Round 13: South v West - Saturday 7 July @ Hickinbotham Ova

South v West
Saturday 7 July
Hickinbotham Oval

Two sides who have been inconsistent throughout the year face off down south. Who will come away with the win this week?

Triple header with u/18s starting at 9.10

With finals gone, Westies need to find a reason to keep pushing hard. If we do we'll go all right.

League

West will welcome back some experienced heads against South on Saturday.

Premiership pair Jono Beech and Shannon Green return to the starting 18 while former Geelong rookie Zac Bates and ex-Eagles wingman Nathan Batley have also been included in the Bloods’ 23 man squad.

Forward Tom Pillion has also been named on the five-man extended interchange bench.

Former Crow Jason Porplyzia couldn’t be considered due to a knee injury while Murray Waite and Lachlan Evans were sent back to the Reserves.



F: J. Evans, Wasley-Black, Karpany

HF: Anderson, Middleton, Beech

C: Batley, Stevens, Noble

HB: Green, Burgess, Hill

B: Agostino, Wilson, J. Ryan



R: Parrella, Keough, Schiller

INT: Head, Bates, Pillion, L. Ryan, I. Johnson

IN: Pillion, Beech, Green, Bates, Batley

OUT: Porplyzia (knee), L. Evans, Waite

Reserves
Dunkin, Fairlie, L. Evans, Halkias, Heitmann, Holliday, Hupfeld, Jaensch, Hannagan, Laube, Lynch, Kirk, Noonan, Osborn, Peter, Rana, Majok, B. Turner, G. Turner, Waite, Webb.

Under-18
Caruso, Dalgleish, Forbes, Haysman, Gilbert, Earl, May, Hannagan, Milde, Rundle, Day, Morelli, Patterson, Rana, Kostandinos, Neumann, Nunan, Westley, Moore, Sareen, Wakim, Kent, Chamberlain, Henry-Smith

This good be a good match. South has played good footy recently and Westies look strong with a couple of important ins. South at home by 5 points

That's wins at Alberton, Elizabeth and Hickinbotham now. We've never won at those first two grounds in the one season and then missed the finals.

Good win by West, their pressure and tacking was first-class.  Brooksby is a great player, but Andre Parella did well against him.  Perhaps the surprising thing was the dominance of West's midfielders.  Josh Schiller played on a champion, Joel Cross and Joel played very well with more than 20 possessions.  Josh had 34, had 15 clearances, was in and under and was clearly BOG.  Tom Keough, new this year to the midfield, was excellent, while Kaine Stevens is surely one of the classiest players in the league.

Our inexperienced backline stood up well, while Mason Middleton was again a focal point with his strong pack marking and 3 goals.  Jono Beech signalled a return to form in the second half and John Noble has been ultra-consistent on a wing.

After a difficult and emotional time for the club and its people over the last 2 weeks, it was also a terrific coaching achievement by Gavin Colville.

Surprised at the size of the win but Westies looked much better. Coming good at the right end of the season.

Good win by West but a bloody disappointing couple of weeks. They were hungrier, won the contested footy comfortably, pressured well and they've got some quick runners on the outside which we struggled to contain. Keough was hard to match up on and Schiller was outstanding - wins the hard ball as well as being a supreme user of the ball. Bates is great to watch when he's going.

Our staple is winning the ruck taps and stoppages but we were soundly beaten there. Hit outs were similar which was surprising as I thought Parella more than matched Brooksby in that department, but for us it was only really Brooksby (around the ground) and Cross that showed anything. I thought Summerton played his best game for us all season - chased down Bates who had four bounces and was running in to score, and got a touch on Karpany's shot for goal.

We had 99 tackles for the day so can't question our endeavour without the ball, but Westies weren't far behind as it was that type of game. To lose when the opposition has 28 clanger kicks to 11 shows that we would have been belted if they played their best.

Danger signs and all we've done is left the door open for Westies & Centrals who face off against each other this week in an intriguing game.

Yeah pretty much. We're missing Rose & Overall badly. Haren looks out of sorts. Being absolutely carried by Cross, Lids & Brooksby with Summo and Haines the shining lights.

Ever since our training run against the Crows, I get this smidgen of a feeling league footy is a bit too easy for some of our fringe players and the last two weeks have shown it.

After this Sunday, we'll have come off four successive games against bottom five teams and should have come away absolutely no less than 4-0 with a good percentage boost. With Glenelg a danger game now because of our form and if drop it, a 1-3 record on those three weeks sets us up for a five game run against the five best sides in the comp this year so may as well kiss our finals goodbye.

How a season can turn to sh#t in two weeks. All hope isn't lost but crap on a duck.