Australian Football

Match Report

Now we come into the second week of the split round and its off to the Hisense Stadium in Richmond for the last installment of Friday Night Mayhem for 2021, when the Bloods took on the Tigers. This match was practically the book end game for these sides, having last clashed back in the opening round of this season. The Tigers won that day at Brighton Road, but obviously being Round 1 were just getting a feel for each other before they started their hot streak. The final margin was 11 points, the Bloods' first half was a fizzer as they kicked 3.8 before launching a late challenge after being down by almost five goals at three quarter-time. Other than their win against the Dogs in Round 4, this was probably as close as they have been to a complete four quarters against quality opposition, short of their loss to the Panthers in Round 9. Of course after the Bloods went down two weeks previous to the Redlegs and coupled with Centrals' victory against Adelaide, the wooden spoon is pretty much assured. The Tigers were nine goals winners at home to the Bulldogs, win number 16 for the year and surely would be untroubled today against the cellar dwellers. 

This would prove to be true to some extent, given that they would manage just 2.1 to the Bloods' two behinds to begin the evening. At quarter-time, the Tigers were up by just 11 points. Glenelg would of course put some distance between them by the half-time siren, but some inaccuracy stopped a far bigger gap. They took their lead out to 27 points by the long break, having added a further 4.4 to the Bloods' two goals. When play resumed, the Bloods had their fair share of opportunities on goal and could very well have drawn the deficit back to three straight kicks by the final change, however the Tigers were only able to add four points to their half-time advantage. Glenelg scored 3.1 to 2.3, a lead of 31 points at three quarter-time. To Westies' credit, they finished strongly only for the Tigers to answer every goal. Glenelg would run out six-goal victors in the end, ending the night with a 6.2 to 5.3 final term. 

Brett Turner was Glenelg's best afield, with 35 disposals, seven clearances and 12 tackles. For the Bloods, theirs was Kaine Stevens with 23 disposals and seven tackles.