Australian Football

Match Report

The final game for Saturday would be under the night sky and bright lights of the Hisense Stadium in Richmond as the Bloods faced the Double Blues. The Blues were the cause of a lot of pain for the Bloods last season. In Round 3 at Unley, not even a horrible shooting streak would stop the Blues winning by 50 points in a game where they kicked 12 goals from 33 scoring shots. But the worst was yet to come right in Westies' own backyard in Round 16. The Blues all but buried the Bloods in the Richmond turf with an 80-point hammering, made even worse by the fact that West didn't register a single goal. They scored a mere six behinds in one of their most dismal performances in recent memory. With a 130th anniversary season and the team running out in a throwback guernsey, it was hoped that West could begin the climb early, especially with the return of one of the favourite sons to help steer the ship. 

By quarter-time, that ship had already sailed. The Blues owned the opening term to skip off to a 31-point quarter-time lead, scoring 6.2 to 1.1 to begin the night's proceedings. Both sides wasted a raft of shots on goal in the second term, the Blues adding a few more points to their advantage. They scored 1.7 to 1.4 to stretch their lead to 34 points going into the rooms at the long break. The Bloods fans were probably already feeling like another nightmare season is upon them and given their seasons since that 2015 premiership, it would take a mammoth recruiting drive to bring them from the depths. All I can say, of course, is that it is still early days. The third term was a bit brighter for the Bloods, they pestered the Blues quite well in this period but were let down by some more poor shooting on goal as they cut the Blues lead down by a goal to 28 points by the three quarter-time siren. Two quick-fire goals within three minutes of the restart in the final term gave the Bloods' faithful some hope and actually kept Sturt away from their goals for a good 15 minutes. But then a run of four goals, finished with three behinds later on, would put the result beyond doubt as the visitors left Richmond with a 43-point win. 

Casey Voss was the Blues standout with 31 disposals and 17 marks, while the Bloods voted in Lachlan Squire as their best with 22 disposals, three goals and 10 marks.