Norwood v North - at Cooper's Stadium - Friday night at 7.40pm.

North have gone OK here before and will be confident, but so will Norwood. Who will take McGuinness's important role in the game plan and how will North cope with a much tougher opponent than their last two wins?

Norwood by 44 points.

logic says Norwood but i have a feeling North will get up by 3 points

Think this will be the match of the round, like Bayman the head says Norwood, but one thinks that North look a little dangerous at present!

North by 3pts for mine.

Well - this game could be a thriller or very one sided. How badly will Norwood be affected by the loss of key personnel including their captain? Will the pieces of the puzzle that North have been trying to put together, which all fell into place last week, stay together, or will it all fall apart? The Roosters won everywhere last week, admittedly against ordinary opposition, but the result would have buoyed their confidence, and they will go into the game knowing that their game plan produces exciting footy and winning results. Both teams have quality on-ballers and forward targets, and Norwood may have Walker back to boost their forward line. North have to replace Jake Keller. Will Alek Kangur, who played some good games last year, come in after performing in the reserves, or will Francou restructure the defence with current personnel and bring in another midfielder? North's tackling has improved immensely, and their concentration, application and intensity increased. Francou has instilled in them what they have to do to succeed. It should be a great game, and North has been pretty successful under lights at Norwood. But, I think Norwood may just continue their run, and show North another aspect that they need to pursue if they are to succeed. Norwood by 10 points.

Our side... http://www.norwoodfc.com.au/News/LATESTNEWS/GAMEPREVIEWVSPORT1.aspx

EVANS WARREN DONOHUE
BATSANIS NEWTON CACHIA
BODE ZORZI M.THOMAS
FULLER JERICHO BROWN
TERLICH GEORGIOU JONAS

RUCKS
DAWE
SUCKLING
WEBBER
INTERCHANGE
CLARKE
L.THOMAS
AISH

INS
CLARKE
JERICHO
M.THOMAS
L.THOMAS
EVANS
OUTS
MCGUINNESS
PFEIFFER
RENOUF
PHILLIPS
RODAN

Regards
JAS

This may not be our final 21, we still need to find out what the Power have in mind. Trouble is, they don't play until Sunday, so some of those outs may not play at all this weekend.

Welcome to the team, Luke Thomas. He has impressed me so far in the reserves and looks a quality player.

Woohoo

Nwd…14-15-99
Nth…..9-6-60

Goals
Nwd…Jericho x 6, Fuller, Phillips x 2, Evans, Dawe, Warren, Zorzi
Nth….Moore x 2, Allan, Boras, Clinch, Thiele, Delvins, Mayes, Ryswyk

Quarters
Nwd…4-4...8-7...13-9...14-15-99
Nth….2-2...3-5....7-5.…9-6-60

Crowd…5021

Ressies
Nwd…18-16-124
Nth….5-8-38

Regards
JAS

Interesting game last night, North off to a good start with a goal to Allan but Norwood steadied with a couple before Fuller kicked two long running goals and set the game up for Norwood. North seemed to start each quarter well, but then Norwood would take control, not allowing their midfield to run as freely as it did against the Eagles.

Allan found plenty of the ball and possibly won himself another 3 Magarey votes. For Norwood, the big fella Dawe played a great game. He ran hard and was a focal point. Jericho kicked 6 goals, Zorzi at full back was great, his goal in the 3rd quarter providing the highlight of the night.

Cachia played his usual classy game, I am so impressed by this player. Our other prize recruit Nathan Batsanis looked flat and couldn't impose himself on the game. I found out later he had been hit by a ball in the warm up and was taken to hospital with concussion at 3/4 time. Tom Jonas bruised his knee but should be back very soon. Alex Georgiou "copped one" in the nose but battled hard all night in defence.

James Aish just continues to impress. For someone who has just turned 16, I shudder to think how good he will be at 18. Pity his time in a Norwood jumper is limited, and we will miss him when the Under 18 championships are on.

All in all, a good win by Norwood, but there is still a lot of work to be done on unforced errors (how many chest marks did we drop?) and kicking for goal needs to tighten up.

As for North, I found it hard to come up with a 4 quarter player apart from Allan. Maybe Bennett was the best of the others, Thring was good early, but a lot of their players came in and out of the game. They looked dangerous for a short time late in the 3rd quarter when they went long and put some pressure on the Norwood defence. Key forwards Alleway and Boras were rarely sighted on the night.

So what happened with Greg Gallman?

Ben W wrote:So what happened with Greg Gallman?

You'd need to ask someone from North, but he got up ands was then taken from the ground. I saw him walking around the boundary and he looked a little dazed so I guess he had concussion as well. One of those rare occasions where the player responsible for the collision ends up second best.

Thomas thought he saw a Crows jumper and added another notch on the gun belt. All above board.

Can't argue with much of what AH says. Norwood played their game and played it well and should have won by more, but the flooding by both teams probably prevented them kicking higher score. One could almost say that they should have played on half the oval, because for many periods during the night, both teams were placed in just half the oval - the respective forward lines. It didn't make pretty football, and Norwood used the tactic to advantage by taking a long kick out of defence to a fast breaking group, and either hit a player on the chest running into the forward lines, or into space where a player ran onto it and goaled. They were helped by North's amazing ability to turn the ball over last night. About half of Norwood's goals came from slopppy turnovers: Davey's kick across ground to Allan that was intercepted, Ivens trying to break away and losing the ball, Blee running to take an uncontested mark and falling over are just 3 of them. The second half was more even where Norwood outscored the Roosters by just 7 points, but it didn't seem like it. Alleway was double or tripled teamed all night and it was no wonder he became frustrated with no protection. North had very few consistent performers, with possibly Thompson, Clinch, Ryswyk, Clisby as the hardest workers, and Allan, but his 40 possessions didn't do much damage. Blee, who made the Sunday Mail writer's best players(?), spent time on Jericho, and seems out of his depth again, and with Boras, needs to head back to the reserves. Let's hope they can regroup before Sturt, but then again, Norwood are well drilled, and a loss to them is no shame. It's how you lose, and North didn't lose well.