gadj1976 wrote:therisingblues wrote:North were fantastic today. Sturt were too slow by comparison, dropped too many possessions and were poorer around stoppages.
There was a heap of Red and White in the crowd again, they made more noise than those of us wearing Blue also. Perhaps because they were leading all day, but I reckon there might have been more of them than us! I am not used to saying that.
Back to the footy, and I reckon we actually played better today than we did against the Eagles, but North seemed to have us all worked out. It seemed whatever we tried to stifle them or outclass them just did not work. Impressive stuff.
I imagine a Norwood v North Grand Final at Adelaide Oval would go close to being filled, and I was looking forward to Sturt being part of that equation somehow. In today's era of footy, there has to be an extra honour to participate in a sold out SANFL Grand Final.
Thanks Osborne for the two flags, congratulations on a great career.Another irreplaceable player. Best of luck for the future.
TRB, that would have to be our two worst games I've seen in a decade or two. We played like Sturt of the mid 90's. No game plan, no forwards and no skills. We played injured players and that didn't assist but it's not to say that was the difference. We were outplayed by a faster more keen, structured and switched on unit in North.
What struck me the most was our skills. We were just plain terrible. We turned it over several times which cost us goals. Not that it singularly would've been an issue, however North's implied pressure made it even worse.
Not sure if we were THAT bad, but we looked like a completely different side to what I witnessed in the minor round.
Sometimes it was as simple as not holding a mark in the forward lines. On three occasions, just off the top of my head, we moved the ball well out of North's forward 50. Got the ball to within scoring range, with a player just needing to complete the mark... and he didn't.
North's crumbers then gathered, and the ball went zooming down the opposite wing... North goal.
Key moments like those, where we were trailing by between 2 to 4 goals, could have resulted in extra pressure on the opposition, and instead of being 2 goals down, the margin extends to 4 goals.
Having said that, North missed a lot of easy shots on goal, and should have been further ahead. But you have to take your chances when you get them. We were still about 5 goals down at 3/4 time. i know we had a depleted bench by then... damn frustrating game. Ironically, the only pleasure to be had was watching the Roosters show how it's done, at our bloody expense!