Second Semi Final: Norwood v West @ AAMI Stadium

Norwood v West

Sunday 22 September
AAMI Stadium

3:10pm

2013 Meetings
Round 5 @ Coopers Stadium
Norwood 9.13.67
West 6.5.41

Round 10 @ City Mazda Stadium
West 10.7.67
Norwood 15.7.97

Round 17 @ Coopers Stadium
Norwood 8.10.58
West 8.7.55

The second semi final sees Norwood, who come in to the finals series in blistering form belting North in the final round, come up against West, who had a tight win over the Eagles in the Qualifying Final.

Norwood's form has been outstanding for most of the season. After a shaky start to the season, they are on a 10 game winning streak, most of which have been very convincing wins and had a runaway lead at the top of the ladder. West's form we discussed last week, and they are about as committed as a side could be towards making a serious attempt at the Premiership.

Will Norwood continue on their merry way, or will West cause one of the upsets of the season and send Norwood to a shock Preliminary Final?

My main concern as a Norwood supporter is or recent record against West. I am fairly superstitious and feel West are due to catch us on a bad day. If it does happen this week then at least we would get it out the way before a potential Grand Final meeting.

While we have a few under done players I think we have the better team and should win.

A lot of unknowns in this one. Would think West are better for the run for several players and they found the required form/attitude in the 2nd half. Will the returning Norwood players be better or worse for having missed a lot of football in the past month? Then of course there is the West captain who looks a doubtful starter, however his team has lifted for him once already. The only tip Im prepared to make at this stage is that the game will be closer than the finals played between these two last season.

I find the recent Norwood v West games fascinating. Norwood are the best team going around and few teams can get close to them, but West have been able to do that on and off recently.

Norwood are very structured and disciplined, but it takes good skills to carry off their plan and they have that.

For two years now, West have shown they're probably the next best team. Many good football followers recognise that the battle to unravel Norwood's game plan is the only key to premiership success and no team has been (or is likely to) do this.

Then there are those who predict (even last week against the Eagles) a nil-all draw and (IMO) miss the whole point. West kicked 14 goals against the Eagles and their season scoring average compares well with most teams. Most teams also fail to score against Norwood, with recent games seeing under 6 goals scored regularly, often only 2 or 3.

What those people fail to see is that Norwood are probably better than the other sides by more than we've seen for a long time.

As for West's 'defensive' style, I noticed the Eagles fans saying that their key forwards didn't fire, I think the reason for that can be summed up in 3 words - Tippett, Ferguson and Mangan.

I doubt Ferguson will play against Norwood and Moran won't either.

Just another step in a fascinating battle.

redandblack wrote:Most teams also fail to score against Norwood, with recent games seeing under 6 goals scored regularly, often only 2 or 3.

If we improve against this mob, it'll mean that we've kicked 4 or 5 goals for the match.  

Norwood comfortably

Norwood:

F: Davis, Warren, Grigg
HF: Phillips, Dawe, Pfeiffer
C: James Aish, Thomas, Fuller
HB: Zorzi, McGuinness, Bode
B: Stevenson, Georgiou, Kirwan

R: Baulderstone, Webber, Suckling
INT: M. Evans, Dumont, Jefferies, Bampton, Fantasia
IN: Zorzi, Dawe, Fantasia, Grigg
OUT: Donohue (calf), Smart

West:

F: Fielke, Still, Slattery
HF: Silverlock, Keough, Beech
C: Hill, Schmidt, Birss
HB: Green, Hartlett, Mangan
B: Caire, Tippett, Thompson

R: Webb, Tuck, Macreadie
INT: Bricknell, Middleton, Bonney, Kirk, R. Anderson
IN: R. Anderson, Middleton, Kirk, Still
OUT: Ferguson (concussion), Moran (hamstring)