Australian Football

Match Report

We now leave the inner east and head to the inner south, where the Double Blues faced the Roosters at the Thomas Farms Oval in Unley. The Roosters chalked up their first win of the season back in Round 3 at the expense of the Blues, in one of their more efficient displays of 2024 they kicked 10.3 against Sturt's 8.9 to win with the last score of the game. The Blues had evened things up well into time on in the last quarter, the Roosters' bagging the decisive major. The Blues made one last foray into attack which would fall short of the sticks, a six-point win to North the result. Both sides were on the outer last week for their mid-year week off, two weeks previous the Blues were victorious against the Redlegs at home, while the Roosters went down at Brighton Road by two goals. The Roosters started off relatively strongly, scoring the opening two majors. The Blues sprayed several prime chances on goal, the Roosters lead by three points at quarter-time with the scoreboard reading 3.1 to 2.4. That early effort was undone in the second quarter, North kept to 2.1 as the Blues took the lead into the rooms at the long break with their return of 5.4. At half-time, Sturt were now up by three goals. The last three games for the Blues have had a lop-sided behind count and that trend was set to continue and it kept the Roosters well in the fight. The third quarter was quite a wasteful one in front of the sticks for both sides, they each managed one goal each. The visitors had a few more chances to put some scoreboard pressure on, but added five behinds while the Blues kicked three. The deficit was cut back down to 16 points for Sturt by the final change. The Roosters threatened to overwhelm the Blues after bringing back the gap to a single kick early in time-on, having scored 3.2 to 1.4. But it wasn't to be for the red & whites, the Blues holding off the late challenge and kicking 1.1 to finish off with a two-goal win and elevate themselves to third on the ladder. Will Snelling looks like a mid-season fave for the Magarey Medal with another best on ground effort for Sturt, finishing with 23 disposals, 14 tackles and seven clearances. Campbell Combe was best for North, with 23 disposals, 13 tackles and six clearances.