Australian Football

Match Report

We kick off this week's wrap with two doses of Friday Night Mayhem, the first of which takes us to the Hisense Stadium in Richmond for a battle of the inner-west against the inner-south, the Bloods facing the Double Blues. This was the return match from Round 3, when football returned to the suburbs but with the COVID scare abound very few people turned up as the Blues took advantage of a wayward Bloods outfit to win by eight points at Unley. Neither side came out on top last weekend, with the Bloods going down at Elizabeth and the Blues doused by the Eagles at Woodville. The Blues still had a mathematical chance of playing finals football at this point, while the Bloods are striving to at least escape the clutches of the Dogs and the wooden spoon. 

The Blues would score the first three goals to the Bloods' single miss when play commenced, but a pair of late goals to Westies allowed them to stay in touch as the visitors held a five-point lead at quarter-time. After that third Sturt goal, they went into a lull that would last for more than a quarter of football. The Bloods would take advantage of the sudden halt to the Blues' engine room, kicking 3.1 to lead by 14 points at the half-time break. The Bloods seemed to have all the momentum as they added 2.1 in the third term's early minutes. But when the Blues finally landed a major in the ninth minute, that was the beginning of the Blues' revival. That goal along with a further 3.1 to the Bloods' two missed opportunities saw the home sides' lead back to within a kick, West by four points. In fact, that single miss by Sturt in the third term would end up being their only score blemish for the evening as they eventually overran the Bloods, keeping them to 1.1 whilst scoring three goals for themselves to take a seven-point victory. 

James Battersby was Sturt's best afield with his 26 disposals, West would named Jordon Boyle as their best with 27 disposals, nine marks and four tackles.