Second Semi Final: Norwood v West - Sunday 23 September 2012, 3:10pm @ AAMI Stadium

What an awful game but we won which is all that matters. Well done to the players and coach. I am bit concerned about two weeks time. North look dangerous and West will surely look to play a different way in two weeks time which could put more pressure on us.

I suspect we might be without Phillips in the GF. I thought it was very low key post game, very obvious that the guys know the job is not done.

if North make the Grand Final & had 15 minutes of control, i think would see them win the game

Norwoods skill level was 100% better than West whose skills were atrocious, Hartlett, F. Caruso & Nelson all HAVE to come into the team for a variety of reasons

i heard on the radio that D. Rodin WANTS wants to play so why isn't he ?

Flipper will be fine AH.

Norwood were terrific and their pressure just throttled Westies all day.

I'm pretty depressed about our performance, but we certainly never looked remotely like our best. Conversely, Norwood were confident and we (like mkost clubs) found it really difficult to move the footy out of their forward line.

I can only hope that it was just one of those days where we were so far down on our usual form that we can't be that bad two weeks in a row.


Can we

Oh, thank you to Ben Fisher for his game.

As good as Norwood were, I thought West's defensive game plan again made the contest a dour slog. North's attacking run could worry the Bloods next week and possibly even Norwood the week after, perhaps?

Thought it was an interesting choice leaving Peter Nelson out of the side, Nat Caruso wouldn't have thought he'd have to be a back up ruckman !!

SOme great marks today, but Ben Fisher's was a beauty !!!

Do West have an away strip? If so they should have worn it today. A number of times I found it hard to distinguish between the teams even with the white shorts. For the record if we were the lower ranked team I'd hope we would wear our alternate strip.

Both sides are boring , West just ridiculously so. Such a defensive mindset yet when this side attacks they are very very good. You'd hope North beat West purely from a specatcle for non fans of West or Norwood. This style of footy ruins the game , it's actually outdated.We always follow the AFL patterns and they stopped it 3 years ago. West V Norwood in the GF may just get past 20,000. Part of that is the way these clubs play.

bayman wrote:i heard on the radio that D. Rodin WANTS wants to play so why isn't he ?

AFL .. they stuff up everything. Rodan is looking for a new contract either at Port, or elsewhere, and if he gets injured in the finals it would severely hasmper that from happening.

The problem is that it's too successful to play that way.

Two of the last three teams play that style.

It needs a rule change of some kind.

I don't think there needs to be a rule change...

I think if an attacking, running side like North Adelaide can progress through to the GF and even win it, that would prove that this defense first midset is not the way to play football and win a flag...

They say attack wins games of football and defence wins flags but for mine, it is about having the right mix and 2 of the 3 sides left in the comp at the moment have that balance a fair bit out...

Let's hope you're right, BP.

I took particular note yesterday. Although West get most of the flak, Norwood's style is to have at least two players back at the centre bounce. Opposing sides either match that or have to do the same.

Norwood are really well drilled and if the ball goes into their forward line, it's really difficult to beat their press and move the ball forward. That means you have to win the centre clearance and they have very good, strong-bodied onballers.

All teams playing Norwood have found it hard to score. To make it worse, West were way down on their best form yesterday.

It makes for a boring spectacle, for sure, but while it's successful, it will continue, unless the rules change.

West have this week to bounce back and have another go, there are no easy answers but like the Crows at least they have earnt the second chance to have another go.

ca wrote:Do West have an away strip? If so they should have worn it today. A number of times I found it hard to distinguish between the teams even with the white shorts. For the record if we were the lower ranked team I'd hope we would wear our alternate strip.

They do have an away strip, it was disscussed and the club decided to use it's traditional jumper.

Big Phil wrote:I think if an attacking, running side like North Adelaide can progress through to the GF and even win it, that would prove that this defense first midset is not the way to play football and win a flag...

I'm well and truly on the horns of a dilemma with this one. I love free scoring footy, but at the same time don't want an overkill of 40+ goal games. There needs to be some middle ground.

My dilemma is my club has not won a flag since 1997, and I want them to use any legal tactic to enable us to win this one. Part of me says, "Well if winning ugly is what it takes, then bring it on", even though I am not particularly enamoured of the style of play.

The other part of me is as a football lover. What we saw yesterday was ugly, we knew it would be, and if I wasn't a Norwood supporter hungry for premiership success, I'd have walked out at half time, as some people did. Maybe I wouldn't have even turned up.

At this moment, I am of the opinion that I'd rather win ugly than lose, but that hasn't always been, nor will it always be how I feel. I am not happy at the way some coaches bastardise a great game for personal gain and fleeting glory.

