Round 7 Match Report – Poor second half costs Norwood

A disappointing second half cost Norwood the chance of its first victory of the 2023 SANFL season, as Adelaide ran away with a 24-point win at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.

Norwood was up for the fight against the third-placed Crows, leading by five points at half time in a low-scoring battle in wet, slippery conditions, before Adelaide steadied to win 8.12-60 to 5.6-36.

The Redlegs restricted the Crows to 1.8-14 in the first half before the visiters kicked six unanswered goals to break out to a match-high 31-point lead.

Nik Rokahr finished with 25 disposals, seven tackles and six clearances, while Matthew Nunn had 23 disposals and eight clearances.

Key defender Jack Heard was busy with 18 disposals and five marks, with Adelaide peppering the ball inside 50m on 48 occasions.

Norwood’s goal kickers were Ben Jarvis, Nick Lowden, Baynen Lowe, Connor McLean and Matt Panos, while Harry Boyd had 25 hitouts, seven clearances and five tackles in a battle against quality opposition ruckman Kieran Strachan.

Redlegs coach Jade Rawlings was pleased with the first half, but disappointed that his team couldn’t maintain the performance.

“They are an Adelaide team that’s jam-packed with talent and been performing well in the comp, to match them in the first half was excellent,” he said.

“We didn’t get the margin on the board that we needed, but as has been symbolic of the last few games we haven’t been able to maintain the rage and Adelaide cashed in on that in the third quarter.

“We haven’t been able to score, we haven’t been able to have someone jump up and take a mark up forward, and we haven’t been able to score heavily enough when we have had ascendency… it’s frustrating that we can’t put it on the board.

“For three quarters our group’s endeavor and competitiveness was outstanding, and it took a lot from Adelaide in the first half, but we couldn’t maintain the rage.”

Both teams spent time in attack to start the game, but neither side managed a score in the opening 10 minutes, with the score unusually 0.1 to 0.3 at quarter time.

Norwood set up well across half back during the first term with J. Heard and Pierce Seymour cutting off several Adelaide attacks.

Despite no goals being kicked, Norwood went inside 50m nine times to Adelaide’s 12, with both sides each laying more than 20 tackles in the contested battle.

Enjoying the tough conditions was Patrick Walker who had eight disposals in the first term, while usual suspects Nunn and Rokahr each had seven disposals to quarter time.

Norwood started the second quarter strongly and broke the goalless deadlock in the opening minute. Boyd launched the ball long inside 50m and Connor McLean ran into an open goalsquare.

The Redlegs managed to repel a number of Crows inside 50m entries, and added a second consecutive goal through Panos at the seven-minute mark. Panos’s goal made it a nine-point margin, 2.1-13 to 0.4-4.

The Crows managed to get a goal against the flow, thanks to a free kick and goal from Riley Clamp.

Adelaide had the run of the play but squandered several opportunities, which led to a scoreline of 1.8-14, to Norwood’s 2.1-13.

Like he has since his debut, Goy Lok stepped up in big moments, taking another important mark on the wing and setting up Lowden’s goal at the 21-minute mark to give the Redlegs the lead back.

Lowden’s goal made it a three goal to one second term and a five-point Norwood lead at the halfway mark, despite the Crows leading disposal 166-140, inside 50m 24-19, tackles 48-42, clearances 20-19 and scoring shots 9-4.

Nunn and Lowe had 11 disposals to half time, while Rokahr and Walker had 10 each.

Jarvis started the second half well with a set shot (miss) followed by a strong intercept mark just seconds later, while Rokahr laid a big tackle on Matt Crouch to signal Norwood’s intent.

However, it was the Crows who kicked the first goal of the half through Strachan to level the scores at 3.2-20 to 2.8-20.

Rain started to fall once again during the third quarter, and players continued to crash in during the hard and tough battle.

In his first SANFL game of the season Josh Richards won a hard ball and a free kick on 50m, and set up Panos for a set shot, but the shot went wide.

Adelaide’s Lachie Gollant was able to kick the next goal in the low-scoring tussle to make it 3.8-26 to 3.3-21.

The Crows were consistently belting the ball into their forward line and Richards won a strong one on one contest against Jackson Hately, but it spilled out to Billy Dowling who snapped Adelaide’s third goal of the quarter.

