SA Footy

Sturt 14.16.100
Norwood 12.8.80

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Scoreline not reflective of the margin between the two teams for mine, but for inaccurate kicking in the first quarter, Sturt would have won by about 7 goals ... They have an excellent structure, good balance of size and pace, and have an excellent workrate.

Luke Crane I thought was BOG by the proverbial country mile (although his teammate wearing number 6 might have given him a shake but for an inability to finish in front of goal).

Norwood's best was Matt Thomas I thought, particularly in the second half, but as long as we persist with this handball first game (and miss targets when we do eventually go by foot), we'll not worry last years top 3 or any emergers from Prospect or Woodville if they come forth.

We will certainly need to improve, and all of a sudden the depth of personnel doesn't look as great when your Reserves get smashed by 105 points and your 18's lose by 15 goals.

Not all doom and gloom at the parade, but some serious improvement will be required.

Well summed up CP, Sturt should have won by 6-7 goals, we were rubbish and they were far too good all day.

Couldn't believe the reserves score.

NFC wrote:Couldn't believe the reserves score.

What was it?

ressies score
Sturt 21.16 - 142
Norwood 5.7 - 37

it was 12 goals to 5 at 3/4 time and Sturt kicked 9 goals and held Norwood scoreless for the last 1/4

Have to agree, Norwood were lucky to be that close. Players not combining well to play great team footy yet. Not enough players running through the line of the footy today.

Certainley didnt see that result comming in the footy tipping!

Its funny, I didn't see it happening but I was smart enough not to put money on this game, my words were "Sturt will not win this game BUT they have burnt me too many times in the past winning games when they shouldn't that I've learnt not to put money against them in games like this".
Yes I was wrong but at least I was smart enough not to lose money on it, I envy Sturt fans who get to follow a side that wins against the odds on a consistent basis unlike my rabble.

I don't think it wise to pass too many comments on Norwood's "effort" today as I may regret some of my comments later.

Well done Sturt, way too good for us today as you have been for some time. We're just wasting our time at Norwood. I went to the game thinking we had an advantage in ruck with Feast and DeLuca retired ... then I find out Doyle is out with a calf strain .... *sigh*. We exceed the salary cap retaining players on the list who rarely make it onto the park ... what's the damned point?

Sturt were desperate, first to the ball in numbers, and their gang tackling was a feature of their game. At times you looked around the ground to see where our 18 players actually were because if I was paid a dollar for each time I saw one Norwood player trying to compete with 3-4 Sturt players, I'd be a very rich man tonight. Thank goodness Sturt couldn't kick for goal or a 10 goal thrashing was on the cards.

Happy with the efforts of McGuiness in defence, Lee and Vlatko up forward, and maybe a couple of others, but all in all a very lack-lustre and insipid performance from the Legs today. Most of our on-ballers looked half asleep, there was no desperation in their play whatsoever.

As posted on the preview this game did answer some questions.
We have a long way to go and the best players on earth playing a flawed game plan will always fail.
We recruited well but the coaching panel persist with a game style that only beats weak teams and is exposed by the top teams. Our personell is better than Sturt but they play a style of football that works....we dont !
I thought we played about 20 minutes of good football last week against moderate opposition and was worried about this one.
Guess we have to wait for Nathan Bassett to become coach before we will be any chance of winning a flag.

Watced a bit of this game on the ABC. I must say Trevor Hill's 3 qtr time talk to his players didn't sound terribly inspiring.

I'm just wondering how Norwood managed to convince Sash Ognenovski to have a kick in the backlines.

GWW wrote:Watced a bit of this game on the ABC. I must say Trevor Hill's 3 qtr time talk to his players didn't sound terribly inspiring.

Our team played like he talks ... never gets out of 1st gear.

SDK wrote:We recruited well but the coaching panel persist with a game style that only beats weak teams and is exposed by the top teams.

A classic example was our captain winning the ball, running inside 50, and instead of drilling the goal, decided to do the old familiar Norwood trick of chipping the ball out to nobody in the pocket. I really need to sit down with Trevor Hill and ask him what the hell that is supposed to achieve, because I've been watching it for 4 years and it hasn't worked yet!!!!!!!!!!!!

well done strut, thought they were montys at home, wont carry on with the tripe about why

Trevor Hill always seems apologetic to me. Does not inspire confidence or positivity at all.

