SANFL: Woodville-West Torrens beat West Adelaide by 15 points

WOODVILLE-West Torrens held off a fast-finishing West Adelaide at Richmond Saturday and in doing so completed a 10-match winning streak.

WOODVILLE-West Torrens held off a fast-finishing West Adelaide at Richmond yesterday and in doing so completed a 10-match winning streak which has seen it beat every side and possibly assume premiership favouritism.

With Norwood officially in a mid-season slump, the top-placed Eagles are clearly the form side of the SANFL and for three quarters yesterday they were devastatingly good.

The Bloods will take plenty from a final term which saw them kick 7.4 to 1.1 and show the Eagles can be scored against but the boys from Oval Avenue had all but killed the contest by the final change.

Their composure going forward, pressure and field kicking saw them get the better of a low-scoring first half, forcing West coach Mark Mickan to roll the dice and go one-on-one.

But that simply gave the Eagles space to use their skills and they looked almost AFL-like at times during a third quarter which saw them boot seven goals to two.

Ominously, the Eagles will welcome back in-form defenders Matthew Goldsworthy and Luke Thompson, ruckman Fraser Thurlow and midfielder James Boyd over the coming weeks.

Michael Godden couldn’t fault his side’s first three quarters but said the final term took some of the gloss off the win as his side struggled to cope when West went all-out attack.

“I thought the first three quarters were outstanding the way we stopped their run, we were tough in clinches and we scored freely,’’ Godden said.

“But I was really disappointed with that last quarter.

“They played an all-out-attack style but structurally we broke down.

“We struggled to get the footy and when we got it we over handballed.”

The Bloods’ cause wasn’t helped by the loss of Ryan Willtts, who left the ground and was taken to hospital for precautionary scans after a nasty head-clash in the second term which left him badly concussed. Despite continuing their trend of running over the top of sides in the final term Mickan was left to lament a poor third term when his side was outplayed in all areas after going one-on-one.

“We went one-on-one in the final term as well but we just did everything better,’’ Mickan said. “I really praised the players after the game for their never-say-die approach but I also said ‘look, let’s apply that earlier’. Against the best side in the competition at the moment we showed we can be very competitive but we’ve just got some things to tidy up.”

EAGLES 4.0 6.3 13.3 14.4 (88)

WEST ADELAIDE 0.5 1.6 3.8 10.13 (73)

BEST — Eagles: Petrenko, Lewis, Schwarz, Von Bertouch, Rowntree, Jarrad.

West: Porplyzia, Hartlett, Caire, Beech, Stevens.

GOALS — Eagles: Wundke 4, Lewis, McGregor 2, Sinor, Petrenko, Rowntree, Borholm, Dunstan, Schwarz.

West: Green 4, Newell, Beech, Stevens, Homburg, Keough, Hardy.

INJURIES — West: Willits (concussion)

UMPIRES — Philp, Lally, Crosby

CROWD — 3639