Norwood was held goalless in the third term, to Adelaide’s three majors and the three-quarter time score was 4.10-34 to 3.3-21.

With the ball living in Adelaide’s forward half in the third term (14-8 inside 50m entries), J. Heard had eight disposals for the quarter.

The first goal of the final term was a big one, and it was the Crows who found it through a Gollant set shot.

The Gollant goal made it four straight Adelaide goals and a 19-point deficit, and the game was put beyond doubt when Clamp kicked his second at the 10-minute mark.

Lowe (who took Taheny’s set shot after he was stretchered from the ground) kicked Norwood’s first goal of the second half.

The Redlegs had back to back goals three minutes later when Jarvis nailed a long set shot to bring the margin back to 19 points.

But it was all too late, and Sam Berry made sure of the win with a late goal to make it a 24-point win.

Norwood travels to Elizabeth next Saturday to take on Central District on June 3, 2:10pm.

Norwood 0.1, 3.1, 3.3, 5.6 – 36

Adelaide 0.3, 1.8, 4.10, 8.12 – 60

Goals: Panos, McLean, Lowden, Lowe, Jarvis

Best: Boyd, Rokahr, J. Heard, Nunn, Panos

Norwood’s Reserves side has won its third straight game and moved into the top three following an 18-point win over North Adelaide at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.

The Redlegs led from start to finish, but had to overcome a late challenge from the Roosters on the way to the 11.9-75 to 8.9-57 win.

Finn Heard, Lachie Pascoe and Liam Robinson each kicked two goals, while Tristan Binder, Jake Cresswell, Matt Dnistriansky, Tom Graham and Izaak Twelftree all kicked singles.

On return from injury that has kept him out all season Cory Stockdale had 23 disposals and five tackles, while Luke Bogle also had 23 disposals, 12 tackles and six clearances.

Playing in the ruck Tom Graham had 22 disposals, five clearances, 16 hitouts and one goal.

Norwood dominated the first term as heavy rain fell with 14 inside 50m entries to five and 57% of the possession, but didn’t capitalise on their repeated forward forays.

The Redlegs kicked 3.2 to 1.3 to quarter time, and also had several shots that didn’t score, while North had four scoring shots from its five entries.

Stockdale had eight disposals in the first term, while Robinson, F. Heard and Pascoe kicked first quarter goals.

Robinson kicked his second (Norwood’s fourth) in the first minute of the second quarter to make it a 17-point lead.

Norwood continued to dominate field position in the early stages of the second quarter, gaining five inside 50m entries to one at the 10-minute mark, but again North restricted the damage on the scoreboard.

Against the flow North added its second major through Josh Byrne at the 11-minute mark to make it an 11-point game.

It was a tight tussle for the remainder of the quarter, and Norwood was pushing hard to get a goal to finish off a good half.

F. Heard earnt a free kick 25m out and nailed the set shot to give his side a 19-point lead at half time, 5.5-35 to 2.4-16.

Isaac Saywell had a quality first half with 11 disposals, while Stockdale also had 11 to half time.

F. Heard and Robinson were the dual goal kickers in the first half, but Norwood would have hoped to have had a greater lead given the discrepancy in inside 50m (25-11) and disposals (141-122).

The Redlegs came back from half time and started to move the ball nicely through the midfield and inside 50m.

Again they struggled to capitalise on the scoreboard, kicking three behinds.

North made Norwood pay, kicking the first goal of the half through Harry Williams to reduce the margin to 15 points.

Twelftree – who has had a consistent Reserves season with 11 goals – kicked a steadying goal at the 15-minute mark to make it a 21-point game.

North responded straight away with another set shot through Oliver Dignan, before Cresswell’s goal made it a 19-point lead at the final break.

The Redlegs were under the pump when North kicked three of the next four goals to bring it back to a six-point margin with nine minutes to play.

Norwood steadied with goals through Dnistriansky, Graham and Binder to put the game beyond doubt.

Norwood 3.2, 5.5, 7.8, 11.9 – 75

North Adelaide 1.3, 2.4, 4.7, 8.9 – 57

Goals: F. Heard 2, Pascoe 2, Robinson 2, Binder, Cresswell, Dnistriansky, Graham, Twelftree

Best: Weightman, Graham, Dnistriansky, Stingel, Binder