Australian Football

Match Report

In the final contest of the weekend, we return to Port Road and head towards the Maughan Thiem Hyundai Oval in Woodville as the Eagles hosted the Panthers. As good as the Eagles have been in recent years and yes, even in their last premiership year, one team that has been able to make them blush from time to time has been the Panthers. From the last 11 meetings, Souths have taken three wins with their last stoush the most recent. It was Round 15 at Oval Avenue last year when the blue & whites embarrassed the Eagles by 19 points, a major bump in the road during their post-premiership wobbles of 2012. That loss was probably replayed to them before this day, because the Eagles were about to bring the pain in devastating fashion.

South's first term would end up being their best for the afternoon, they scored 3.3 while the Eagles bagged 6.3 to start the Panthers' agony. At quarter-time, the Eagles were up by three goals. The Panthers would be kept to a miserly 1.1 in the second quarter, the Eagles inaccuracy during the term preventing an even bigger gap as they kicked 7.6 to take the gap out to 59 points by the half-time break. The South faithful that did make the trip to Woodville would probably be forgiven for abandoning ship by the end of the third term, their mob could only manage another lousy 1.1 while the Eagles kept up their romp with a further 5.3 to stretch the deficit out to 85 points at the final change. It would be the second 100-plus point mauling the Panthers would cop this season, alarm bells no doubt already sounding at Noarlunga as the Eagles kicked a further 5.7 to 1.2. The home side would finish with a massive 19-goal win, the resulting percentage added would lift them to third on the league ladder above North.