The Gawler travelled to Mallala for a game against Riverland.

In conditions that were dry but with a strong swirling wind, both sides found it hard to control the delivery of the ball. Gawler kicked against the wind in the first quarter and did very well to put the first score on the board, Gawler’s defence lead by Stan Cordwell and Adrian Watts were doing a great job repelling the Riverland attacks. With goals to Chris Knevitt and Tony Burne, Gawler lead at the first change 2:1 to Riverland 1:1.

In the second quarter kicking with the wind, Gawler centre line players of Craig Dawe, Chris Palmer, Darren Marshall and Craig Palmer gave the forwards numerous opportunities to score but inaccuracy waisted a lot of those chances. The wind was proving a difficult force to master. Goals to Rod Knight, Colin Thompson, Craig Dawe and Craig Palmer gave Gawler a handy 21 point lead by half time.
 
Third quarter was again a struggle into the wind, Gawler started to use their short game much better and delivered the ball more accurately to their forwards, which paid off with 2 goals for the quarter. The Gawler defence was still holding firm and managed to hold Riverland to 1 goal for the quarter. This left Gawler 28 points up.

With Gawler having last use of the breeze, Coach Thompson went for a radical move and rewarded his 6 defenders by moving them to the forward lines. This proved that the side is very versatile as they scored the same as the specialist forwards had done so in the second quarter. The new defence was also great holding Riverland scoreless for the quarter. A supergoal (drop kick) from Fred Ness was something the regular forwards couldn’t do. Goals from Stan Cordwell (2) Adrian Watts saw Gawler run out comfortable winners for the day.

A great day was had by all, with game being played in good spirits.