West v Eagles at City Mazda, Saturday.

This should be a tight contest. West’s form is pretty good, without being outstanding, while a shaky Eagles team is slowly getting back to being a formidable outfit. West will have shuddered watching Adam Grocke carve up WA and will be hoping that he doesn’t carve up another WA again this week. Joel Tippett gets a chance to either add to his growing reputation or wake up with a headache the next morning.

West’s on-ball brigade is growing in depth and their defence is superb and it’s hard to see the Eagles kicking a winning score.

So it comes back to Grocke. 3 goals and West win, 6 and they lose?

West at home, narrowly.

This is a triple header with Reserves, League and u18s playing at Richmond.

I've got no idea about this one because I still haven't worked out how well West can play. The practicle side of me favours Eagles who are starting to build their season, but something tells me West will pull this one off by maybe 11 points.

Yes, it's only residual suspicion about how good West are that makes anyone distrust their form.

Their losing games don't read too badly.

Lost narrowly to Glenelg at Glenelg.

Lost by 7 points to North at home, after having only one on the bench from just after quarter-time onwards.

Lost to Norwood at Norwood.

They've beaten Central, Port, South (twice) and Sturt at Unley for the first time for about 12 years.

this match even more so than others will come down to who wins the centre & ball ups around the ground....are you allowed to tip a draw ? if not Wwt just as they are more likely to score more from their forwards than West

R&B, I think even the most diehard supporters (like myself) wonder what we are going to get when we enter the gate.

In saying that, Bloods by 23 points

Yes, brodlach, I can also identify with that.

The joys of supporting the Bloods

Bloods have actually been pretty consistent this year, no real bad performances, just some periods when they struggled to move the ball and score as a result. Midfield is the key.

Think they will win this one, may not be pretty though.

ABC Preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL9Pe08TPhE&feature=youtu.be

This is a real big test for the Bloods. Time for them to knock off the Grand Finalists from last yr. Eagles have regained Cica & Powell which will strengthen their midfield however they have lost Redden.

Lobbe needs to show he can compete against the most aggressive and best SANFL ruckman in Parry & Willits likewise

Tippett also needs to stop Grocke

For West:
In: Birss, Newton.


For WWT:

INS: Cicolella, Powell, Heinjus, Martyn
OUTS: Toumpas (State U18), Redden (AFL)

I think Birss might come in for Homburg, but unless there's an injury cloud over anyone else, Newton (who's been in very good form) might have to wait again to make his debut.

Knights is first emergency for the Crows so you'd think he'd fly over with them. I wonder if there's still some doubt over one of Cicolella and Powell, which would explain the naming of the extra player.

In the last 3 or so years I don't think West have won one of these sorts of games which would firm up a position in the top five, so a win would be a real sign of progress I think.

Bloods by five goals on form.

Does anyone know when Crouch will be back?

I would guess after West's next bye in a couple of weeks.

God help him if he ever gets a serious injury, he'll miss 3 years.

Are you suggesting the Crows are taking a conservative approach with him?

Six weeks + for a hamstring seems rather long, especially for a young bloke.

A really good team effort by the Bloods today. We maintained the quarter-time advantage for the rest of the game and never really looked like losing.

I had nightmares in the first quarter, with flashbacks to the Glenelg game last year when the umpires gave the Tigers four goals in a row from free kicks without a West Adelaide player touching the ball, but fortunately the Eagles missed their gimme and there were no others.

I find it hard to say where we won this game. It was a real scrap and we just kept plugging away and defending the lead. There were winners across all zones. The defence was again rock solid, attack was direct down the centre, albeit from limited opportunities, and our tall forwards always threatened.

West got murdered in the ruck against the Eagles at Woodville last year, so it was good to see Lobbe, Willits and Webb work hard against Parry, who had little support.

Although quiet in general play, Brad Fisher did his job with three goals. Fort Caruso and Beech were terrific with two goals apiece. Schmidt had 14 handballs and was creative throughout.

This was an important win, with the Eagles fielding a very good side and on a roll. The Bloods are in a great position now to mount a serious assault on the premiership.

Strange game of footy. We were always in control but could never break the eagles shackles. Hartlett and Tippett were outstanding and along with Ferguson going back it is fast becoming one of the best (if not the best) defensive units in the competition.

Umpiring was poor again but whats new.

A couple of amusing things from the day was Cicolella's dummy spit on the boundary when the player who he was replacing was still involved in play and also Scott Blesing's run in the reserves when he forgot which sport he was playing and took off with the ball under his arm (rugby style) and ran a good 40 metres without bouncing before the umpire finally pulled him up.

Big game against Centrals at Elizabeth this week. Haven't won there since 99 I'm led to believe.

The Eagles are still a very good side and I believe they will make the finals.

Also the report of Rowntree was one of the worst I had ever seen. Willits basically headbutted him in the shoulder/chest. Should get laughed at and thrown out first thing tomorrow morning.

How bads the ressies umpiring if a bloke can run 40m and not get pinged for running too far??

