Australian Football

Match Report

The last of the matches in week one of the split round finds us at Alberton Oval as the Magpies faced the Double Blues. The two games last season were both Sturt victories, the first being a 63-point belting in Round 6, then a 22-point win in Round 11. The Blues at this time hadn't won a match, going down to the Eagles on Anzac Day, while the Magpies took the Crows down at Woodville as the Blues sat out the round. Unfortunately the Blues were about to be taught the difference between boys and men... a Port line-up with only their captain as a pure Magpie, the rest of the side all Power-listed. Add to that, the Blues had two key players sidelined with injuries. 

Sturt would kick just two behinds in the opening quarter as the Magpies kicked 7.4 to lead by 44 points at quarter-time. The Blues finally found the big sticks in the second term, but would only kick 1.4 as Port added a further 6.1 to take their lead out one-point short of 12 goals. The Magpies needed to do very little from this point to keep themselves out of the Blues reach, the damage had been done. To their credit, they won the second half scoreboard. Sturt scored 5.2 to 3.2 in the third term, reducing the gap to just under 10 goals by the final change. The final result was a flat 10 goals, Port taking 3.3 to 3.2 in the last quarter. 

Brendon AhChee was named Port's best, the Blues named Patrick Wilson as their best.