Woodville-West Torrens too talented for brave North Adelaide in scrappy game at Woodville

TOP-placed Woodville-West Torrens overpowered a plucky North Adelaide, eventually grinding the Roosters down with a flood of talent, in a scrappy encounter at Woodville Oval on Saturday.

TOP-placed Woodville-West Torrens overpowered a plucky North Adelaide, eventually grinding the Roosters down with a flood of talent to win by 39 points in a scrappy contest at Woodville Oval on Saturday.

The more fancied Eagles were never going to lose and in the final quarter controlled the ball — but by then they had, for large parts of the first three terms, failed to exploit their hard-running and advantage in talent.

North battled and rushed the ball forward with sheer determination but lacked the polish to finish at the goalfront —.

The Eagles had the polish but failed to use it to full advantage coming into attack, at least, after their initial flurry of four goals, all kicked from within 30m.

Andrew Ainger (3.1) was a willing target in attack, grabbing 10 strong marks, but could have done more, and a host of runners such as Jarred Allmond (23 disposals), Nick Hayse (25), and Luke Jarrad (22) continually swept the ball forward.

Jake Von Bertouch was a power at half back, thwarting countless North forward forays with strong marking, and mopping up any spillage, while debutant Giles Ellis showed huge promise.

The talented Eagles had moments of clean movement but were too often forced to handball under pressure because they were continually into Roosters jumpers.

In the first half the wasteful Eagles had 105 handballs to 95 kicks (North 99-75) — partly because of North’s tackling pressure (North 23 tackles, Eagles 25) — and 131 kicks to 134 handballs at three-quarter time.

That’s not an efficient ratio going into a clash with Norwood next week, coach Michael Godden said after the game.

“That’s not a ratio we use, ever,’’ he said. ”Maybe we just expected it to be a bit freer.

“We ran ourselves into trouble and we had to use handball to get out of trouble — it certainly wasn’t handball to create.

“It was hard to get (players) up for it, knowing there was nothing on the end of (the game) ... but to keep North to four goals was still a pretty good effort.’’

Bold but undermanned, North scrapped for every possession and beat the Eagles in clearances (44-30) and tackles (60-47) but too often hurried the ball into attack. Equally, the Roosters forwards didn’t work hard enough to find space.

Hampered by injuries with 22 senior players sidelined, the Roosters showed serious intent, with Michael Virgin, returning ruckman James Craig and defenders Sam Wundke, Cam Craig, Josh Gregg and Alex Spina showing a lot of heart.

Tireless Marlon Motlop (39 disposals), Nick Amato (29), Josh Gregg (20) and Jay Shannon (20) had plenty of the ball but floundered when the Eagles runners flooded back.

“It’s a work in progress for us (and) they probably didn’t work to our system as well as they can and that’s an education thing but we probably needed a stronger effort from some of our half-forwards,’’ caretaker coach Michael Handby said.

“Our defenders held up really well ... but the ease of their goals in the first quarter hurt us and we blew a lot of chances going forward.’’

Handby said he couldn’t fault the Roosters’ attitude in a tough season.

EAGLES 5.1 7.3 8.4 10.8 (68)

NORTH 1.2 2.2 3.4 4.5 (29)

BEST — Eagles: Von Bertoch, Hayse, Allmond, Raymond, Ellis, Ainger. North: M. Motlop, Virgin, J. Craig, Amarto, Shannon, Gregg.

GOALS — Eagles: Ainger 3, Wundke, Petrenko, Goldsworthy, Lewis, Borholm, Appelton, Lloyd. North: Tahana 2, Amarto, Grove.

INJURIES: nil.

UMPIRES: Gallety, Sboro, Fleer.