Australian Football

Match Report

In the final match for the long weekend, the Adelaide Oval hosted the Anzac Day Battle between the Bloods and the Eagles. These clubs faced each other four times last season, with the Bloods taking the Round 2 match by a goal and the Eagles winning the return match in Round 12 by 15 points. Then finals came along and of course it was the Bloods, who after taking the slightly longer road to the decider thanks to their Second Semi-Final defeat by the Eagles, would come back to win the premiership at their expense.

Fast forward to today and the Bloods are in the firm grip of a premiership hangover, the Eagles only dropping one match so far. In the opening quarter, the Bloods looked to have overcome some of their early season yips while the Eagles struggled to bag a major. But Westies' 2.2 to the Eagles' 1.5 was far from a convincing first quarter effort for those in attendance and they would be correct in that assessment. From here, it was all Eagles. The Bloods would be held scoreless in the second quarter, the Eagles scoring three goals without a miss to take a 15-point lead into the long break.

The Eagles would still have room for improvement, even by their standards the first half was a letdown with many skill errors. They would be pretty much gone for the second half, the Eagles fully broke the game apart with a 5.4 to two goal third quarter to stretch their lead out to 37 points by the final change. This was a revenge bashing, the Eagles would again hold the Bloods goalless in the last quarter and added 6.4 to four behinds to take a 73-point win.

Jared Petrenko was the standout for the Eagles and was awarded the Bob Quinn Medal, while Adam Hartlett was one of West's few shining lights.