Sturt conquers West Adelaide to climb to third on the SANFL ladder
STURT has been going about its business without fuss, but they continue to climb the ladder to push for crucial top three spot.
THERE has been plenty of focus on Glenelg and lots of talk about the premiership threat of Adelaide and Port Adelaide.
Maybe the words mentioning Sturt should be spoken a little louder and with a bit more conviction.
The Double Blues have been something of a quiet achiever this season under new coach Nathan Grima, going about their business with little noise and just getting the job done.
So much so they are now third on the ladder after beating West Adelaide by 62 points at Unley Oval on Sunday to be seriously pushing for that double chance in the finals with only four minor round commitments remaining.
“I’m really happy, our last block of 10 games we are 8-2 (win-loss) and you never complain about that,” Grima said. “We have a tough run home and if we make top three we have earned it.
“If not, we will have to do it the hard way if we get there and will probably finish where we deserve to. There was a bit more maturity in the group to finish off the game today.
“We lost Rory Illman and Jack Penfold with injuries before half time so the players have that rock hard conditioning at having to push through.”
The Bloods continued their habit of being fast out of the blocks and they rattled the Double Blues early.
It took the home side 10 minutes to register a score, a behind, but as the quarter lengthened so too did the qualities of the Double Blues start to impact on the scoreboard.
And they took momentum into the second term to smash the game apart, belting the Bloods in the middle of the ground courtesy of ruckman Tom Read, playing his first league game since round 3 after being hit by deep vein thrombosis.
The dominance around the stoppage meant James Battersby and Aidan Riley were active and Sam Colquhoun found plenty of the ball.
The Bloods had just four entries inside 50 in the second quarter compared to 20 for the home side to reflect the Double Blues’ supremacy.
Unlike the first quarter, the Bloods were reactive and gave up the initiative too easily, they lacked the confidence to back themselves.
That helped fuel the Double Blues’ belief and their workrate lifted, their desire to tackle lifted and they looked like a team pushing for a top three spot.
“It started in the middle of the ground, we got smashed there,” Bloods coach Gavin Coleville said. “We have to keep it in perspective and look for the glass half full and there was some good stuff.
“But talent is the ability to do something repeatedly. Our best is good enough, we have got to do it for longer.
“Our group does not have the ability at the moment to recognise when they have gone away from what works and they have to identify that better.”
STURT 3.3 10.6 12.10 17.10 (112)
WEST ADELAIDE 3.2 3.2 6.2 8.2 (50)
BEST - Sturt: Battersby, Riley, Colquhoun, Hone, Carey, Stephens. West: Keough, Willsmore, Schmidt, Batley, Stevens.
GOALS - Sturt: Hone 6, Riley 4, M. Evans, Patullo 2, Kirkwood, Sutcliffe, Fahey-Sparks. West: Keough, Thilthorpe 3, Willsmore 2.
INJURIES - Sturt: Illman (hamstring), Penfold (knee cut). West: J. Evans (knee), Karpany (concussion).
UMPIRES - Morgan, Hundertmark, Sboro.
CROWD - 2735 at Peter Motley Oval, Unley.