham is a big unit. He's a big unit and he gave Sturt first use much of the time. Sturt had runners and they had Brodie Martin. That gave them a head start and they had the better of the first quarter, with McIntyre starting well and Sturt up and running.

West seemed to take over in the second quarter, Sturt the third. Martin just dominated and Sturt had a lead at the last break and a good chance at a deserved win.

Collins put Fielke to full forward and he marked strongly and goaled. West attacked constantly, despite Sturt dominating the clearances. With the game in the balance, the unheralded Michael Still decided the game, with some strong marking inside 50 and 2 goals. Sturt looked gone, but dominated the last ten minutes and only inaccuracy cost them a chance of a win.

Despite Sturt losing, Martin was best on ground. I read somewhere that West's side looked average on paper, but it was the lesser-known players who won them the game. Bradley Mangan totally dominated in defence, with 13 marks, most of them one-on-one contested and he added to a stellar defensive set-up, especially with an excellent return from injury by Adam Hartlett.

Michael Still finished with 5 goals and Shannon Green was excellent in defence.

A good, although at times scrappy, game of footy between two evenly matched teams on the day.

Finally, I thought Unley Oval looked ithe best nick I'd seen for some time.