Round 21: West v Norwood - Saturday 18 August @ City Mazda Stadium

V

Saturday 18 August
City Mazda Stadium

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

Broadcast: ABC1

West are coming off a huge win over Centrals at Elizabeth while Norwood are coming off another win against South. Last time the two sides met, West lead for the entire match - except for the final siren. Will they keep the lead after the final siren this time around, or will Norwood notch up yet another win?

West should have Tippett and Bricknell available again and possibly Hartlett.

Their replacements all played well against Central, so it might be a hard night at selection.

I expect us to name Webb and Peter Meuret on an extended interchange bench.

pity it wasn't a friday night game as i'd love to see this contest

bayman wrote:pity it wasn't a friday night game as i'd love to see this contest

You can tape it on ABC and catch the replay...

Big Phil wrote:

bayman wrote:pity it wasn't a friday night game as i'd love to see this contest

You can tape it on ABC and catch the replay...

yes i'll be doing that, but it isn't the same when you know the result

Don't find out the result, stay at home from the trots and watch it as soon as you get in from Unley

West

F: F.Caruso, N.Caruso, Green
HF: Laird, Brad Fisher, Ezard
C: Birss, Schmidt, Beech
HB: Fielke, Ferguson, Crouch
B: Slattery, Tippett, Silverlock

R: Willits, Caire, Macreadie

Int: Ben Fisher, Nelson, Thompson, Hill, Bricknell

IN: Tippett, Bricknell
Out: -

Norwood

F: Jefferies, Jericho, Smart
HF: Phillips, Warren, Suckling
C: Evans, Reinbrecht, Bode
HB L.Thomas, Chippendale, Zorzi
B: Terlich, Georgiou, Stopp

R: Dawe, Webber, Batsanis

INT: Aish, Murphy, Grigg, Kirwan, Gallagher

In: Smart, Phillips, Evans, Stopp
Out: Brown (Crows), Luccon (ankle)

Despite the cries for each team to play 'attacking football', there's no reason whatever for either of them to play any differently to what has been highly successful for each of them so far.

Norwood's form is close to faultless, West's has been consistently good, with one or two hiccups, all year and their recent form is pretty good.

I keep waiting for Norwood to have an off-day, but they keep buttering up and are likely to do so again here. West nearly got the bikkies last time at Richmond and it will be an interesting tactical battle here.

Surprisingly, I'm going for the Bloods by 15 points.

Norwood's ability to cover injuries to key players has been incredible. The absence of players as influential as McGuiness and Campbell, and to a lesser extent Newton, would have derailed many teams' seasons. How do they do it?
Can we also assume they'll have Pfeiffer tomorrow?

West in an upset(?).

The Bloods in a close one at home, I hope.

I was really hurting after the round 13 loss, expect the players were too. This is a chance to atone on our own turf. Norwood are the pace setters for the premiership. Are we contenders or pretenders?

I think we're contenders and I think we can win at home.

Bloods looked the real deal today, very impressive. Dominated the ruck contests, finished more strongly, came from behind, never looked rattled, all good signs.

definately the real deal & how much confidence will be gained from coming from behind & then running away with it....i have 2 thoughts on this result

1, West have they 'peaked' too early ?

2, Norwood are they suspect on bigger grounds

my answers would be 'not sure' & yes

Bayman, take a look at the fact that Norwood have won on bigger grounds this season, including Elizabeth, and then consider that we will possibly be able to bring players such as Cachia, Pfeiffer, Clarke, Brown, Suckling, Jericho, Rodan, Donohue and possibly Jonas back into that side for the finals. You may want to re-consider your answers.

nah mate i'll stick with my own thoughts, granted there was a few out etc, i think an ultra defensive game plan breaks down as players get tired & they tend to earlier in games than on the smaller grounds......we will just have to wait & see next month

Great win by the guys today and think we are starting to get the respect we deserve.

It was great to see that we are no longer going to be bullied by the top sides, evidenced by Zorzi trying to knock Nat Caruso into next week just before the 3/4 Time siren but he ended up on his behind himself. Zorzi actually went past Caruso after the siren and it looked like he was saying like respect or something like that. Knew we weren't going to lose from there.

Glad the coach was listening to the supporters when he made the decision to put a player (in this case, Fielke) onto Terlich who was having a field day mopping up everything with ease in the first quarter and a half. This changed the game as Fielke then kicked 4 goals and made Terlich more accountable.

Best players athe club were Shannon Green, Aaron Fielke and Ben Macreadie. I thought Shane Birss was also brilliant in his 50th game and Ryan Ferguson was his usual brilliant self. Norwood's only 4 quarter performer were probably Nathan Batsanis and Alexis Georgiou who gave Brad Fisher a bath but it was good to get a few different avenues to goal..

Also a great come from behind victory the reserves who were more than 5 goals down in the third quarter and barely looking like they could kick a goal. Sadly I believe the under 18s lost after being 6 goals to nothing up at quarter time when I went down for presentations.

