Round 19 2010
From Snoutslouts
GLENELG's run into another finals campaign gained significant momentum with a crushing 71-point win over West Adelaide at the Bay yesterday.
The sharp-shooting Tigers were simply awesome after quarter-time, outscoring the Bloods 18 goals to three to all but sew up the double chance.
Patchy since a similarly dominant victory over Norwood in round one, Glenelg's players put in a signature performance.
They outclassed and overpowered West, which was unable to overcome a clear disadvantage in ruck and missed another opportunity to enhance its own finals credentials.
Glenelg coach Mark Mickan praised his side's ruthless conversion - the Tigers finished with a score of 20.4 led by centre half forward Ruory Kirkby who kicked 6.0.
"It makes a big difference," Mickan said.
"The scoreboard pressure was always there and it's a big lifter psychologically for everyone too I think to know that (if) we get the ball in there we score a goal."
West opened with the breeze, but was immediately on the back foot as Glenelg kicked the opening two goals of the game.
Ruckman Trevor Cranston set an aggressive tone in the middle and West's skills were ordinary early - Shannon Green among the chief culprits.
But the Tigers' early energy wore off and they began to battle to clear the ball from defence allowing West to build a 16-point lead by quarter time.
It could have been more, if not for a brain fade from Adam Hartlett - who passed off when he should've taken a set shot - and two miscues from Ryan Bennett.
The second quarter was a shoot-out but unfortunately for West, Jason Davenport (three first half goals) was the only Bloods player with any bullets in his gun.
At the other end Glenelg's key forwards Kirkby, Todd Grima and James Sellar put on an exhibition, nailing goals from everywhere as the Tigers added 7.0 straight for the term to snatch a 13-point half-time lead.
It was only committed tackling that kept West in the contest to this point although the Bloods weren't helped by a pair of ordinary umpiring decisions which resulted in easy goals to Kirkby and Grima.
The second half was as bad as it gets for Andy Collins' side.
The Bloods failed to kick a goal with the breeze in the third term, blowing several opportunities including a missed Michael Pettigrew handball which would have set Bennett up for an easy shot and a dropped chest mark by Ben Fisher 20m out from goal.
In contrast the Tigers controlled the quarter superbly adding two more goals with Sellar's influence up forward increasing.
West's resistance ended in the final term as the Bloods players began losing a number of one-on-one contests simply because the Tigers wanted the ball more.
Kirkby and Grima continued their romp up forward moving to equal first and third, respectively, in the race for the Ken Farmer Medal as the Tigers added 9.1 for the term.
Collins now faces the task of getting his side up for a must-win game with Sturt next weekend after two crushing losses.
"The disappointing part was they waved the white flag in the last quarter," Collins said.
Glenelg 2.1 9.1 11.3 20.4 (124)
West 4.5 6.6 6.8 7.11 (53)
Best - Glenelg: Cranston, Kirkby, Mules, T. Grima, Willoughby, Carr, Bode, Allen. West: Sylvester, Ezard, Piasente, Munn.
Goals - Glenelg: Kirkby 6, T. Grima 4, Willoughby 3, Sellar 2; Tenace, Snook, Bode, Ruwoldt, C. Kane. West: Davenport 3; Hartlett, Davies, Bennett, Pettigrew.
Injuries - Glenelg: Bradley (bruised shin). West: Nil.
Reports - West: Morris (forceful contact).
Crowd - 3455 at Gliderol Stadium
See Also
1. 2010 - full season details
2. Video highlights of this match
