Australian Football

Match Report

The single Saturday afternoon match for the round takes us up to the northern suburbs of Elizabeth, the Bulldogs playing host to the Crows at Playford Alive Oval. There is a little bit of bad blood between these two teams, the Bulldogs were one of two clubs to vote against the inclusion of AFL reserves teams in the state league, then there was the banner that made its way around the SANFL grounds and had a moment of infamy at the Dog-pound which left league officials red-faced. After disposing of the Redlegs a week ago, the Dogs fans were salivating at the prospect of dealing out punishment to a team that had yet to take points. But a few key ins to the Crows, as well as a couple of key outs to the Dogs would alter that mindset.

The Dogs and the Crows fought out the first term rather evenly, although the Crows should have taken a bigger lead after they kicked 2.5 to 2.1. At quarter-time the Crows were ahead by four points. A couple of early second term goals seemed to steady the Bulldogs' ship, but then the home crowd would stand stunned as the Crows rammed home seven unanswered goals. That 7.3 to 2.2 second quarter would see the Crows ahead by 35 points at the long break. Despite the obvious difference in personnel commitment - the dominantly full timers of Adelaide compared to the part-timers at Centrals - the Dogs did not come out to play and weren't even a shadow of that team that defeated the reigning premiers. The deficit would only get larger come three quarter-time, the Crows adding a further 5.5 while the Dogs managed to score 3.1 as the gap widened to 51 points at the final break. The worst nightmares of many SA footy-heads was starting to manifest itself, the Crows leaving the Ponderosa with a 52-point win to open their account in the SANFL after finishing the match with a 2.4 to 2.3 final term. Riley Knight would be named best for the Crows, while the Dogs voted in Josh Glenn as their best afield.