Australian Football

Match Report

The games continued into Saturday afternoon with the SANFL's own "distance derby" between the clubs on either side of the north-south metro, the Panthers hosting the Bulldogs at the Hickinbotham Oval in Noarlunga. The Panthers sat out last weekend following their narrow loss to West in Round 4, while the Dogs outlasted a persistent Tigers mob at Glenelg. Recent history between these two clubs has the Panthers winning the last four games at both Noarlunga and Elizabeth, perhaps a measure of revenge for the Dogs scraping into finals football at their expense in 2015. 

The Dogs have so far been one of the better starters for games this year and continued the trend with a 4.4 to 1.0 opening term to lead by 22 points at quarter-time. But its consistency that has been the major sticking point for the Bulldogs, only this time they dropped their guard early and South took advantage. By half-time it was the Panthers in the lead, only inaccuracy keeping the Dogs within striking distance. South scored 4.7 to a lousy single behind to take an eight-point lead at the long break. The skewed shooting on goal continued for both sides when play resumed, both sides scoring 3.4 each in the third term to leave the half-time deficit unchanged. The Panthers inaccuracy went on in the final term, but it was the Dogs' drop in intensity that brought them unstuck in the end, South's 3.7 to Central's four goals was enough to ensure a blue & white nine-point win. 

Nick Liddle was named best for the Panthers, the Dogs named young gun Jackson Hately as their best.