Sleeper-Hold In Last Wins It
North Adelaide met a "BUOYANT BLOODS" outfit at Prospect on Saturday, coming off a victory over Centrals. We went in unchanged after our "shut out" win against Norwood last week.
In the 1st stanza we attacked immediately. Stribling initiated it with a free, then Archard and White combined to find Alleway. He marked and goaled. Big Clint equalled his last weeks quota of goals within 5 minutes as Stribling took a courageous mark in the middle. He moved it on to Archard, who found Alleway on his lonesome. SAUSAGE ROLL no.2. after missing one opportunity, Schwarze got another after Ryswyk set the foundation with a lovely tackle. BAALLL was the call Schwarze marked and goaled to ice a lovely passage. Minutes later Schwarze was injured at a contest and had to be stretchered off. The resultant free was taken. Allan and Wright combined to drill our fourth on the trot. Meanwhile West players were still rubbing in Denco-Rub! The Denco-rub was sufficiently rubbed for West to take advantage of a defensive error from us to give them their first. Minutes later skipper White missed a set shot opportunity. The resultant kick in went straight down young Thring's throat. He said thankyou very much and went BANG. "GO YOU GOOD THRING"! Pfeiffer missed a bankable shot after the siren. At quarter time we led 5-4-34 to 1-0-6.
In the 2nd term Allan and Archard put in a magic passage on the grandstand wing to make something out of nothing. White marked the pass and booted his 1st. the quarter then took on a hazy look. Some marshmallow frees to West plus some non-decisions didn't help matters. West were making a move but weren't scoring goals. Cupido even hit the post from point- blank. Our defence stood up well during this period. Davis took 2 telling marks (I'm telling you all, they were telling!) to relieve the pressure. We then made West pay for their earlier misses when Wright received a free and 25 at half-forward. He went Bang, Sausage Roll. The Bloods finally got a 6 pointer on the stroke of half-time. The scores 7-5-47 to 2-4-16.
The 3rd quarter began okay, Davis figuring again. We missed one chance that West made us pay for by scoring down their end. Normal programming seemed back on when all our prime-movers for the day. "Double A's" Davis and Sporn were involved in an attractive passage that saw Ackland mark and goal in the square. Unfortunately normal programming wasn't resumed as we were making fundamental disposal errors. West banged on 2 goals. In the midst of a poor period we somehow conjured a goal from a high tackle free to Wright at half-forward. After this West put on 2 more goals and even "The Double A's" were guilty of poor disposal! Lemon-Time scores 9-7-61 to 7-7-49.
It was going to take a monumental last stanza effort to keep The Bloods on their collective leash! The tightness of the situation was revealed early with 3 consecutive stalemates. Not long after scoring a point North built again from defence. It begun with Mcintyre it finished with THE SKIPPER finding The Big Mitts of Ackland Bang no.2. minutes later our defence came to the fore again Cunningham affecting a goal saving spoil and Mcintyre another solid mark. No sooner had West had a legitimate chance to Storm Home then The Roosters put on a good old "Sleeper-hold!" West could make no ground. Appropriately Skipper White buried The Bloods with the last 2 goals. A stand out last term considering our poor 3rd term. Final Scores - North Adelaide 12-9-81 West Adelaide 7-9-51.
K.Chaplain
Home Match Reporter.