Budget for 1986 Escort Cup match vs Sturt (click to expand)

Glenelg's impossible dream comes true

By: GEOFF KINGSTON

Glenelg made one of the greatest recoveries in the history of the club to achieve an "impossible" victory over Sturt in the Escort Cup match at Football Park on Saturday night. Down 59 points at three-quarter time and playing as though it was trying to lose, Glenelg shocked Sturt with the ferocity of its revival, kicking 10.3 to three miserable points in the last quarter.

When the siren sounded, Sturt was still in front. Unfortunately for the Blues, Glenelg centre half-forward Jim West had the ball. He had taken a huge mark in the middle of a pack seconds before the siren with Sturt five points clear. It was a time for heroics and West did not fail. The kick - from about 35 metres on a slight angle - was never going to miss. West signalled it was a goal almost from the moment the ball left his boot.

The roar of disbelieving delight from the Glenelg fans was deafening - almost as loud as the stunned silence from the Sturt camp.

After Sturt had played with such purpose, such skill and flair, for three quarters, it was impossible to believe it could lose. Its capitulation - so quick and complete - was staggering. Yet for three quarters it was clearly the better side. It was quick, aggressive and skilled and repeatedly punished Glenelg for its mistakes.

Glenelg seemed intimidated by the packs of Sturt players that roamed Football Park plundering the goodies on offer.

Centreman Neil Craig was back to near his playmaking best and the runners, the linkmen - John Paynter, Greg Whittlesea, Jim Derrington and Darryl Smith - embarrassed Glenelg with their skills and exposed a few gaping holes in the attitudes of some Glenelg players.

Sturt led by 10 points at quarter-time, by 24 points at half-time and then kept Glenelg scoreless in the third term while increasing its lead to 59 points with just 25 minutes to play. It seemed safe.

It could not have foreseen what was to happen. And when it did, it seemed powerless to stop it.

Glenelg did nothing spectacular; it just played footy the way it should be played - the way it wasn't playing it in the first three terms.

Players all over the ground began to run, to back up, to hit and hurt, and the chances came quickly. Tony Hall, one of the few Glenelg players to maintain his dignity during the early stages, continued to "fire" Glenelg.

But suddenly he was getting support everywhere - from players such as Wayne Henwood, Alan and Wayne Stringer, Chris McDermott, Kym Hodgeman, Peter Maynard, Steve Copping and Jim West.

They triggered an avalanche of chances that buried Sturt and fully deserved the standing ovation given them by the Glenelg bench as they headed, triumphantly, for the dressing rooms.

	1st	2nd	3rd	Final	Pts
Glenelg	1.0	2.4	2.4	12.7	79
Sturt	2.3	6.4	11.9	11.12	78

SCORERS -

• Glenelg; Hall 3.0, Woodlands 2.2, West 2.0, Maynard 1.2, Carey, Hodgeman, McDermott 1.0, Kidney 0.1, rushed 0.2.
• Sturt; Willmott 4.3, Paynter 3.1, Derrington, Kitschke, Reynolds, Craig, 1.1, rushed 0.4.

BEST -

• Glenelg; Hall, W. Stringer, A. Stringer, Henwood, West, Maynard.
• Sturt; Craig, Paynter, Whittlesea, Smith, Paech, Schinkel.

Umpires; S. Semmler, R. Campbell.