I think he did get pinged, TE, didn't he?

blackandred's review, from bloodntars.com

This doesn’t make a lot of sense but Westies controlled this game all day and yet they easily could have lost it, such was the closeness of the scores. The Eagles were desperate to win and give their season some momentum but to the credit of the Bloods they out-toughed them when it counted.

Laird and Newton dropped out and Birss came in. As usual, the way the team lined up bore little resemblance to the team in the paper. There was some initial confusion in our backline at the start of the game with Fergy standing Luke Jarrad but this was soon sorted. Westies goaled early but some poor discipline from the backs let the Eagles in for a gimme goal and then they got another shot before the ball was bounced due to some Bloods aggression at CHB. Hartlett and Macreadie kept us moving forward, we kicked 3 goals straight and looked comfortable at the first break: WA 4.1, WWT 2.1.

The Eagles came back strongly and with the assistance of the umpires added 4 in this Q, their best for the game. The Bloods were able to take grabs up forward and this was telling in an even term. Goals to Brad Fisher, Willets, a fine running goal from Beech and a great snap from Logan Hill saw us maintain a 2 goal buffer at half time. WA 8.4, WWT 6.2. Ezard was partially concussed after being ridden into the ground by Byron Sumner and needed help to find his way off the ground.

The 3rdQ was where Westies could have sealed the contest but let themselves down with poor kicking. We kicked 3.5 and they added 3 straight to keep things interesting. 3Q time WA 11.9, WWT 9.2.

The last Q was one of the most extraordinarily frustrating efforts but probably worse for the Eagles who had pretty much all of the play but couldn’t kick a goal in 20 minutes of trying (but neither could Westies!). When they finally got one from a soft free they gave themselves an outside chance of snatching an unlikely win but when Nat Caruso marked and kicked truly well into time on, it was all over. Westies defended grimly for most of this Q and struggled to get the ball forward. It was tight and tough footy as the Eagles fought hard to move the ball towards their goal but they were defied by a committed team effort from the Bloods who thoroughly deserved the win.

One of the main factors in this victory was the manner in which Lobbe and Willets nullified Parry. This guy normally kills us but such is the improvement in Lobbe that our onballers got first use of the ball all day. Another significant factor was that Grocke didn’t kick a goal. Tippett gave him a real bath in an understated but effective display at full back. Adam Hartlett was best on the ground for his 4Q effort. He held the Eags up time and time again and they must have got sick of seeing his heavily tattooed arms holding the ball aloft before feeding out a handball to start another forward thrust. Brad Fisher remains our only forward who can take a strong contested mark and his 3 goals in a low scoring game were critical. Beech played well, 2 goals and 8 marks and his run was telling. Birss was busy, Homburg has something special about him but it’s hard to work out quite what it is. He makes a lot of mistakes but adds valuable pace and excitement to the game. Shannon Green played well. Fielke went off with an ankle injury late in the game.

We went inside 50, 39 times to their 32, had 23 shots to their 14 but only won by 2.7 but some credit must go to the Eagles for fighting the game out. This was a tough but strong win to the boys today and they deserve their place on the ladder (2nd?!) We’re all looking forward to next week at Elizabeth.

The 2s won 12.16 to 6.6.

For balance, looking at it from an Eagle's point of view, as an outsider, there appear to be a few danger signs showing.

Do they need a bit more youth to liven them up a bit? Aside from Toumpas and one or two others, it's an older and very experienced team.

What's going wrong and what can they do to turn things around?

Admin wrote:For balance, looking at it from an Eagle's point of view, as an outsider, there appear to be a few danger signs showing.

Do they need a bit more youth to liven them up a bit? Aside from Toumpas and one or two others, it's an older and very experienced team.

What's going wrong and what can they do to turn things around?

They have no depth. Their reserves are very ordinary and really we should have beaten them by alot more.

This was a win to silence the doubters.

Suddenly, it seems, West have a lineup that looks OK. There's a fair case to be made that they have the best Full Back and best CHB in the league. They have a core of West juniors who have now played enough senior footy to have made the step from good SANFL player to very good SANFL player. They used to generally kick a maximum of 9 goals a game. That's history now and it's the oposition that often kicks that many.

They look solid and they're not short of talls. If they get an injuries, there's a host of good players to choose from.

Different days indeed for Blood's supporters and it's been a long time coming, but they look set to stay in the top section of the ladder for a fair while.

Aaron Fielke's game yesterday was typical of this evolution I mentioned. He was tough and terrific, with an outstanding number of contested possessions. Jonno Beech is now a topline player and Daniel Caire, Shannon Green and several others are now rock solid.

On top of this, the youngest player yesterday, Nick Homburg, had a really good game and is establishing himself as another emerging West junior.

Next game, Central at Elizabeth. West have broken several of their 'hoodoos' in recent times. Can this be another?

Rory Laird will return and after the bye, it's vaguely possible that Brad Crouch's umpteen-week hamstring injury will have recovered.