Round 9: West v Norwood - Friday 6 June @ City Mazda Stadium

West v Norwood

Friday 6 June
City Mazda Stadium

Reserves: 4:45pm
League: 7:20pm

Last Match
West 21.23.149 d Glenelg 8.3.51 @ City Mazda Stadium
Norwood 10.12.72 lost to Eagles 11.9.75 @ Coopers Stadium

Last Time They Met
Norwood 14.16.100 d West 6.8.44 @ AAMI Stadium

Ladder Position
West 5th 3-5 49.52%
Norwood 6th 3-5 47.51%

Both sides have had pretty similar form this season. Who will break away with their 4th win of the season?

Should be a really good game.

West's form at City Mazda Stadium recently has been good - wins by 10, 6 and 16 goals.

looking forward to this match, very hard to pick the winner in a confident manner, i suggest this will go down to the wire

Well I'm overseas so I reckon westies to win

Norwood in a high scoring game 5.5 to 5.4

Are there any indigenous guernseys this week????

Not that I've heard.

West by 2-3 goals.

West by 24 points

Think West might be due against the Legs. Tough one to pick so will go with the home side 11-20

Norwood frightened me with their effort last week to just lose to the Eagles, thus allowing West (written off by Bayman for the season only a couple of weeks ago), to jump into the top 5.

West looked as smooth as silk in running rings around Glenelg to win by 16 goals, bringing their last three games winning margins at City Mazda to 32 goals.

At Norwood, I'd have the 'Legs favourite.

At City Mazda, I'd have West favourite.

A very important game, both for the ladder and for West's psychological state against Norwood.

West by a disputed point after the siren.

Looking forward to seeing how big Justin Hardy goes in a Bloods jumper tomorrow night...

Good luck to the big fella in the League debut for the Bloods...

redandblack wrote:Norwood frightened me with their effort last week to just lose to the Eagles, thus allowing West (written off by Bayman for the season only a couple of weeks ago), to jump into the top 5.

c'mon mate put it in perspective, i said when clarifying that they may make the 5 but you have to finish top 3 to be a genuine chance & i'll guarantee you that Port, Sturt, Eagles & probably South will all be in front of the rest, so that leaves one & maybe two spots up for grabs, but no way known running fourth or fifth will get a team the flag this year

You're right that I've taken you out of context, mate, so my apologies for that.

This might be a year that 4th or 5th might be a chance, depending on Port's list at that time of the year.

redandblack wrote:You're right that I've taken you out of context, mate, so my apologies for that.

This might be a year that 4th or 5th might be a chance, depending on Port's list at that time of the year.

if Westies' make the Elimination Final this year (2014) i'll give you 20/1 for them to go top before that first final

I think the Bloods can win this, at least I hope so.

If there are 40 + goals scored in this match
I will shout First Blood a counter meal , a free drink , and my company
Valid till 2015

My tip
Bloods by 17 points

Scrappy wrote:If there are 40 + goals scored in this match
I will shout First Blood a counter meal , a free drink , and my company
Valid till 2015

My tip
Bloods by 17 points

Nice offer Scrappy, a nice snitzy and a cold beer along with your company would have gone down a treat.... but it was never meant to be.   

Well, the only positive for Westies tonight is that Norwood fans have to watch that game plan every week.

They don't mind. It's won them a couple of premierships, but it's **** to watch.

In recent years, West played much the same style and were probanly equally culpable, but that's no longer the case.

As for the game, West were amazingly only 3 points behind at the last break, but that disguised the fact that they'd been just hanging in there. The inevitable blowout happened quickly in the last quarter with Norwood slamming on 5 quick goals. West hung in and replied with two, to lose by about 21 points or so.

West's skills were very poor, but their backline held up except for the late burst.

Adam Hartlett was again superb against Newton, but Norwood had way more Inside 50's and looked much more skilful.

The final siren was a merciful release from a game which was hard fought, tight, intense, but so defensively oriented as to be totally frustrating to watch.

Norwood far too good, but not as good as the Norwood of recent years.

A crowd of over 3000 attended.

Westies had a minuscule about 23 inside 50's
Is that because West did some flooding ?
Or was it because Norwood zoned them out ?

First Blood
Only 28 goals short , or about 10 more quarters of football !

Scrappy, all clubs playing against Norwood try to come up with a plan to counter their defensive structure. They always play a spare in defence. Before the bounce, their wingman runs to a defensive position. If he's manned up, they just send another one into defence and so on.

Good luck to them, it's successful, especially against sides whose skills are suspect. It was a slippery ball last night from the dew and West's skills were nowhere near as good as Norwood's.

I wouldn't say there was excessive flooding, more that Norwood builds a big wall of players and backs their very good pressure to create a turnover, thus allowing them to counter-attack.

It makes for a crap spectacle, though, as we've seen ove the last few years, where low scores have Norwood as the common denominator.

The last two Grand Finals illustrate it. West played a defensive style and could only manage 3 goals and 15 scoring shots in the GF. North, supposedly an attacking side, only managed 4 goals and fewer scoring shots than West.

The challenge for Norwood this year is thst their game style might well see them in the five, but can they go much further with the lost they have.

It should be noted that both sides were under-strength last night. Kirwan and Phillips dropped out for Norwood, Ezard for West.

West have struggled to put their best team on the park this year and will be better with the return of Schmidt, Bricknell, Ezard, Still, Hayes, Birss and getting Hardy some games under his belt.

North at Prospect next week.

Looking forward to a better spectacle.

It's a bit rich to put it on Norwood..

No doubt they have a first priority of defend, but their I50's show they were trying to attack but were just well held by a well performed West backline and the multitude of helpers they had back there.

So often West would clear but have no one ahead of them to send the ball to quickly.

If Norwood play a shocking style them Wests is atrocious. I'm not sure what's going on with them because I believe they have far greater talent than they showed last night.

I think I've given Norwood due credit but I also think I've accurately described their game style.  The evidence to back me up on this is surely clear.

Last game West kicked 21.23.  They've kicked more than Norwood this season.  Norwood are way diwn the list.  They rely on a defensive style.  West used to, they don't under Mickan.

I've often said the challenge for other sides is to break down Norwood's style, something they haven't been able to do often.  Good luck to Norwood, when you're on a good thing, stick to it.

I've said they were far too good last night, but their game style leads to a boring contest. Argue away, but it's a fact.

Compare Norwood's scores this year to other teams.

Highest score?

PS. Which part of my previous post is wrong?

As I said Norwood have a defence first mindset which is understandable, traditionally defencive proficiency stands up in big games moreso than attacking emphasis. However they do still attack - must have missed half a dozen relatively easy goals last night that completely change the scoreboard. West continue to try to beat Norwood at their own game and that's why they come up short. On the rare occasion they had the courage to switch the ball in traffic they showed the potential to be dangerous, but oddly didn't take the game on enough.
When your side kicks 5 goals for a game it's rather amusing to see you calling the opponent boring.  

Thanks for the bulk of that, Scrunch, agree with much of it.

It might be amusing, but I think the bulk of the football public find Norwood's style boring.

Highest score?

West's is 21.23 this year.