Last week in the SANFL...

The following information is provided by Phillip Monk [moustrap@camtech.net.au], and is updated here after the weekends games. All credit for this information goes to Phillip and is being used with permission. SANFL Preliminary Final Sunday 26 September - at Football Park NORWOOD  4.3  6.6  11.9  13.11 89 Eagles  2.3  6.5   9.5  11.9  75 (attendance - 10,672) Back again after I couldn't face writing a report last week (Glenelg blew a 23-point lead with 15 minutes to go against Norwood). Ahem. Norwood have gone from making up the numbers in the final five a few weeks ago to grand finalists, after winning a tense preliminary final clash with the Eagles by 14 points. When these two met in round 21, the 'Legs were in the middle of a slump and lost by nine goals. How much difference five weeks makes. Norwood dominated the first term, playing a perfect brand of corridor football, and out possessing their opponents 85 to 57. They should have led by a lot more than 12 points. The Eagles had to rely on a couple of opportunistic goals from Robert Pyman and Chris Kluzek to stay in touch. In the second term the Eagles surged back into contention with Chris Kluzek pulling down a couple of big marks as the Norwood midfield was quietened as Wiggins and Biglands for the Eagles started to dominate in the ruck. The Eags' classy midfielders in Colville, Pesch and Ugrinic started to win plenty of touches and WWT actually led until just before half-time. Norwood made good use of the breeze again in the third quarter and raced out to a 21 point lead. The game had lifted a couple of notches in intensity and the Eagles started to cough the ball up under pressure. Robert Pyman kicked a goal after the 3/4-time siren after a FAD downfield to reduce the margin to 15 points at lemon time. Two further goals to Floreani and Pyman in the first five minutes of the last quarter cut the margin to three points and the Redlegs looked like they had run their race. Fortunately for them in the next fifteen minutes both sides could only score behinds as chance after chance went begging under pressure. Pyman must have nightmares about the set shot he missed from 35 metres that would have put the Eagles in front and perhaps inspired them to go on with the job. Finally Norwood were able to get the ball down to Andrew Pascoe for some one-on-one contests with Andrew Rogers which resulted in late goals to Thiessen (after a hand-off) and Pascoe himself after Andrew Rogers made no attempt to get rid of the ball. Ben Kemp was the best player on the ground, with 29 kicks and 9 handpasses. John Cunningham (19 touches), Jarrod Cotton (26 touches and 2 goals) and Anthony Harvey (22 touches and a goal) completed a dominant midfield. Andrew Pascoe's 6.2 was a handy return in a low scoring game. James Thiessen also potted two goals. Hard-running Adam Ugrinic had 21 disposals and a goal and was the best for WWT. Gavin Colville (28 disposals and a goal) was another classy contributor. Robert Shirley had 22 handlings and kept Harvey to two touches after half-time. Pyman and Chris Kluzek both kicked 3.2, and may well curse some of the opportunities they missed. So it's Port v Norwood again next week, which should help the ticket sales. However Port showed in last week's Second Semi that they are a cut above the other finalists with their ability to resist a challenge and then kill another side off, something that Norwood didn't do against either Glenelg or the Eagles. They won't be able to afford to give Port any second chances, but their form suggests that they tend to play well for a quarter then slacken off, allowing their opponents back in. Therefore I'll tip Port to win, by around 30 points. Next Week - Grand Final Sunday 3 October Port Adelaide v Norwood (Football Park, 2:20pm) The official SANFL web site is located at: http://www.sanfl.com.au/