http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl ... 6043144475WEST Adelaide is poised to make serious inroads to the finals after comfortably beating Sturt by 53 points at City Mazda Stadium tonight.
The top-of-the-table Bloods are 3-0 ahead of a date with perennial strugglers Port and South in the next fortnight.
Like their round two win over Central District, last night's triumph was built on pressure and apart from a brief resurgence in the third quarter, the Double Blues surrendered.
Big-man Ryan Willits ripped the game apart early to set up a lead before the midfield class of Chris Schmidt and James Ezard took over.
Scott Blesing and Steve Morris did their defensive jobs perfectly as the Bloods maintained their unblemished 7-0 record under lights at Richmond.
Angus Kurtze was a late withdrawal with an ankle injury leaving James Wundke to lead Sturt's ruck division and he endured a tough night.
Bigger-bodied ruckmen Willits and Daniel Webb helped Westies' dictate terms from the middle and they led by 17 points at quarter time.
Sturt's James Plant kicked the first two goals of the match inside six minutes - both the result of Josh Cubillo's workrate at half forward, but West had the immediate answer.
Fort Caruso swooped on a turnover for a goal before Willits converted from outside 50. Then two goals in two minutes to Brad Fisher gave the Bloods the early running.Willits was playing inspired footy, winning the ruck taps and pushing forward for his second goal after quarter time.
The only downside was an ankle injury to David Piasente who hobbled from the field four minutes into the quarter but his teammates rallied to put the Double Blues under immense pressure.
The visitors were worried into making mistakes and wasted what forward 50 entries they could muster. A goal to skipper Ryan Ferguson after the half-time siren stretched West's lead to 42 points and it could have been much bigger if not for earlier innacuracy.
Sturt dominated possession to start the third term but couldn't buy a goal against a West Adelaide defence unconditionally committed to the cause by smothering and punching the footy and tackling.
Cameron Stokes and Craig Evans provided Sturt with goals just as the Bloods seemed to take their foot off the pedal.
Webb missed three set shots in the third term but the Magarey Medal class of Ezard shone when he got the steadying goal just before the final break.
Schmidt turned it on in the final quarter as the Bloods added another three goals to make the victory all the more convincing.
WEST ADELAIDE 5.5 9.9 10.13 13.16 (94)
STURT 3.0 3.3 5.9 5.11 (41)
SCORERS - West: F. Caruso, Brad Fisher 2.2, Willits, N. Caruso 2.0, Ezard 1.1, Macreadie, Ben Fisher, Ferguson, Hill 1.0, Fielke 0.4, Webb 0.3, Morris 0.1, rushed 0.2. Sturt: Plant 3.1, Evans 1.1, Stokes 1.0, Norsworthy 0.4, Johncock 0.1, rushed 0.4.
BEST - West: Willits, Ezard, Schmidt, Blesing, Ferguson, Caire, F. Caruso. Sturt: Cubillo, Sheedy, Gum, Norsworthy.
INJURIES - West: Piasente (ankle).
UMPIRES - Avon, Thompson, Bowen
CROWD - 4515 at City Mazda Stadium.