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Woodville-West Torrens forced to improvise

In extremely challenging conditions, Woodville-West Torrens wrestled a 33-point win over South Adelaide at Woodville Oval on Saturday.

However, in a cruel twist of fate, the victory did nothing to improve their position on the SANFL ladder as all their closest rivals – Norwood, North Adelaide and Port Adelaide – also triumphed.

With the heavy rain making the surface boggy, fans were treated to ugly football, which forced both coaches to throw away their game plans and improvise.

The Eagles began to adapt to the conditions better in the third term to swing the contest in their favour, with five unanswered goals to clear away to a 10.7 (67) – 5.4 (34) victory.

Much of the play in the first half was scrambly, which suited South Adelaide, particularly nuggety James Boyd.

But after the main break, the Eagles were far more determined with inspirational skipper Mark McKenzie showing the way.

The Panthers controlled the ruck for most of the day with Craig Parry winning 24 hit-outs, but his small men failed to capitalise on his dominance.

South coach Clay Sampson put their second half down to his players’ mindset while his Eagles counterpart Ron Fuller was lamenting his side still being unable to put four quarters together.

Sunday Mail