Australian Football

Match Report

The last of the Saturday games takes us back towards the city and into the Prospect Oval for the encounter between the Roosters and the Double Blues. The Roosters were unable to wrestle any points away from the Blues from their two games last season. Not even a wayward afternoon on goal at Oxford Terrace stopped the Blues from taking a 34-point win in Round 6, then after falling behind in the first half at Prospect in Round 10 the Blues kept the Roosters away from the big sticks in the second half to win by 20 points. In that half the Blues outscored North 5.6 to five behinds, those five wasted shots came in the final term after a totally silent third term. The Blues came into this game on a loss, going down by three goals to the premiers. The Roosters were tested right to the finish by the Panthers, escaping their clutches by eight points at Prospect. 

The Roosters had many a chance on goal in the first quarter, but a return of three behinds made for a horrid watch. The Blues weren't able to capitalise though, scoring just one behind as North led by two points at quarter-time. Both sides managed to find the big sticks in the second term, but only scored one goal each as the slog continued. North butchered several chances, kicking six behinds to the Blues' two as the gap crept out to a single straight shot by the long break. The cold conditions probably weren't helping anyone's cause, but with little to no rain there wasn't to scream about. However in the third term, there was much more to cheer about for the Rooster faithful. Their accuracy had very much improved, albeit only for the third term where they bagged 7.2 to Sturt's pair of goals. At three quarter-time, North were ahead by 38 points. The inaccuracy rot returned in the final quarter, but their previous terms' efforts were more than enough to secure victory. They added just three behinds, the visitors' 3.4 nowhere near enough to avoid a 19-point defeat. 

Cameron Craig picked up best on ground votes for North with his 29 disposals and seven tackles, the Blues named James Battersby as their best with 32 disposals.