Australian Football

Match Report

At Hickinbotham Oval in Noarlunga for the match between two of the three top sides in the competition, the Panthers and the Double Blues. It was back in Round 8 that these sides last met, the Blues were in the middle of their undefeated run when they handed the Panthers their first defeat for 2016, an eight-goal victory at Unley. The Blues ultimately had their run ended a few weeks ago by Adelaide, then last week by the Eagles. The Panthers on the other hand took wins against Centrals and West coming into this game, which was to set the stage for a big finish to the home and away season in the fight for the minor premiership. The Blues came into this one with several big names on the sidelines and with the wind at their backs to begin with, the Panthers were going to take full advantage.

South started the afternoon with a 5.2 to 1.1 opening quarter to take a 25-point lead by the first change. The Blues scraped a single point off that deficit by the long break, that one big miss among their 3.2 to South's 3.1 allowed the home side to hold onto a four-goal lead at half-time. When play resumed, the Panthers kept the Blues on a short leash as they kept the visitors to just 1.4 whilst adding a further 4.1 to their score to stretch the gap out to 39 points going into the final quarter. The wealth of scoring was to be shared around this day, South having 10 individual goal kickers to Sturt's two, they went on to record a 57-point win after closing the game with a 4.2 to 2.4 last term.

Tom Fields was named best on ground for South, the Blues voted in Kory Beard as their best.