League:

West 1.0 4.2 7.3 11.8 (74)
Norwood 2.5 5.7 7.9 7.9 (51

Goals
West: Fielke 4, F Caruso, Birss, Caire, Willits, Green, Brad Fisher, Nelson.
Norwood: Phillips 2, Batsanis, Dawe, Thomas, Kirwan, Aish.

Reserves:

West 3.2 3.4 5.5 10.10 (70)
Norwood 5.2 8.3 9.6 9.6 (60)

Goals
West: Borholm 3, Blesing 2, Keough 2, Brown, Westhoff, Favretto.

Sorry I didn't take down Norwood's goalkickers in the reserves

bayman wrote:nah mate i'll stick with my own thoughts, granted there was a few out etc, i think an ultra defensive game plan breaks down as players get tired & they tend to earlier in games than on the smaller grounds......we will just have to wait & see next month

Just posted similar thoughts and had not read this .What happens when the game plan is broken down ? mmm Plan B ? Haven't been convinced all season on Norwood due to their style of game.

waddayamean wrote:

bayman wrote:nah mate i'll stick with my own thoughts, granted there was a few out etc, i think an ultra defensive game plan breaks down as players get tired & they tend to earlier in games than on the smaller grounds......we will just have to wait & see next month

Just posted similar thoughts and had not read this .What happens when the game plan is broken down ? mmm Plan B ? Haven't been convinced all season on Norwood due to their style of game.

All this, just because of their 2nd loss of the season? They are top of the ladder, just in case you haven't noticed. Usually it's for a reason, most wins, highest score for, lowest score against etc etc.

Not many teams have forced them into Plan B this year.

Adelaide Hawk wrote:Bayman, take a look at the fact that Norwood have won on bigger grounds this season, including Elizabeth, and then consider that we will possibly be able to bring players such as Cachia, Pfeiffer, Clarke, Brown, Suckling, Jericho, Rodan, Donohue and possibly Jonas back into that side for the finals. You may want to re-consider your answers.

Add to this Norwood have a few players out for the season
Mcguiness
Newton
Young
Campbell
Fuller

Coach Bassett has done a phenomenal job only losing 2 games with the unavailability of players this season

If Norwood takes a similar line up todays line up into finals, they will struggle to win a game
If Norwood were at full strength, in my opinion, it would not matter what the size of the ground was

Unusual stat today.

Norwood failed to score in the last quarter of both the League and Reserves games.

Scrappy wrote:Coach Bassett has done a phenomenal job only losing 2 games with the unavailability of players this season

If Norwood takes a similar line up todays line up into finals, they will struggle to win a game
If Norwood were at full strength, in my opinion, it would not matter what the size of the ground was

Spot on Scrappy, and you can add Bryce Campbell to the list of season outs as well. Yes, if we hit the finals with the 21 we had today, we'd be out in straight sets. That's not having a go at the players who were there, but at the start of the year a number of those players weren't even playing Reserves. And when you start picking your Reserves Full Back to lead the ruck in the As, you know the talent is starting to spread a little thin.

People talk of West Adelaide getting the respect they deserve, it's a pity that in the eyes of some, Norwood haven't gained an ounce of respect, even though we've had a wonderful season.

Today we lost. It was our second loss for the year. Who knows, maybe there will be a few more, that's footy. To question Norwood and say they are suspect shows a total lack of understanding of what has been going on this season. It also shows a lack of respect for West Adelaide who thoroughly deserved their win today. Size of oval had nothing to do with it.

It just makes me laugh that after 16 wins, 7 of which have been at venues other than Norwood (and some much larger than Norwood), apparently we can still only win in the confined spaces of Norwood Oval

Norwood's form can't be faulted and they're still clearly the team to beat.

They're very well drilled and their best side is a fair bit above the rest of the comp.

Like last year, though, any team wanting to beat them will have to know how to counter their style of game.

At half-time today, West had struggled to score, but played well in the third quarter and dominated the last.

West's defence continues to be outstanding. Perhaps those who decry West's 'negative style' might have a look at our defence as another explanation for why teams struggle to kick high scores against us.

Today, Green and Caire were about the two best players and both kicked a goal, from half-back and back pocket starting positions, Tippett is a superb full back and Ryan Ferguson has been back to his awesome best for many weeks now.

Hartlett's not playing and neither did Bricknell today.

West have a fair defence and a number of under-rated players, including Aaron Fielke, who was shifted on to Terlich and kicked 4 goals.

Those still parroting the mantra of 'West's negative football' need to re-assess before it's too late, to be credible.

Iam a very happy bloods supporter today. West struggled in the 1st half but really hung in there
and continued to fight very hard in the last half.

R&B is right our defence is very strong and a key reason why we are third.

I agree Norwoood has done a great job this yr and there injury list is substantial and they have been the best side by some way.

They beat us on the outside of the contest especially in the 1st half.

The bloods have 3 or 4 players missing and selection will be difficult.

We must win our next 3 games as good teams do that this despite the fact we have stiched up third spot