West Adelaide wins as wasteful Glenelg misses its chances

GLENELG, in the end, just deserved to lose it more. West Adelaide was held to a single goal in the second half but somehow managed to beat the inaccurate Tigers by two points on Saturday.

West Adelaide’s Chris Schmidt takes a great grab late in his team’s win over Glenelg. Picture: Dean Martin

GLENELG, in the end, just deserved to lose it more.

For what else can you say when the Tigers held West Adelaide to a single goal in the second half, to two behinds in the frantic final quarter, and still fell by two points?

Westies tried their best to hand it over, dropping a 31-point lead midway through the second term in a scrappy clash that went down to the wire at Richmond.

Glenelg kicked the only two goals of the final quarter, and failed to convert four more genuine shots, in a match that owed its closing tension to missed targets and turnovers from both sides.

“Credit to the guys for the way they hung in there,” West coach Mark Mickan said.

“We scrutinised the last quarter last week and we will again, but we also have to look at the glass half full because we’ve come from a long way back in terms of form from the start of the year and we’ve been building.”

Glenelg lifted when it needed to in the third quarter, energised by Terry Milera’s move from attack onto the ball.

The Tigers began to win the clearances and pressured with repeat entries into their forward 50, giving West little chance to breathe.

At 30 points down at the final change they kicked three goals in six minutes, and suffered a poster, as they dragged the margin back to single figures.

But for the Tigers, the damage had been done in the first half.

West had been on top from the opening bell but had struggled to transfer its domination to the scoreboard early.

They had the first seven inside-50s — but added just 1.3 — before the Tigers could even force their way into attack.

Zach O’Brien and Travis Tuck were winning the clearances for the Bloods, on the back of Daniel Webb’s ruck work, while skipper Chris Schmidt was held to just two kicks to half-time thanks to the close tagging of Josh Woodall.

Mason Middleton held big overhead marks and Aaron Fielke had three majors for the half, including a brilliant roving effort early in the second term.

Before their half-time resurgence Glenelg was slow and methodical, and failed to create the scoring chances of the Bloods.

“We know that if we played four quarters of footy we would’ve won,” Tigers coach Matthew Lokan said.

“We weren’t aggressive enough at the contest, so the boys got a few home truths at half-time and our second half was outstanding.”

But not quite outstanding enough.

SCOREBOARD

WEST ADELAIDE 4.5 8.5 9.7 9.9 (63)

GLENELG 2.2 3.5 6.10 8.13 (61)

GOALS - West: Fielke 3, Middleton 2, Tuck, Silverlock, Haysman, Stubbs. Glenelg: Milera 3, Sumner 2, Howard, Kirkby, Reinbrecht.

BEST - West: Middleton, Tuck, Caire, O’Brien, Schmidt, Silverlock, Webb. Glenelg: Milera, Reinbrecht, McFarlane, Nicholson, Haarsma, Howard.

INJURIES/REPORTS: Nil

UMPIRES: Broadbent, Burke, Bowen