I am certain in my mind that the game was meant to played in a positive fashion. It's interesting that one coach in the 2nd semi was a full back, the other was a back pocket

Good point, AH and I think your take on this game has been very sensible and accurate.

Did anyone really take any notice of the tactics in the last quarter? West didn't score, but as far as I could see, they started with nobody behind the ball, which blasts a few theories and kneejerk reactions.

The only thing I will add, when 2 teams with a similar dfensive style play is:
If the loser is kept to a low score tally, then that team will cop the flak
This time it was Westies
Reverse the scores and Norwood would be feeling the heat

Adelaide Hawk and I have been seeing Norwood now for close to half a century
His views are as mine are
I want to see my team win a flag, but on the other hand I dont want to see defensive footy

firstblood wrote:

ca wrote:Do West have an away strip? If so they should have worn it today. A number of times I found it hard to distinguish between the teams even with the white shorts. For the record if we were the lower ranked team I'd hope we would wear our alternate strip.

They do have an away strip, it was disscussed and the club decided to use it's traditional jumper.

Poor decision in my opinion, hopefully if they make the GF they will.

Unfortunately I agree but then again I wouldn't want to see my team win a GF in anything but its traditional strip.

robranisgod wrote:

Scrappy wrote:
Norwood has not beaten Centrals in a Grand Final [ lost in 2009]
Norwood has not beaten North in a Grand Final [ lost in 1920,1952,1960]
Norwood has beaten West once [won in 1922 but lost 3 times in 1908,1947,1961]

Norwood there4 has 1 win and 7 losses against the others in Grand Finals

The thing I find most remarkable about that stat is that Norwood and North have only played 3 times in a Grand Final given that Norwood have played in 35 Grand Finals and North 29. They are easily second and third, behind Port of course, in the number of Grand Finals contested.
And I don't expect them to meet in this year's Grand Final either.

they might meet now

redandblack wrote:Let's hope you're right, BP.

I took particular note yesterday. Although West get most of the flak, Norwood's style is to have at least two players back at the centre bounce. Opposing sides either match that or have to do the same.

Norwood are really well drilled and if the ball goes into their forward line, it's really difficult to beat their press and move the ball forward. That means you have to win the centre clearance and they have very good, strong-bodied onballers.

All teams playing Norwood have found it hard to score. To make it worse, West were way down on their best form yesterday.

It makes for a boring spectacle, for sure, but while it's successful, it will continue, unless the rules change.

i agree with all of this & i'll specifically mention the first paragraph, my neutral observations throughout the year (not just yesterday) is that West definately play ''defensive footy'' although it has changed to a degree by opening up the forward line for (usually) Fisher to have room to roam...Norwood play ''ultra defensive footy'' & do start a player or two extra across half back, one yesterday was #19 (sorry can't think of his name).....perhaps a smaller team of quick runners is the key to breaking down those tactics rather than continually kicking too 4 defenders on 2 forwards type of scenario

i'll bet if either Norwood or West (if they make it) are 3 goals down in the last quarter of the grand final, they'll run, take risks & play attacking footy to try & get the win

[quote="bayman"]

redandblack wrote:Norwood play ''ultra defensive footy''

Take a look at the "points for" as opposed to other clubs. What are these other clubs playing?

BTW, Luke Brown is No.19, and he plays on the half back flank, has done all season, so it only makes sense for him to line up behind centre wouldn't you think?

I think you're being a bit sensitive, AH.

I think my observations were correct and I gave Norwood great credit for their play. I also haven't suggested Norwood don't score, merely that teams don't score against Norwood.

Regardless of which players start behind the ball for Norwood, the fact is that 2 always do. It used to be a tactic to free up Mcguinness, then it was Terlich.

I have no problem with it. It succeeds, but anyone blaming West alone i(not you) isn't watching the game.

It's also interesting that the final 3 teams are all coached by AFL linked coaches.

I can't believe that West are copping all the blame for that awful game. We were dreadful, but Norwood also made it a very ugly game. They play a similar 'numbers behind the ball' style, but were better at it. They also bring their defenders down to their forward 50 arc on the 'fat' side to stop the switch play out of our defence and lock it in their attack.

redandblack wrote:I think you're being a bit sensitive, AH.

Not really. I was responding to a comment from Bayman, how your name appears in the quote I have no idea. He was making a point that Luke Brown starts behind the centre, and I was wondering why we would start our half back flanker forward of the ball. I was also wondering how a team is labelled as ultra-defensive when they are one of the highest scoring teams in the competition. If people are prepared to make statements, they have to be prepared to back them up.