SANFL 2006 ROUND 14: WEST ADELAIDE v NORWOOD

Big win and back on track

By STEVE BARRETT

WITH five losses from its past six starts, and a malfunctioning forward line which had failed to produce more than 12 goals in a match since April, Norwood was favourite but far from a certainty when it took on bottom-side West Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

The fact the Redlegs emerged with such a healthy victory after a trying month-and-a-half augurs well for the remainder of the season.

With the bye this weekend, Norwood can assess its run home and initiate a late-season pitch at a finals berth.

The Redlegs had most of the play in the first term on the weekend but failed to convert on a number of gettable shots at goal.

Norwood had to wait until the 15-minute mark to register its first major, through Jamie Vlatko.

That was followed by a couple of goals to pacy 19-year-old crumber Matthew Brunoli, a homegrown product who booted four for the match to continue his impressive progression from promising club junior to bona fide league player.

Successful set shots by Vlatko and Scott Borlace saw the Redlegs lead by 21 at the first change.

After scoring the last three goals of the first term, the Redlegs hammered the first six of the second period to inflate their lead to 54 points.

West finally fought back late in the term before registering four unanswered goals in the first seven minutes of the second half to cut the gap back to 22 points.

Norwood awoke from its brief nap to dominate the quarter's latter stages.

Out by 37 at the last break, the Legs scampered away in the fourth term, outscoring West 6.3 to 4.3.

Norwood's 22.16 (148) on the weekend was easily its highest score of 2006, surpassing its previous season-best, 19.13 (127) also against West, in round four.

It also happened to be the Redlegs' best single-game scoring effort in nearly four years, since they amassed 24.9 (153) against Glenelg in round 22, 2002.

“It's certainly a significant improvement,” Norwood coach Trevor Hill said.

“We were far more fluent and I thought our running style today was probably the best it's been, for three quarters anyhow.

“I thought we really created a fair bit of running drive and our delivery was a whole lot better (than previous weeks).

“The good today was really, really good.

“There's a fair bit of pressure on all of us at the club - the perception of Norwood at the moment hasn't been great for the last month. I thought maybe this was a starting point to turn things back around.”

SCORES: Norwood 5.6 12.8 16.13 22.16 (148) defeated West Adelaide 2.3 4.9 10.13 14.16 (100).

BEST: Norwood - Campbell, Meesen, Culpitt, Carslake, Jackman, Brunoli, Borlace, Gallagher; West - Haynes, Glover, Dragicevic, Ezard, Oswald, Slattery.

GOALS: Norwood - Brunoli 4, Campbell 3, Bown 3, Cockshell 2, Bartemucci 2, Vlatko 2, Borlace 2, Sandery, Carslake, Lower, Gallagher; West - Haynes 5, Hollands 3, OSullivan, Dragicevic, Illman, Glover, Archibald, Proud.