Round 14 Hostplus SANFL League Match Previews

The Tigers and Crows will be looking to consolidate the positive moves they made last week, Glenelg moving to top of the table and Adelaide into the top five.

There were people talking down Glenelg’s hopes this season after dual premiership coach Darren Reeves headed to Alberton and the Bays lost a bundle of experienced premiership players after being beaten by Sturt in last year’s grand final.

But things are only looking up. The Tigers, with a crop of impressive young talent new coach Matthew Clarke is keen to give their chance, leapt to top spot when they beat premiership favourite Norwood for the second time this season.

Now they’re looking to knock off the Crows, who beat them by seven points back in Round 7.

This time they won’t be up against Taylor Walker but they wouldn’t want to think it will be easy against a side again gunning for finals action.

Adelaide’s skill all over the ground and firepower in attack proved too much for Central in a 50-point win.

Coach Matthew Wright rightly was pleased with a “pretty mature win”. “When we play our brand we can be dangerous,” he said.

It points to another close game.

The Roosters let it slip in the second half against the Eagles but the game had slipped away from the Magpies by quarter-time against South.

North didn’t score in the third quarter and only added one goal for the second half after leading by two points at half-time.

Port was 37 points down after the first quarter before losing by 62.

“As a group and as a club, we definitely feel like that game wasn’t us and we’d like to move past that one pretty quickly,” Port coach Jacob Surjan said.

It’s a feeling the Roosters will be echoing as both clubs will be looking forward to this clash to show their fans where they’re heading.

They were going to slip. After all, they had in the past two years. And now they’d lost three of their elite in the AFL’s mid-season draft that can be like a dream but can also crush them.

Only, someone forgot to tell the Eagles players. And coach Sam Jacobs. The Eags are still getting the job done when it counts, just one win behind top side Glenelg and two games clear in the top three.

That’s what makes this week’s clash so important because it’s reigning premier Sturt that’s two wins behind and with its sights on a top-three finish.

The Blues were going to slip, too. With plenty of top talent gone to the AFL and retirement, followed by long-term injuries and absences of the likes of Casey Voss, Zac Becker, Will Snelling and Mitch Crowden, they were going to fall back to the pack.

But the troops are returning – Crowden, described by coach Martin Mattner as “very important”, picked up 27 disposals against West in his return from an ACL injury that wrecked his 2025 season – and they aren’t going to let their crown skip without an almighty fight.

Back this week are Voss, Becker and Snelling in a huge boost but the Eagles have also had their share of missing stars and have named Adam D’Aloia, Jack Hayes and Kobe Mutch as a battle of the big guns looms.

The Blues beat West with a purple patch of five goals in 15 minutes in the second quarter.

There was a goal barrage from the Eagles as well as they turned their clash with North from a slogfest into a convincing win, ramming on seven successive goals from late in the second quarter – when they trailed by seven points – to early in the last in a six-goal win.

The Eagles were slipping in the first quarter, losing the inside-50 count 18-5, Jacobs admitting, “that’s a game in the past couple of years we could have potentially dropped but the growth in the group enabled us to change things halfway through the game and push ahead”.

Will the Eagles be pushing further ahead in the chase for the top three this week?

These sides may have lost last week but neither lost any admirers or looked any less likely to be there when it counts this year.

The Legs slipped from top spot – but no-one is dismissing their premiership hopes.

And the Bloods slipped out of the five – but no-one is saying they’re likely to miss a finals spot or won’t progress if and when they make it.

West went within a whisker of upsetting reigning premier Sturt for the second time this season, this time at Unley, refusing to concede at any stage as it hit back from 18 points down 15 minutes into the last quarter to fall just four points short.

Now the Bloods will be right at home for the last six minor-round games. But it’s another huge test ahead this week.

No West player will be looking back fondly on the last time they faced Norwood.

It’s almost inconceivable the way Nathan Bassett’s men are travelling now they travelled so badly to Port Lincoln when they lost by 103 points.

Kobe Ryan was missing from that game and he’s been a sparkplug for the Bloods, topping the league for clearances, averaging seven, and in the top eight for disposals (averaging 26) and tackles (six).

Bassett loved the “consistency in the contest” against Sturt and you bet they’ll make a contest of this one against the Legs, who will have been disappointed to have fallen eight points short of Glenelg for the second time this season.

Norwood was toppled from top spot as its nine-game winning streak came to an end but the Redlegs were in it right to the end and they won’t be on the wrong side of too many results for the rest of the season.

The Panthers and Carlton have a club song that’s pretty much the same.

Can the clubs’ similarities extend to boom times after the coach ends his time in charge?

AFL Blues’ interim boss Josh Fraser has won a staggering seven games in a row since stepping into the job.

You can’t expect miracles from Jack Maher, who steps up from reserves coach, but he starts with South in a good spot with Jarrad Wright having been given a wonderful, moving send-off to his record-breaking tenure, trouncing Port Adelaide by 62 points.

Former North Launceston mentor Maher joined the Panthers last year as league forward line coach and said: “I’m privileged to step into the role of interim coach … we are in a strong position to make a genuine push for finals and we’ve shown that when we consistently play to our full potential, we can compete with the best teams in the competition.”

Wright, who was “super proud” of the players’ effort, said after the win against Port: “It’s been a rollercoaster week but days like these are why you love coaching  … the send-off was beautiful.”

The Panther celebration was led by electric Jack Delean, who booted eight goals without a miss as South snapped a four-game losing streak and revived its finals hopes. Dead-eyed Delean is up to second on the SANFL goalkicking list with 28. South beat the Dogs by 34 points the last time they played but it will be a tougher test at Lyndoch.