Jimmy wrote:StrayDog wrote:Cambridge Clarrie wrote:Great game, great crowd, great atmosphere, awesome result!
It's nice to have a team to hate as much as Port...
Fantastic effort by Sturt today. They just didn't give up. Martin, Riley, Kirkwood, F Evans, Lienert and Crocker were all brilliant. Evans' goal from the south western pocket was a ripper!
Proved today that we are genuine contenders...
To hold the Ravens to 10-ish goals is a pretty fair effort considering the AFL laden side they apparently (going by other posters, I wouldn't know a Crows AFL player if I tripped over one) put on the park today. Not entirely surprising as Sturt are proving to be very good defensive side this year, and they certainly seem to know how to play their home ground to good effect. My team found that out the hard way.
Ravens now knocked down to fifth, about five goals behind Centrals on percentage. Sturt confirming themselves as a benchmark this year.
For what it's worth, not sure I agree with you re "hate" comparison - for reasons best left to another thread - but to each their own I guess.
Saw a bit of the live Youtube ("Sairnfull" - grrrh!) stream on a good size screen via X-Box and was pretty impressed with the video quality. I look forward to the League putting more promotion into this. That said, a bit of added exposure for more of the traditional sides, ie, those not necessarily already getting more than their fair share on C7, would be nice also.
I think they had the most afl players in this side to date. They looked bigger and faster early on but sturt grind em down.
That's how I saw it too Jim.
Ravens got a two goal to nothing lead early, before we started getting it back. I actually missed the opening five minutes so not sure how it was early.
I thought Osborn was an obvious big presence on the field for us in ruck. Well coordinated for such a large framed tall fella, and his presence in many marking competitions was a huge bonus. I especially liked the way he attempted to be a link up man in handball chains where fast hands were of the essence; the thing here is that he is having a full on go at playing his part.
The next thing I noticed is how Sturt did so many of the little things well, players who had no chance of stopping a disposal, played the situation smart, and just made it difficult to dispose with ease. This gave the next player down the line more of a chance, and the percentage of turn overs through pressure were high. When we had the ball we fought bloody hard to keep it. I don't remember seeing a Sturt side using such intensity to hang on to the pill, and failing that, just being able to control where/how the opposition is able to use it.
A couple of stand out moments were provided by Riley, Kirkwood and I loved the way Hone showed a bit of toe to run around the Raven's defender midway through the last quarter. He could have held on to it and steadied with a couple more steps, he had the defender beaten. The best that raven could do was a desperate dive for little than just a momentary hand hold of the Guernsey, which as it turns out, might have been enough to rush the kick, but I really like the way Hone is coming along.
The way Sturt cleaned up that rushed kick, I thought epitomised the way we played. It went virtually straight to a raven, who was set upon immediately, then had his options shut down. What would have been an easy clearance against last year's Sturt side, was today quickly turned into a disputed ball, and returned to safe Blue hands. The team's belief and confidence was worth a couple of goals out there today, and as spectators we are beginning to have strong expectations of how particular situations play out on the field.
Anyway, it was a great win and I wanted to just mention a couple of those things that hadn't been commented on already.
Port at Alberton next week. Another practice squad, and who they put on the field against us is dependant on how another team of 21 players performs against Collingwood tomorrow, how their top echelon players recover and who gets injured. A bit of a roulette spin, but we need the two points and we have to keep winning to stay clear of the pack. In an 18 round season each win should be worth a little more than usual.
I'm gonna sit back, crack the top off a Pale Ale, and watch the Double Blues prevail
1915, 1919, 1926, 1932, 1940, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1976, 2002, 2016, 2017
