Round 22: West v South - Friday 24 August @ City Mazda Stadium

West won by a point .very quiet here.

scores

West 2.3.15 4.9.33 6.11.47 8.13.61

South 3.0.18 4.2.26 8.5.53 9.6.60

goalkickers

West

Brad Fisher 3 with singles to Silverlock, Fielke, Macreadie (who kicked the las 1.1 of the match), Laird, Beech

South

Ainger 4, Carey 2 with singles Wundke, Pfeiffer, Mckernan



reserves

West 18.14.122

South 11.10.76

Ferguson was clearly the best man on the ground

West clearly dominated the first half albeit a scrappy affair but bad kicking kept South in it & after half time with a lift in intensity South clawed their way back into it & was somewhat stiff to lose in the end, (they keep losing the tight games)

both runners 'seemed' to fill up spots & both were told to move at times during the match when close to a ballup or throw in

just back to the reserves for a minute, young Eleni Glouftsis was umpiring well & with her voice in the second half (we got there at half time of the reserves), anyway i had ventured to the outer side after demolishing 3 steak sandwiches & during the last term there was 3 West league players (Fielke, Caruso & one other who i didn't recognize) warming up in the pocket & she told them to get over the fence as they can't warm up while a game is on, Caruso said to Fielke ''since when haven't we been allowed to do a warm up'' ? & the reply from Fielke was ''it came in this year but last week was the first time it was enforced''

ps, the game was in a similar vain to the recent West v Glenelg match

Terrible game and have never been so disappointed after a win in my life I reckon. Umpiring was quite good in the first half but that changed in the second half. They paid so many tiggy-touchwood free kicks it was pathetic. Don't think the Macreadie free was there but they paid so many of those in the 2nd half that they had to pay it.

Ferguson was Best on Ground and it was hard to find another West Adelaide player who performed for 4 quarters. Maybe Birss. Ky Miller really impresses me and looks to be a player of the future. Liddle, Cross and Stribling were good as usual, but South will probably need to recruit some more midfielders to help these guys out.

Hope Schmidt's shoulder is ok. Very important to our team and our chances to progress in the finals. Was in civvies in the 3rd quarter, but there was no sling on his arm so that is encouraging.

Crowd was pathetic. Lucky to be 1000 there.

Agreed, bayman, Ferguson was outstanding and he's been in great form for a fair while now.

From all reports, the crowd seems to have been very poor, which brings up a few points for me:

1. Why schedule night games in the middle of winter? I realise that this is the end of the season and people may have been anticipating better weather, but August is still classified as a winter month.

2. Why schedule a night game against a traditionally low supporter base club who have to travel the furthest? I bet you'd have been lucky to see any Panther person there last night. Surely night games are to maximise your profit potential. A Sat game vs South and a Fri night game vs Port/Glenelg/Norwood would surely bring in more money over the 2 games than a Sat game vs P/G/N and a Fri night game against South, wouldn't it?

Happy with the 2 points, but why do West seem complacent (not saying they are) against lower ranked teams??

If it had been a reasonable night, a few random people from other clubs may have turned up. Maybe that was their thinking

Never been so cold at the footy as I was last night.

Any regular West players miss last nights game ?

Kurt Thompson and Tyson Slattery were out injured.

No players were rested.

HTWWW, you raise an interesting point about West being complacent(?). I don't think they were, but you're right that subconciously they might have been affected by knowing they had 3rd spot tied up already. They still dominated the game, but their forward 50 entries were terrible all night.

The crowd actually grew as the game started and the official figure was about 1793, which is pretty reasonable.

Playing a West v South game at night in August, though, isn't a great idea.

And yes, it was very cold.

Any news on Schmidt r&b?

They were complacent IMO. They thought they were just going to turn up and win. They looked tired in the last quarter, has training been stepped up?

Crowd 1793 - I think they must of counted everyone twice.

I looked at the crowd late in the game and was surprised just how many were there. It was pretty solid from the stand to the Mound Bar.

Not sure about Schmidt, bnt. He'll miss some, I'd say, but we'll have to wait for the doctor's assessment.

Iam glad the Bloods got the 2 points considering we have played the top 2 teams in the past 2 weeks and also Slattery,Thompson were out and that Schmidt our best mid didn't play after 1/2 time. the conditions weren't good either

I really hope Chirs Schmidt can play during the finals. We need this kid he has been an absolute stand out this yr along

Players such as Tippett, Laird and Crouch have aslo been fantastic contributors for us this yr

Tippett and Ferguson must be about the best FB and CHB in the league this year.

Ferguson has been in top form for a fair while now.

R&B

I agree with you Ferguson and Tippett best CHB and FB combination in the league

The 1 point loss summed up Souths season really ...

Bitterly disappointed.

5 games this year we have lost by under 1 goal .

Let's hope the club heavily recruits over the break ....

I never really, even when we got behind, thought we would lose. Westies looked in control all night but just couldnt kick goals. I would like to put both Port and Eagles away the next two weeks to make a bit of a statement


Ferg = legend