Painful lessons from WA loss fuelled SA triumph over Vics, says coach Graham Cornes

SANFL state team coach Graham Cornes says the lessons learned from last year’s hefty defeat to Western Australia proved significant in Sunday’s 19-point victory over the VFL at Adelaide Oval.

South Australia's Anthony Wilson takes a high-flying mark against Victoria. Picture: Tom Huntley

SANFL state team coach Graham Cornes says the lessons learned from last year’s hefty defeat to Western Australia proved significant in Sunday’s 19-point victory over the VFL at Adelaide Oval.

The Glenelg legend said the preparation for this year’s state league confrontation had been vastly superior to that which led into the WA clash — and that had been the platform for South Australia to grab bragging rights.

“We were disappointed last year and in hindsight we could have done it better,’’ Cornes admitted. “There were circumstances we could not control but the circumstances we could, we probably did not do it well enough. We learnt some lessons and put them to good use.

South Australia's Andrew Bradley takes on Victoria's Willie Wheeler. Picture: Tom Huntley

“It is relief to win. The SANFL has supported us so strongly and when we started this campaign we wanted to make it an elite experience for the guys.

“I’m really pleased for them and importantly the support staff.’’

The VFL’s pressure around the ball was tremendous early and the Vics had the home side on the back foot.

But as the first quarter lengthened, so too did South Australia’s control and it built an 18-point buffer on the back of more possessions and an improvement in ball movement.

A massive issue for the VFL was their poor execution moving deep into attack and a raft of opportunities were wasted. SA, extremely well led by Zane Kirkwood, took advantage to escape to a 30-point lead in the second term.

It took the visitors 20 minutes to nail their first goal for the second quarter, evidence of their inability to capitalise on promising forward thrusts.

South Australia's Zane Kirwood snaps his second goal. Picture: Tom Huntley

“SA was too slick,’’ VFL coach Andrew Collins said. “We turned the ball over too much and it came back to that second quarter.’’

When Michael Gibbons, named best for the VFL, nailed a goal just a minute into the third term, the deficit was just 19 points.

But SA, with Fraser Evans and Luke Thompson solid down back and Brett Eddy and Lachlan McGregor lively in attack, had the answers with three unanswered goals.

The statistics indicated a terrific battle and for the most part they were right. It was just SA’s ability to get more value for its forward entries which proved decisive.

“We had a tough opponent, make no mistake about that,’’ Cornes said. “We could not break them. We got that break in the third quarter but they kept coming back.

“I was a bit surprised they came back, I thought we had them covered.

“They just kept coming. We could have controlled the game a bit more, could have gone defensive and slowed it down.

“But you have got to encourage the guys to play footy and that is what we did.’’

SCOREBOARD

SANFL 6.3 10.6 14.6 16.10 (106)

VFL 4.2 6.5 9.6 13.9 (87)

BEST - SA: Kirkwood, McGregor, Summerton, Evans Allmond, Thompson, Boyd, Rioli. VFL: Gibbons, Hayes, Sodomaco, Wheeler, Rippon, Russell.

GOALS - SA: Rioli, Eddy 4, McGregor, Kirkwood 3, Cross, Johnston. VFL: Rippon 3, Hayes 2, Sodomaco, Cavarra, Gibbons, Coghlan, Hanson, Wheeler, Dunell, Haretuku.

UMPIRES - Haussen, Hundertmark, Butcher.

CROWD - 4319 at Adelaide Oval.

FOS WILLIAMS MEDAL - Zane Kirkwood.