AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game
EF Venue: Adelaide Oval Date: Sat, 30-08-2014 7:40 pm Crowd: 12,147 (Avg 6,074) | |||||
South Adelaide | 3.2.20 | 6.8.44 | 9.10.64 | 13.11.89 | |
Woodville West Torrens | 3.2.20 | 5.4.34 | 8.7.55 | 10.9.69 | |
Scores level | SOUTH by 10 | SOUTH by 9 | SOUTH by 20 |
Weather |
8.5°C 25.0°C |
0mm 44% 1019.0mb |
4km/h E |
The second of the finals in week one brings us the Elimination Final, this time around to be contested between the Panthers and the Eagles. The two games played between these mobs this season netted points for both, just as with the Redlegs and the Blues this season their victories came on away soil. In Round 5, the Eagles took a 10-point victory at Noarlunga while the Panthers took a heart-stopping one goal win at Woodville just three weekends ago in Round 16. With those games and the 13 before them, the Eagles have taken 11 wins to South's four, which also includes their last finals stoush back in 2011. That match was a 1st Semi-Final, the Eagles hurling the Panthers out of the finals on their way to the premiership with their 70-point hammering. The Eagles' season started with plenty of highs, up until the state match weekend they had lost only one match and won seven. Then after a loss to the Crows, their engines started to splutter and cough, winning just four of the remaining 10 matches to finish fifth. Their last round win against West allowed them to avoid September oblivion, but would find them coming up against a Panthers outfit full of confidence after their final round win against Sturt. Many SA footy-heads don't usually put South and finals together in the same sentence very often, but despite not finishing much better than the Eagles they were more convincing as a contender. The Panthers' season featured encouraging victories against top sides across the year, none more stirring than their win against Port during their 1964 premiership anniversary celebrations.
The last few rounds of the year seemed to show a real difference in calibre, South winning the last four rounds of the home and away season while the Eagles dropped four games from the past five weekends, as said earlier their win at Woodville against the Bloods stopped them from dropping off the five. The Panthers got on the front foot early to bag the first couple of majors, but the Eagles were able to answer back as scores were locked at 3.2 each at quarter-time. South would suffer accuracy problems in the second quarter, but were still able to establish a buffer going into the long break. The Panthers would add 3.6 to the Eagles 2.2 to take a 10-point lead at the half-time siren. This match wasn't showing what the Panthers were truly capable of, however there were things about South's game that set them apart from the Eagles this night. They were relentless in their pressure on the body and their defence was able to counter much of what the Eagles threw at them when being attacked. That being said, when the Eagles threatened them in the third term, some Panther sides from previous years may have panicked and folded. Not this outfit, despite three unanswered goals from the Eagles, the Panthers steadied to take a nine-point lead into the final change after they scored 3.2 to 3.3. The blue and whites weren't going to let this one go, the Eagles continued to battle on but South's determination would win out in the end, finishing the match by scoring 4.1 to 2.2 to take a 20-point win, booking a 1st Semi-Final spot against Sturt next week and sending Michael Godden into 2015 preparation.
Joel Cross scored three goals and took out best afield votes, while the Eagles named Travis Lane as their best on ground.