Let's not beat around the bush here. At the start of the year people were going on about how Norwood were going to push for the flag, etc. But let's face it, last year a 17 year old kid from Broken Hill was the one who made the difference and lifted Norwood into the top 5 for the first time since 2002.

We couldn't find any money to make even a decent offer for Cockshell, so he is off to another club. So we are down 2 of our better forwards from 2008 already. We also lost 150 game players Bown, Dawes and Bartemucci, and although that helps to offset our salary cap issues, it leaves a huge hole in terms of experience.

Okay, we picked up delisted Crows players Massie, Jericho and Campbell, but apart from an opening 20 minutes from Massie in round 1, none of them have been a lot of value thus far.

Doyle and Trotter continue to struggle with soft tissue injuries. When they are on the park, they are good, but their spasmodic appearances are not helping settle the team down.

We could lose Thomas and/or Lower at any time, which would further unsettle our defensive unit. The more I look at it, especially after today's showing, Norwood could struggle to edge into the top 5 unless we devise a plan for being far more efficient with our movement of the ball, especially into the forward lines.

Please guys, no more chipping the ball wide into the pockets, let's see more quick movement through the centre and long foot passes to forwards (Vlatko, Lee, etc) on the lead. It's amazing how much difference it makes to a forward when the ball is delivered quickly and accurately.

Sturt showed us today just how much we need to improve just to make the top 3. The look of sheer frustration on the face of Kieran McGuiness in the final term today said it all.

Adelaide Hawk wrote:Let's not beat around the bush here. At the start of the year people were going on about how Norwood were going to push for the flag, etc. But let's face it, last year a 17 year old kid from Broken Hill was the one who made the difference and lifted Norwood into the top 5 for the first time since 2002.

We couldn't find any money to make even a decent offer for Cockshell, so he is off to another club. So we are down 2 of our better forwards from 2008 already. We also lost 150 game players Bown, Dawes and Bartemucci, and although that helps to offset our salary cap issues, it leaves a huge hole in terms of experience.

Okay, we picked up delisted Crows players Massie, Jericho and Campbell, but apart from an opening 20 minutes from Massie in round 1, none of them have been a lot of value thus far.

Doyle and Trotter continue to struggle with soft tissue injuries. When they are on the park, they are good, but their spasmodic appearances are not helping settle the team down.

We could lose Thomas and/or Lower at any time, which would further unsettle our defensive unit. The more I look at it, especially after today's showing, Norwood could struggle to edge into the top 5 unless we devise a plan for being far more efficient with our movement of the ball, especially into the forward lines.

Please guys, no more chipping the ball wide into the pockets, let's see more quick movement through the centre and long foot passes to forwards (Vlatko, Lee, etc) on the lead. It's amazing how much difference it makes to a forward when the ball is delivered quickly and accurately.

Sturt showed us today just how much we need to improve just to make the top 3. The look of sheer frustration on the face of Kieran McGuiness in the final term today said it all.

Smartest comment I've read for a long, long time.

That's what it boils down to folks. We made the finals last year because of the freakish footballing ability of Taylor Walker. Without him, even with a better side, chances are we'll go back to being a very ordinary side. Oh how I miss him.

Massive gallery of pics on the Sturt Cheer Squad website http://www.sturtcheersquad.com/apps/pho ... id=5021679

Spell_Check may be better placed to answer this, but not sure how long its been since a club registered more handballs than kicks (I had Norwood 124 kicks, 140 handballs, compared to Sturt 209 kicks, 112 handballs).

Norwood had 8 players with more handballs than kicks: at half time, they had 11, to Sturt's 2.

Sturt took over double the number of marks as a result, 112 to 49.

Some other stats:
: Inside 50 - St 49, Norwood 39
Marks in attacking 50: St 17, Nwd 8 (Vlatko had 6 of these)
Contested possession: St 75, Nwd 62
Clangers by hand or foot: St 28, Nwd 35
Running bounces: St 5, Nwd 9
Centre breaks: St 16, Nwd 13