Australian Football

Match Report

It's off to the Hickinbotham Oval in Noarlunga for the contest between the Panthers and the Double Blues. The Blues have had the Panthers on a horror streak, 513 points is the combined total the last six encounters have seen South lose by with the worst coming at Unley last year. This would have been considered the biggest mismatch of the season, but the Panthers first half would say otherwise. 

They began proceedings by kicking three goals to Sturt's badly inaccurate eight behinds to be up by 10 points at quarter-time. The Blues finally found the long sticks in the second term and kicked four goals, but South added 5.3 to their score to take a 19 point lead at the half-time break. Unfortunately for South, their inability to string together four quarters of football would again bite them in the backside as they allowed Sturt back into the contest. When play resumed the Blues rammed home 9.3 to 3.1 to take a 13 point lead at three quarter-time. That was the only quarter that the Blues had won overall, but despite the Panthers keeping the visitors to just 1.5 and kicking 3.4 for themselves the South faithful would again emerge disappointed as Sturt took an eight-point victory. 

Michael Coad was named best for Sturt, while James Boyd was voted best afield for South.