Central’s win over West Adelaide keeps Bulldogs in the finals race
CENTRAL District turned up the heat in the final quarter to conquer West Adelaide by 54 points in Elizabeth and keep its hopes of an SANFL finals spot alive with one round remaining.
CENTRAL District is still alive in the race for the SANFL finals after overcoming West Adelaide by 54 points in a spirited battle in Elizabeth on Saturday.
The Bulldogs climbed to within a game of fifth-placed Glenelg with one round remaining on the back of three successive wins and the Tigers’ upset loss to North Adelaide at the Bay.
It has been a remarkable recovery by the Bulldogs after dropping six of their first seven games and eight of their first 10.
“Mathematically we can still make it (finals), but we will just worry about ourselves and the game against the Eagles (Woodville-West Torrens), it will be our grand final,” Bulldogs coach Roy Laird said.
“I was disappointed to a degree with our effort and I feel we played only half a game. The first and third quarters were very ordinary.
“Maybe that is a sign of some maturity for us, we were able to find our feet after a disappointing first quarter.
“In the last quarter we picked ourselves up and played some nice footy.”
It was not until late in the second quarter that the Bulldogs got the ascendancy.
The home side had been wasteful going forward, providing the gritty Bloods with plenty of intercept ball and then being hurt on the counter-attack.
The Bloods, with Shannon Green and Chris Burgess prominent, challenged the Bulldogs in the third quarter to eat into a 30-minute deficit.
But with the two points still to be won, the Bulldogs pounced with terrific, direct ball movement.
Bulldogs ruckman Darcy Fort took charge with his work at the stoppages and as a marking target. Reliable Nick Holman was his usual composed, busy self on the ball and Justin Hoskin gave the Bloods’ defence a headache.
“In the first and third quarters we had the game going our way most of the time,” Bloods coach Mark Mickan said.
“But we could not put scoreboard pressure on when we had the opportunities.
“Our pressure ebbed and flowed. In the first and third quarters they found it hard to score, but when the pressure waned, they took advantage.”
SCOREBOARD
CENTRAL DISTRICT 2.4 8.6 9.11 15.16 (106)
WEST ADELAIDE 3.1 4.6 7.8 7.10 (52)
BEST - Central: D. Fort, Hoskin, Holman, Stephenson, F. Fort, Jansen. West: Green, Burgess, Hill, Noble, Schiller, Rankine.
GOALS - Central: Hoskin 7, Butcher, Holman 2, Waldhuter, Stephenson, Hannath, Presbury. West: Karpany 2, Middleton, Wasley-Black, K. Stevens, Caire, Keough.
UMPIRES - Morgan, Medlin, Harris.