South dominated West in Round 11 of the Broken Hill AFL League played at Alma Oval on Saturday, winning by 138 points.
But the final scores game doesn’t tell the whole story about Saturday’s match.
The West team were down eight league (A grade) players.
Eight reserve players stepped up to play both their reserve game and the league game.
Most of the game in the first quarter happened in the midfield area, with the majority of breaks toward the South goal.
South finished the quarter with three goals and 10 behinds, giving them a score of 28.
West did not score during the first quarter.
The match changed in the second quarter.
West player Codie Mcevoy’s fast pace along the wing moved the ball into the West forward area before South gained possession of the ball.
Both teams grappled and fought for possession, pushing play back toward the midfield.
Unfortunately, the scrum-like tackling left West player Ollie Campbell motionless on the ground as play continued up the field. When he did try to stand, he bent like a twig and crumbled to the ground again.
One player showed true sportsmanship when he stopped playing and went to Ollie’s assistance and tried to gain the referee’s attention.
It took far too long before any of the referees noticed there was a man down and stopped play.
The West trainers and St Johns ambulance staff went to assess Ollie’s condition.
He was able to walk from the field and was later taken to the hospital for further assessment.
Throughout the match, both teams had head-high tackles, and some went unchecked or unseen by officials.
There seemed to be two types of play happening in the South team, one that consisted of agile kicking with solid lines of play and the other an intimidating crowd approach to their defence.
West player Michael Andruszkiewicz took an excellent mark in the midfield; however, his kick was intercepted by South’s Jordan Holmes, who set up the play that saw Marcus Purcell kick a goal for South.
South settled into the game, found their kicking accuracy and kicked a further five goals during the second quarter.
South player Mick Vlatko’s agility was spectacular as he dodged and wove around West players and took a drop punt kick through the goal posts.
Marks and kicks between Wade Gepp and Jordan Holmes saw Callab Everuss take a further goal for South.
Time and again, South’s forceful tackling stopped West in their tracks throughout the match.
Even though there were obvious signs of fatigue and injury in the West team, they did not give up.
South player, Codie Schorn, scored two goals in succession, the first a drop punt through the goal posts and the second a dripple kick through the posts.
West player Lachlan Harvey took a fantastic intercept that disrupted South’s line of play.
The line of play between West’s Suni Forner, Cooper Burke, and Jonty Campbell helped set up Codie Mcevoy’s first goal for West.
Another line of play by Daniel Milne and Michael Powell helped West score a second goal.
West fatigue began to show in the fourth quarter and allowed South to kick eight further goals.
Cody Shorn, Harrison Butcher, and Kyran Blore all kicked multiple goals for South in the fourth quarter, bringing the final scores to South 153 (21:27:153) to West, 15 (2:3:15).
