SANFLW & Junior Match Reports

Norwood claimed a comfortable victory over Glenelg at Stratarama Stadium to make it four straight SANFLW wins and surge into the top three.

The Redlegs secured a 7.6-48 to 2.1-13 win over the Tigers on Good Friday.

Tahlita Buethke starred for Norwood with 25 disposals, five marks and a goal in a best on ground performance, while Najwa Allen kicked three goals from her 10 disposals.

Lana Schwerdt had 22 disposals and seven clearances, and Sachi Syme 19 disposals and 10 clearances.

Norwood put the Tigers under early scoreboard pressure with the first three goals of the game through Jade Halfpenny and Allen (two) in the opening 15 minutes, to lead by 21 points at quarter time.

The home side responded in the second quarter with two goals of their own and keeping the Redlegs scoreless.

The margin was eight points at the main break, 3.3-21 to 2.1-13.

From that point forward Norwood controlled the game, booting four unanswered goals in the second half to claim the 35-point win.

Norwood’s win/loss record now sits at 4-3 and a healthy percentage of 57.8%, trailing the top of the table South Adelaide (6-1 record) and Central District (5-2).

The Redlegs face the sixth placed North Adelaide at Coopers Stadium on Saturday, April 22 (12pm), and will be hoping to even up the season ledger with the Roosters who won the Round 1 clash by two points.

Norwood 3.3, 3.3, 6.5, 7.6 – 48

Glenelg 0.0, 2.1, 2.1, 2.1 – 13

Goals: Allen 3, Buethke, Halfpenny, Maher, Morgan

Best: Buethke, Halfpenny, Jaques, Schwerdt, Smith, O’Dea

Norwood made sure to finish a dominant 2023 SANFLW Development League minor round season undefeated with a 35-point win over Glenelg on Good Friday, and will now turn its attention to the Grand Final in a fortnight’s time.

The Redlegs will face South Adelaide in the Development League Grand Final, which is scheduled for April 22 (venue and time TBC).

South finished with a record of 6-1 with its only blemish this season coming against the Redlegs in a low-scoring tussle in Noarlunga in Round 2, where Norwood ran out 1.10-16 to 1.2-8 winners.

On Friday, Norwood ran out 7.11-53 to 3.0-18 winners in Glenelg.

Kaitey Whittaker kicked three goals, while Emily Newton and Steph Simmonds kicked two each.

Simmonds – who is in Norwood’s SANFLW leadership group – was back in the side, returning from injury.

Jazmine Egan, Georgina Birchall, Amelia Rusden, Milly Yardley and Adrienne Davies were named in the best players.

Like the SANFLW side Norwood was challenged in the second term where the Tigers booted two goals.

Norwood led by just two points at the main break, but stormed away with three unanswered third quarter goals to set up the 35-point win.

Norwood 2.1, 3.2, 6.5, 7.11 – 53

Glenelg 1.0, 3.0, 3.0, 3.0 – 18 

Norwood was hoping to keep its unbeaten start to the U18 season alive when it took on Sturt in Unley on Good Friday, but it was a red-hot Double Blues side that ran out comfortable 61-point winners.

The damage was done in a rampant opening term where Sturt booted five unanswered goals, and another four goals to two in the second term to open up a 41-point half time lead.

Calem Krollig was the leading disposal winner for Norwood with 22 disposals, while Jay Polkinghorne booted four goals in a challenging day for the Redlegs.

Coach Alex Newell said it was a different looking Norwood line-up to recent weeks.

“The side had a couple of changes due to illness and injury and we were expecting a fierce contest against an opposition who came off a narrow loss the week before,” he said.

“Ruckman Henry Smart suffered a blow to the nose on the first bounce of the day which had him off for the remainder of the quarter as the first quarter was a stalemate for the first 10 minutes with each side trading behinds before Sturt started to capitalise on their chances and piled on five unanswered goals to head into the first break 5.3 to 0.5.

“The second term was a similar outcome with Sturt adding another 4.3 to our 2.2, both goals converted by Polkinghorne. We headed down into the rooms frustrated with how the game was looking and that we could not get it on our terms in any capacity.”

The half time score was 9.6 to 2.7.

Sturt dominated the statistic lines, and Newell said differentials on the team’s key focus areas were significantly down across the board, which meant his side was getting beaten in areas they are usually quite strong in.

“The third term we managed to control parts of the game we were failing too in the first half, however Sturt still managed to score 4.3 to our 1.1 in the term,” he said.

Krollig was stopping a lot of the damage with his magnificent performance down back, particularly on the last line of defence with the help of Cody Duncan, as both defenders were under the pump for most of the game.

The last quarter saw Polkinghorne add another two goals to make up his tally of four for the day as well as Connor Butcher and Jacob Jones start to give us some real ascendancy in the midfield as we had our best quarter for the day kicking 4.2.

“Sturt was simply much better for much longer in almost all facets of the game, they beat us significantly in area’s we pride ourselves on and we could not get the game to resemble a Norwood brand of football at all,” Newell said.

“It was a disappointing day at Unley but plenty of lessons learnt and we look to next Friday night and the opportunity to respond in Gather Round.”

The U18 and U16 SANFL competitions will be the only games to run over the Gather Round weekend, with Norwood facing the Eagles at Woodville Oval on Friday night (U18 7:45pm, U16 5:30pm).

Norwood 0.5, 2.7, 3.9, 7.10 – 52

Sturt – 5.3, 9.6, 13.9, 17.12 – 114

Goals: Polkinghorne 4, Tomney, Butcher, Turnbull

Best: Mead, Jones, Duncan, Butcher, Polkinghorne

Norwood’s U16s side went down to Sturt by 25 points in Unley on Good Friday.

The Double Blues never trailed in the game, but the Redlegs pushed the home side into the third quarter.

Norwood trailed by 12 points at half time, but Sturt went on to kick five goals to three in the second half to claim a 9.15-69 to 6.8-44 win.

The Redlegs were lucky Sturt was inaccurate in front of goals in challenging conditions on Good Friday.

Jeff Rozenbilds continued his good run of form for Norwood with 23 disposals and a goal, while Darcy Speyer also had 23 touches.

Jack Hayter – who had 38 disposals in Round 2 – had 22 disposals, four clearances and six tackles.

Robert Varcoe kicked two goals, had 15 disposals and seven tackles.

Norwood 2.0, 3.1, 5.6, 6.8 – 44

Sturt 3.2, 4.7, 8.11, 9.15 – 69

Goals: Varcoe 2, Rozenbilds, Prescott, Seal, Strong