Australian Football

Match Report

The final match would be played out on the Sunday afternoon, we now head up Port Road as far as Woodville and into the Maughan Thiem Kia Oval where the Eagles took on the Panthers. The points from their two games last season were shared, with the Panthers winning by eight points at Oval Avenue in Round 6, then the Eagles returning serve for a six-goal win at Noarlunga in Round 13. The Panthers practically went AWOL in the second half, after a wasteful third term and a totally silent final quarter in a total reversal of form. From their matches last weekend, both sides came out victorious with the Eagles smacking the Blues by 49 points at Unley and the Panthers putting more pain into the Bloods' season. I'm going to have to spoil one aspect of this match for you now... the conditions were just completely filthy. The weather turned the surface of Woodville into a muddy mess, the match would end up being one of the most defence-reliant games in recent memory. In complete contrast to their animal namesakes, the Panthers did more of the attacking in the difficult conditions, kicking to a 10-point lead by quarter-time after scoring 2.4 to the Eagles' single goal. It was the other way around in the second term, the Eagles bringing the gap back to just a single kick by the long break. They scored 2.1 to the Panthers' 1.3, at half-time the visitors lead was down to six points. Another spoiler, I'm afraid... the Panthers would not be finding the goals again for the rest of the game. The Eagles would kick into the lead by the final change after scoring 1.3 to a single behind, a lead of just two points. The Eagles' attacking forays would be frustrated by the desperate defending of South in the final term, unable to register a score at all. One last shot by South on goal would go wide late in the quarter, the home side would win by just one point. When I said this would be the most defence-reliant, I wasn't kidding because the final tally of tackles was 331 with the Panthers laying over 190 of them. Riley Knight was named best for the Eagles, with 30 disposals, 14 tackles and eight clearances. For the Panthers, it was Mitch O'Neill with 24 disposals and 13 tackles.