Australian Football

Match Report

The televised match for the weekend takes us to the far southern metro and into the Flinders Uni Stadium in Noarlunga for the "Southerners Derby" between the Panthers and the Double Blues. The inner southerners took all the points from their encounters in 2020, with a 22-point win at home in Round 5 followed by a six-goal win at Noarlunga in Round 12. Fast forward to now, although the Blues finally broke through for their first win last week against the Bloods by 50 points, the Panthers have yet to drop a game with wins against the Crows, North and last week the Magpies at home by nine points. Thus far they have demonstrated their ability to fight hard. But at times, periodic inaccuracy has been a nagging issue. Amazingly today, there wasn't much of a weather influence to speak of, with the trademark Noarlunga weather pretty much absent. 

The Blues were able to take advantage of some early game misfires by the Panthers, at quarter-time they would lead by four points after scoring 2.1 to South's 1.3. The Panthers continued to waste their opportunities in attack in the second term, but the Blues weren't really running away with anything either so were able to keep within striking distance of the Blues going into the changerooms at half-time. South scored 3.5 to Sturt's 3.2, the Blues still ahead by just one point at the break. The third quarter was an all-out struggle, but though South were still not landing every punch truly, the Blues looked like they were beginning to falter early. They managed just 1.2 as the Panthers kicked into the lead with their 2.3. At three quarter-time, the home side was up by a goal. The final term was all South, who kept the visitors to just one behind whilst bagging 5.4 for themselves to keep their flawless start to the year intact, running out 39-point winners. 

The Panthers would name prized recruit Bryce Gibbs as their best with 35 disposals, five marks and seven tackles. James Battersby was named Sturt's best on ground for the fourth week running, notching up 25 disposals and 13 tackles.