Australian Football

Match Report

The other twilight match sends us to the mid-western suburbs and to the Maughan Thiem Kia Oval in Woodville for another installment of the SANFL's "West Side Story" between the Eagles and the Bloods. The Eagles took all the points from their clashes with the Bloods in 2021, with a 100-point win at Richmond in Round 7, followed by a 19-point win at Oval Avenue in Round 14. The Eagles made it difficult for themselves that day, kicking nine goals from 30 scoring shots. Since the 2015 premiership victory over the Eagles, the Bloods have since won only one match which was back in early 2019. One victory in 12 games. The Eagles only just managed to escape The Parade with the points last week, winning by two points over the Redlegs, while the Bloods squandered their chances at Elizabeth as the Bulldogs reeled in their six-goal plus half-time advantage. 

Lets go there right now, not much was going to change for the Bloods this evening, but Eagles were going to have another one of those games like that one at home last season. It didn't start right away, the Eagles did have their good boots on as they kicked to a three-goal lead by quarter-time, scoring 4.2 to 1.2. Now this is where the goal-kicking rot started, the Bloods managing to cut the gap back to 15 points by the long break with their 2.2 to the Eagles' 1.5. At one point the Eagles were up by as much as five straight shots, those two Bloods goals coming late in the term. Where the right boots were tonight, only the football gods knew. They would repeat that score in the third quarter as another couple of points was chipped off by the final change, the Bloods adding 2.1 to close to 13 points at three quarter-time. But the Eagles weren't letting this go and matched the Bloods' 2.3 in the final quarter to win by 13 points in the end. With a looming clash with the Tigers coming next week, they better find that goal-kicking footwear. 

In the B.O.G department, the Eagles went for Kobe Mutch with his 26 disposals and seven marks, while the Bloods had Josh Carmichael who racked up 30 disposals, kicked two goals and laid eight tackles.