The South Australian Showdown
Another CRACKING game in AFL Round 3 - Rivalry Round. Adelaide knocked off home town rivals Port Adelaide by 6 points in a physical contest that we have become accustomed to in these games. Peter Burgoyne had a massive 41 Touches and the Cornes brothers were brilliant for the Power but it was not enough to get them over the line. Chad Cornes couldn’t resist the temptation of firing up the Crows crowd with un necessary celebrations after an intercept and long goal. As you would expect there is no love lost between these teams and the tackle from Port player Matt Thomas on Nathan Bassett that left him unconcious was sickening and Thiomas will most certainly gets weeks! Well he should anyway.
In a big game Richard Douglas was great for the Crows finishing the game with 3 goals and Bernie Vince put in one of his best games for the club and won the Showdown Medal with 24 touches and 2 goals. It was a fantastic effort from Vince given the fact that he copped a huge hit from Daniel Motlop and left the fied only to return in even better form. Tyson Edwards had his best game for the year, Goodwin was again great and Nathan Bock continued his good form. Zero goals for Robertson, maybe his singing on “It Takes Two” is getting in the way of his football.
The Big man Tredders had a day he would rather forget, his kicking was shocking and he had the big man Ben Rutten all over him for the entire game. Rutten knows how to play Tredrea and has definately got the wood over him. Tredrea only kicked 2 behinds and 3 marks.
Demons Competitive
Well the Demons took action on the magic word from coach Dean Bailey “competitive”. The Demons managed to avoid the massacre that was predicted and put in a spirited performance losing by 30 points. Austin Wonaeamirri made his debut for the Demons and acquitted himself very well grabbing 4 tackles and 16 touches of the pill. Melbourne flew out of the blocks and kicked the first 3 goals and I thought my certainly for the week may be in a bit of doubt.
Enter Tom Hawkins, the big Tomahawk hit his straps and booted 5 goals. He even got his big body of the ground and took a hanget in the forward pocket. He is an exciting talent for Geelong and will become one of the leagues best Centre Half Forwards / Full Forwards. I love the Geelong defensive half and 3 of them were brilliant again, Matthew Scarlett, Tom Harley, and Josh Hunt were very difficult to get past and provided a lot of run from there. After looking like he was shot in the arm and left the field Gary Ablett came back on and was again a prolific ball winner while Bartel was a bit down on his best.
The Demons are still lacking some forwards and had to work very hard for all their goals. Cameron Bruce booted three goals for the Demons and Cale Morton, Brock McLean, Paul Wheatley and Nathan Jones all battled hard for 4 quarters which would have pleased the coaching staff. Get your money on Nathan Jones for the Demons B&F. I thought Jeff White was pretty good as well he had 25 disposals (10 kicks and 15 handballs), 10 marks, 10 hitouts and a goal which was a good day at the office.
Bradshaw and Hall Impressive
In a game that I thought the Brisbane Lions should win the put in a disappointing display at their home ground the GABBA. The contested possessions were the key in this game and the Sydney Swans were all over the Lions in that department. The Lions had the dominance in the Ruck with 40 hitouts to 27 and needed to make more of that. They had a hard time dealing with the Swans game style and the Swans locked them down to perfection.
Big Bad Barry Hall continued on from last week and kicked 2 goals and was at his imposing best. He is a big unit and his presence is great in the forward line for the Swans. Craig Bolton did an outstanding job on Jonathon Brown at the other end and Brown had no impact on the game. But Daniel Bradshaw did, this guy is getting better and better each week. He is a fantastic player Bradshaw and is hard to match up on. He finished the game with 5 goals and gave a few away so probably should have ended up with more. They certainly had their chances early in the last quarter but just couldn’t kick the ball through the big sticks. Charman and Notting both missing goals they should have kicked.
Jed Adcock continues to impress for the Lions and Ryan O’keffe is gaining respect as a quality mid fielder for the Swans. This week he racked up 27 touches.
