Gawler Districts travelled to Mitchell Park Sacred Heart School for a game against SHOC.

In conditions not bad for July, blue skies but a ground with some heavy patches and a strong wind blowing directly down the ground. Gawler kicked against the breeze in the first quarter. SHOC were quick to get a couple of scores on the board. Gawler’s defence were looking direct into the sun making it difficult to judge the flight of the ball. Rod Knight and Sean Hayter were doing a great job controlling our back line and our defence was holding up well. Late in the quarter Gawler started to run the ball out of defence giving their forwards a chance to put a score on the board. Goals to Terry Menadue, Craig Palmer and Stan Cordwell saw Gawler lead at the first change 3:3 to SHOC 3:1.

In the second quarter, SHOC again started very well and were getting great drive out of the centre and ran the ball into their forward lines with precision. Gawler did not use the ball very well going with the wind and again the sun was causing problems with the high balls being blasted into our forward line. SHOC managed 4 straight to Gawler 3:1 for the quarter which gave SHOC a 3 point lead at half time.
 
Third quarter was again a very even struggle. Tony Burne had gone into the centre to help kerb the centre clearance dominance of SHOC in the first half. This paid off with the centre bounce becoming a real arm wrestle. Chris Palmer battled on gamely all day as our only ruckman, Darren Marshall and Craig Palmer doing extremely well with the in and under work around the ball. Both sides gave their forwards a number of opportunities but only to be repelled by solid defences from both sides. Although the wind was significant, it didn’t seem to hold any advantage for the side kicking with it. Goals from Terry Menadue and Stan Cordwell kept Gawler hard on the heels of SHOC with both sides managing 3 goals for the quarter.

The last quarter was set to be a beauty with only 3 points separating the sides. David Crook was moved to CHF with immediate success. Two blistering passes from Paul Schlink hit him lace out and he goaled on both occasions. Lincoln Pit made a dash from the back pocket and scored his second goal for the game. Stan Cordwell added a further 2 goals which sealed the game. Our defence holding SHOC to 1 goal for the quarter.

A great win by the boys.