SANFL 2005 ROUND 17: NORTH ADELAIDE v NORWOOD

Redlegs slaying giants

By JEFF CRAWFORD

NORWOOD has staked a claim for a finals spot with three wins in a row, two of the which have been considerable upsets.

The Redlegs surprised the highly fancied North Adelaide at Prospect on Saturday, handling the wet conditions better early in the match to set up a three-to-five goal buffer which they held most of the day.

The win follows last week's two-point win over third-placed Central District, and gives the Redlegs a genuine chance to force Glenelg or Port out of the finals.

The win was set up by the Redlegs' control of the centre square, led by captain Brett James and hard-working Scott Borlace, who sparked their side's positive start.

While the Roosters had plenty of targets, Norwood's defence was outstanding, and none were better than full-back Brett Zorzi, who completely shut main spearhead Daniel Hargraves out of the game.

Other dangerous forwards such as Clint Alleway, Ian Perrie and Nick Gill were also negated by the likes of Nicholas Jackman, Nicholas Duigan and Stephen Bailey.

At the other end of the ground, Matt Bartemucci, Heath Culpitt, Scott Carslake and full-forward Adam Cockshell presented well and caused plenty of headaches for the solid North Adelaide defence.

But the Roosters worked their way back into the game in the second half, surviving several misses by the Redlegs early in the third quarter to kick three successive goals.

The last quarter belonged to the home side, but was held out by a stubborn Norwood defence, which started playing stop-start possession football way too soon.

The Roosters wasted several opportunities and were also hindered by a mysterious 60 metre penalty for Norwood, although a brilliant Chris Ladhams goal from the boundary gave North a sniff at victory or a draw.

Speedy Matt Campbell had a shot from around 20m out with only seconds to go, but missed everything and the Redlegs fell over the line. Norwood coach Trevor Hill deserves much of the praise for successfully shutting down North's superior running game and not allowing its potent attack to get on top.

Norwood has a strong chance to string together four in a row against Glenelg at the Parade next weekend.

The six-point loss was merely a hiccup for North, which should bounce back against bottom-placed West Adelaide at Broadspectrum Oval next weekend.

The Roosters will hope to welcome back Darryl Wintle and Dean Howard, and possibly get to see Ben Hudson in the league side for the first time in more than a year.

SCORES: Norwood 3.5 7.7 9.12 10.13 (73) defeated North 1.3 3.3 6.4 10.7 (67).

BEST: Norwood – B. James, Zorzi, Borlace, Crouch, Bartemucci, Cockshell; North - Ivens, Younie, Ladhams, Campbell, Walker, Ryswyk.

GOALS: Norwood - Cockshell 3, Pfeiffer, Brunoli 2, Borlace, Vlatko, Carslake; North - Younie, Perrie 2, Hargraves, Edwards, Alleway, M.Campbell, Ladhams, Gill.