In blustery yet reasonably mild conditions at Adelaide Oval on the weekend, a building Showdown crowd headed to their seats early to witness a seesawing affair between the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and West Australian Football League (WAFL) representative sides.<\/p>\n
With both teams boasting a multitude of former AFL listed talents, the match promised to be a close contest.<\/p>\n
In what was a slow, scrappy yet hotly contested start to the game, Western Australia dominated the inside-50 count 11-4 early. However, \u00a0the first goal was not kicked until the the 17th minute mark when former Crow-turned-Sturt onballer Aiden Riley<\/strong> converted a regulation set-shot from close range.<\/p>\n As the South Australian side began to get on top, two-time Magarey Medalist and SANFL skipper Zane Kirkwood <\/strong>(Sturt) put the home side nine points clear.<\/p>\n Late goals from Marlon Motlop <\/strong>(Glenelg) and Josh Hone <\/strong>(Sturt), led the Croweaters to a comfortable 22-point buffer at the first break.<\/p>\n The lead was short-lived, with the WAFL’s Blaine Johnson <\/strong>(South Fremantle) finally booting his side’s first major of the game, sparking WA into life.<\/p>\n The West Australian’s completely dominated the second term with big name stars\u00a0Jye Bolton<\/strong> (Claremont), Sharrod Wellingham <\/strong>(East Perth) and Rhys Palmer<\/strong> (Swan Districts) all becoming heavily involved across the midfield dominating the clearances and getting the ball moving in their advantage.<\/p>\n Goals from Corey Gault <\/strong>(Swan Districts), Wellingham and another from 22-year-old medium forward Johnson capped off a breathtaking 54-point quarter \u00a0which included eight unanswered goals to put the Sandgropers ahead at the main interval.<\/p>\n In desperate need of a quick turnaround, the SANFL piled on three quick goals \u00a0courtesy of prolific onballer\u00a0Kaine Stevens <\/strong>(West Adelaide) and forwards\u00a0Josh Scott<\/strong> (Glenelg) and Justin Hoskin <\/strong>(Central Districts) to trim the margin back to a kick. \u00a0<\/p>\n Tough midfielder Matt Panos\u00a0<\/strong>(Norwood) brought his side to within just one-point from tying things up, before key forward Corey Gault kicked truly from a set-shot.<\/p>\n Former Power defender Sam Colquhoun\u00a0<\/strong>(Sturt)\u00a0<\/strong>hit back with a running goal to again close the gap, with\u00a0Kirkwood showcasing why he is regarded as one of the best state league players in the country.<\/p>\n Down by eight points at the final change, Rhys Waters <\/strong>(Subiaco) added the first six-pointer of the quarter before a goal-for-goal shootout saw Josh Scott, Jack Hayes <\/strong>(Woodville-West Torrens), Rhys Palmer and Andrew Strijk <\/strong>(West Perth)\u00a0all exchange blows.<\/p>\n Strijk snagged his second and third goals within three minutes and Corey Gault converted his third to put the WAFL comfortably in front late in the game.<\/p>\n It was a game of inconsistencies from quarter-to-quarter, much like the showdown that would follow, but the WAFL’s stars proved too good on the day, leading their side to its first victory in Adelaide in 24 years.<\/p>\n Kirkwood finished with 35 disposals, six marks, eight tackles and a goal to claim the Fos Williams Medal for SA, while Jye Bolton again reminded AFL recruiters of his talents, collecting 34 touches, six marks and three tackles.<\/p>\n Bolton won his second Simpson Medal as best afield for the WAFL. Panos (25 disposals, eight marks and seven tackles).\u00a0<\/p>\n Mitch Grigg <\/strong>(Norwood,<\/strong> 27 disposals and seven tackles), Stevens (24 disposals and six tackles) and Jarrod Allmond <\/strong>(North Adelaide, 24 disposals and four marks) were also prolific for the home side with Josh Scott the lone multiple goal kicker booting 2.2 for the afternoon.<\/p>\n For the victorious visitors, Shane Nelson <\/strong>(West Perth,\u00a0<\/strong>30 disposals and 10 tackles) was rugged throughout all four quarters, while Wellingham (27 disposals and a goal) was classy with his ball use all day.<\/p>\n Kane Mitchell<\/strong>\u00a0(Claremont,\u00a0<\/strong>25 disposals) provided spark around the contest, and another former-Magpie,\u00a0Johnathon Marsh<\/strong> (East Fremantle,\u00a0<\/strong>20 disposals) was also strong down back limiting the dangerous Jack Hayes to just one goal.<\/p>\n Corey Gault and\u00a0Andrew Strijk snared three apiece with Johnson and Waters chipping in with two each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In blustery yet reasonably mild conditions at Adelaide Oval on the weekend, a building Showdown crowd headed to their seats early to witness a seesawing affair between the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and West Australian Football League (WAFL) representative sides. With both teams boasting a multitude of former AFL listed talents, the match […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":34917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3130,15],"tags":[5003,5014,5006,5008,918,5016,5017,5005,1047,5010,5007,5009,3907,5004,5011,5015,3140,5013,5012,4111,3144,5002,3816],"class_list":["post-34735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-australia","category-state-leagues","tag-aiden-riley","tag-andrew-strijk","tag-blaine-johnson","tag-corey-gault","tag-jack-hayes","tag-jarrod-allmond","tag-johnathon-marsh","tag-josh-hone","tag-josh-scott","tag-justin-hoskin","tag-jye-bolton","tag-kaine-stevens","tag-kane-mitchell","tag-marlon-motlop","tag-matt-panos","tag-mitch-grigg","tag-rhys-palmer","tag-rhys-waters","tag-sam-colquhoun","tag-shane-nelson","tag-sharrod-wellingham","tag-wafl-sanfl","tag-zane-kirkwood"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}