Australian Football

Match Report

The last of the Saturday afternoon games has us heading out to the countryside for the second week running, the Redlegs and the Bloods playing for the Teakle Cup at the Centenary Oval in Port Lincoln. The Bloods were an itch that the Redlegs simply couldn't scratch last season despite finishing higher on the ladder in 2023. Their last outing ended in a draw at Richmond in Round 17, the Bloods fought hard in the second half after being down by five kicks at the long break, but their earlier inaccuracy saw a share of the points. However in the corresponding game in the west coast in Round 6, the Bloods took full advantage of Norwood's last term goal-kicking issues to take a come from behind two-goal triumph. Last week the Bloods shook off their opening round hiding with a fighting four-point win over Port at Richmond, while the Redlegs took down the reigning premiers at home by four goals. Straight off the mark and spoiler alert, this game was an all-out slog and would be low scoring, but it wasn't not entertaining for the 1800 Lincoln locals that fronted up. The struggle for goals was real with plenty of missed chances, the Bloods would take a five-point lead into the first change after scoring 3.3 to 2.4. The Redlegs then kept the Bloods away from their sticks in the second term, adding 2.2 to their tally to overturn the gap in their favour. At half-time, the "home" team were up by nine points. The Bloods brought the 'Legs back to within a kick's reach by the final change, outscoring them 2.2 to 1.3 as the deficit was brought down to four points. But try as they did and despite the Redlegs' litany of missed chances in the last quarter where they kicked 1.5, the Bloods couldn't bring home the bacon with just two behinds to their name. The Redlegs would emerge victorious by 13 points in the end. Norwood's body pressure was huge, with more than 50 tackles above West by game's end. Mitch O'Neill was one of their heavy hitters with 11 tackles and named best afield with 30 disposals and 10 clearances. Kobe Ryan was Westies' best on ground with 22 disposals, 12 tackles and eight clearances.