Despite the most frustrating umpiring in the history of football, the Dogs overpowered the Eagles and showed they are the team to beat this year. There was a bit of a contest for a quarter and a half - but eventually superior skills and fitness overcame all the free kicks in front of goal awarded to the Eagles. I think it was 6 of the Eagles first 9 goals that were from free kicks. No wonder they didn't kick a point until the last quarter! Having said that, if the Dogs had kicked straight it would have been all over at quarter-time.
Callinan was best on ground, followed closely by the Gowans twins. But it's almost unfair to single out these three as everyone had their moments of brilliance.
The last time we played at Thebarton was 3/9/1988 when we thumped West Torrens by 50 points. I hadn't been to Thebarton Oval since the 80's and was expecting the place to be run down. But it's no worse than other tired venues such as Alberton, Norwood and Prospect. The lights weren't much use toward the end of the game - I guess they would have turned the lights up a bit if the Eagles weren't 14 goals behind. :)
STATS:
82 points is Central's biggest winning margin at Thebarton Oval.
69 points is the lowest ever score against Centrals at Thebarton Oval.
Photos are Copyright Callum MacKinnon and may not be published elsewhere without permission.
