Australian Football

Match Report

We're off to the inner eastern suburbs, to the Coopers Stadium in Norwood where the Redlegs hosted the Eagles. The last time these sides last played each other, the Eagles inflicted a 65-point hammering at Oval Avenue in Round 10, keeping the Redlegs to 6.8. The Eagles came into this match on the back of a 73-point demolition of the Tigers in the final home match of the year, while the Redlegs went down to the old rival in Port. The Eagles had one hand on the minor premiership, percentage and points on their side for the time being. The Redlegs could only move up one spot to finish the year depending on what would go down at Unley at the same time. But it would come as a huge surprise at the end of the day what happened by full time.

At quarter-time, the Eagles found themselves down by 10 points as the Redlegs took 2.1 to three behinds to begin the match. The inaccuracy continued for the Eagles in the second quarter, the Redlegs fortunate to not be behind at the long break. Norwood scored 2.2 to 2.6 as their lead was brought down to a single straight kick going into half-time. Many could be forgiven for thinking that the Eagles came into this one with a little too much swagger, overly confident they could sweep aside anything coming their way. But that confidence, when against a team with nothing to lose, brings teams undone. And that's exactly what happened to the Eagles, by three quarter-time they were trailing by 22 points after the Redlegs added a further 3.5 to 1.1. The Eagles goal-kicking would fully let them down in the final term, they peppered their goals for a return of 3.5 to the Redlegs' 4.1 as the home side finished their year on a winning note, by four goals.

The Redlegs voted Matt Panos as their best on ground, the Eagles named Chris Hall as their best.