Australian Football

Match Report

Saturday afternoon football will first take us to the northern suburbs along with the Seven Sports crew to the Playford Alive Oval in Elizabeth where the Bulldogs faced the Panthers. For 16 matches straight, the Bulldogs have dominated the Panthers. Even more staggering, in 15 years of games between these two at the Dog-pound, the Bulldogs have not dropped a match to Souths. That was then, this is now. A hungry Panther outfit has emerged and all of a sudden, a game that would seem like a dead rubber to many would take on a whole new meaning. While Souths are up top, the Dogs are lower on the ladder.

The Bulldogs were jumped early, the Panthers taking three goals before they could get one. Although the Dogs did catch up to them, their 3.5 to South's four goals would see them down by a point at quarter-time in a wasteful opening stanza. Centrals found their goal-kicking boots in the second quarter, keeping the Panthers to just 1.2 while they scored 5.2 for themselves to take a 23-point lead at the half-time break. But South weren't letting the chance to end this long standing hoodoo slip. While the Panthers lifted their efforts, the Bulldogs made mince meat of theirs. A couple of comical errors in front of goal cost them maximum scoreboard impact as they managed just 1.2 when they should have had at least two more goals on top of that. The Panthers were inaccurate, but their 3.6 drew the gap back to seven points at three quarter-time. That poor third quarter would haunt the Bulldogs eventually, the Panthers 4.4 - two of them in the dying stages - to the home side's 2.1 would see the visitors triumph by eight points. Keegan Brooksby was named best for South, while Centrals would name Luke Habel as their standout.