Australian Football

Match Report

The final match for the weekend takes us to the south side of Adelaide and to the tree-lined streets of Unley, where the Double Blues faced the Crows at the Wigan Oval. The Blues won a third straight outing against the Crows from their last meeting at Oxford Terrace back in Round 6, the Crows left to rue some wasted chances and being held to a behind in the final stanza and going down by 10 points. The Blues were putting on a scoring clinic for over three quarters, it was only their last term that made them look almost as bad. Sturt had 9.1 on the board at three quarter-time, ending with 10.6. Adelaide in contrast finished with 8.8. The Blues would only barely survive their trip to Elizabeth last week, coming back from 22 points down to four-point winners. Adelaide had no such troubles in their trip out to Murray Bridge against the Bloods, winning by 38 points. Just from their near miss at the Ponderosa, some would think that this 2nd vs 3rd would play out as anything but a top-three clash. That wasn't necessarily the case, with both sides starting off kicking 2.3 each in the opening term to tie the scores at quarter-time, Adelaide's second goal near the end of the term squaring things up. The Blues then ramped it up in the second quarter, they would go into the half-time break with a three-goal lead after outscoring the Crows seven goals to four, both missing a pair of chances each as well. The Crows' line-up would only sport 10 AFL-listed players in this match, plus a couple of other key players were missing as well. But this would prove to be a mere inconvenience for the Crows, who have declared their desire to go all the way. When play resumed, Adelaide would rule most of the third quarter up to about 16 minutes, even taking the lead temporarily after scoring 3.2 to one behind. Sturt responded with three late goals, Adelaide putting one last major through before the siren as the home side went into the final stanza with an 11-point lead. But unlike last week at Elizabeth, it was Sturt's turn to watch as their lead fizzled away. The Blues' shooting went to pot and the visitors bagged six goals to 1.3, Adelaide running out 16-point winners and taking second spot in the process. Jackson Hately was named best for the Crows, with 28 disposals, nine marks and seven tackles, while Sturt named James Battersby with 31 disposals and 10 marks.