SANFL 2006 ROUND 13:
WEST ADELAIDE v NORWOOD
Weidemann's blood boils over `disgraceful’ Westies
By STEVE BARRETT
QUITE justifiably,
Unfortunately and inexplicably, the Bloods failed to bring anything
remotely resembling their A-game in a performance described by coach Wayne Weidemann as “disgraceful”,
“weak” and showing “no balls”.
Ben Haynes nailed West's only two goals of the opening quarter, in
which the Redlegs had most of the play.
Following some early inaccuracy,
The Bloods finally fought back late in the term through goals to big
man Ryan O'Sullivan - his first at league level – and Ben Hollands,
before registering four unanswered in the first seven minutes of the second
half to cut the gap back to 22 points.
Out by 37 at the last break, the Legs scampered away in the fourth
term, outscoring West 6.3 to 4.3.
Despite emerging without the win and playing so poorly in patches,
West's score on Saturday was its second-highest total this year, surpassed only
by its 15.14 (104) haul, which, ironically, came in a round four loss to
Norwood.
Weidemann, brutally candid and forthright in
the aftermath, described the performances against Central and the Redlegs over the past fortnight as chalk and cheese.
“We tried pretty hard (early) but in the second quarter we just got
blown away and there was no reaction,'' he said. “We just stood and watched – disgraceful,
really. Absolutely disgraceful.”
At a loss to rationalise his side's indolence, Weidemann
quipped that he felt his players should “start a fight, start a melee or bloody
belt someone” in an attempt to generate some spark.
He was probably only half-joking.
“We played with no balls today, I reckon,’’ he said. “It was totally
weak.
“There's too much between our good and bad – our bad is woeful and our
good is very good,
“Unfortunately we've probably got a couple of blokes in there who are
getting an easy game of league footy where they shouldn't and it
(responsibility) is being left to too few.
“We're short in a lot of areas, we knew that
coming into the season. We were hoping to get a better contribution from our fringies, but they've obviously shown now they're not up to
league footy.”
What made the loss and the manner of defeat tougher to swallow for Weidemann was the confidence he had of some July success – the
Bloods playing fellow bottom four sides Norwood, Sturt and Glenelg over a
three-week stretch.
“No doubt,” he said. “We discussed it Monday night – three winnable
games there and if we could pinch two out of three, it would be a great result
for us.
“After today's performance you'd think we're not going to win any of
them.
“And really, where do you see us winning the next game if we keep
dishing up stuff like that?”
If the players can prove their coach wrong and emerge triumphant at Broadspectrum Oval this Saturday against a Sturt outfit, similarly
struggling and on a five-game losing streak of its own, some credibility can be
restored.
SCORES:
BEST:
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.