Australian Football

Match Report

Its Saturday afternoon football now as we head bay-side to the Gliderol Stadium as the Tigers faced the Bulldogs in the ABC television match. Glenelg used to heap some serious misery on the Bulldogs back in the halcyon days of SANFL football, that infamous 317-point demolition at Tiger-land among the most talked about... mainly because of a missed opportunity at a 50th goal! These days the Dogs are piling the pain on the Bays, the last dozen games have seen the Dogs win games with deficits in between two points up to 93, among those has been two grand final qualifiers and a premiership decider. In Glenelg's defence, there was a draw in amongst that run. After their capitulation to Port last week, the Bulldogs had to prove their spot in the five was warranted.

Inaccuracy was playing in both camps early on, the Bulldogs taking an eight-point lead at quarter-time after kicking 5.5 to the Tigers' 4.3. Centrals continued to spray shots wide in the second term, but they would extend the gap to 25 points by the long break after adding a further 3.6 to Glenelg's 1.1. The third term would be the game-breaker for the Bulldogs, when play resumed they fired through 6.3 while the Tigers could only manage a poor 1.4 to set a deficit of 55 points going into the final term. In a cause for concern for Bulldogs fans, their men took the foot of the pedal in the last quarter as the Tigers brought the final margin back to 34 points after kicking 5.1 to 1.4, not something that the Dogs are usually known for.

Justin Hardy kicked seven majors, but it was Brayden O'Hara that took best afield honours for Centrals, while the Tigers named Ruory Kirkby as their best.