Australian Football

Match Report

In the north western suburbs at the Maughan Thiem Hyundai Oval in Woodville, the Eagles faced the Double Blues. It was back in Round 1 that these sides last met, the Eagles taking a 39-point victory at Unley, a rotten opening and third quarters putting the game out of reach of the Blues. Both sides came into this one on the winners list, the Eagles rebounding from their loss to Port with a victory over the Crows, while the Blues were looking for a third win in succession.

This was to be the top-two clash everyone had been waiting for, but in a near repeat of their opening round meeting, the Blues were behind the eight-ball early despite the wind being with them as the Eagles kicked 3.2 to their single major to be down by 14 points at quarter-time. They would got further behind by the long break, the Eagles adding a further 3.2 to the Blues' 2.1 in the second quarter to extend the gap to 21 points at half-time. The Blues woes seemed to have gone away in the third quarter when they got to within eight points in time-on after kicking 3.2 to 1.1, but the Eagles nailed three goals by three quarter-time to restore their advantage. At the final change the home side were 26 points ahead. The Eagles caught a bout of the inaccuracy bug in the final term, but the Blues weren't having much luck themselves. The Blues added just one goal, the Eagles sprayed through 2.7 to finish the match in similar fashion to the Round 1 match, 39-point victors.

Nick O'Brien was voted the Eagles' best afield, while the Blues' usual suspect Zane Kirkwood enhanced his Magarey Medal hopes with his best afield honours.