Australian Football

Match Report

We head bay-side to the Gliderol Stadium in Glenelg as the Tigers faced the Double Blues under Friday Night Lights. These two clubs have faced off 13 times in the last five years, the Tigers holding the better record - 10 wins to 3 - but not the last lot of premiership points, they went down to the Blues at Unley in Round 11 last season. That victory ended a seven-game losing streak against the Bays, a streak that began in mid-2010 at Tiger-land. The Blues suffered greatly in the off-season thanks to the entry of Adelaide to the SANFL competition, six players having to empty their lockers at Oxford Terrace to join the new Crows reserves side. Glenelg wasn't left unscathed though, retirements and departures to the two reserves teams left them in a bad spot as well.

The Blues were expected to be the worst off this season, but a swag of Unley-bred talent would throw that theory out the window early on as they scored 4.2 to two goals in the opening term to take a 14-point lead at quarter-time. The Tigers fought back some in the second quarter, bringing the deficit back to nine points by the long break after kicking 2.1 to 1.2. There was no shortage of feeling this night, at the half-time siren a melee would break out which left two players on either side wearing some claret. The Blues would re-establish their quarter-time advantage by three quarter-time, up by 16 points at the final change after adding 3.3 to the Tigers' 2.2. The final term would be all Sturt, they finished the game in a flurry as they peppered their scoring zone to take 5.5 to the home side's lowly two behinds to take a 43-point win.

He was a casualty of the Power, but Zane Kirkwood has found himself a quick favourite with Blues fans as their best afield, while the Tigers named Sam Lonergan as their standout.