Round 12 Hostplus SANFL League Match Previews

The Panthers breathed new life into the SANFL season with their stunning success against a power-packed Port Adelaide line-up.

The Sunday Mail screamed ‘Wright stuff: One of South’s greatest wins’ and it was spot-on.

No wonder coach Jarrad Wright, who lifted South to successive preliminary finals in 2020-21, declared it was “one of the best wins I have been a part of in my eight years at the footy club”.

After eight losses in a row, the Panthers could have been feeling sorry for themselves.

But just two games earlier, in their previous home clash, they had given a pointer about where they could be heading by giving a strong Crows line-up the fright of their lives but somehow coming out of thriller with the L, beaten by one miserable point after surging out to a 38-point half-time lead.

This time, holding on to a slender one-point lead midway through the last quarter, no way were they letting it slip. Tom Wheaton hauled in a strong mark sandwiched between two Magpie defenders and coolly slotted the goal to settle some nerves and from then on, the frantic tackling, spoiling and allround desperation never allowed an easy ball for the Panthers’ highly-touted opponents.

South’s line-up featured 14 players with less than 25 games experience, with Tom Barrett and Tye McManus making their debuts – McManus had 13 touches and kicked a goal, while Barrett’s dashing run and clever kick inside 50 in time-on of the last quarter set up winning score, a behind to athletic Emmanuel Ajang.

How hard the young Panthers worked was reflected in the fact possessions were split 50-50 while South won the tackle count 57-45. Wright loved his side’s resilience.

“To come up against Port’s best side in terms of AFL-listed numbers … the way we went about it and stayed present in the moment for four quarters was terrific,” he said.

A Central District side back on the winners’ list and determined to strengthen its spot in the top five presents an immediate challenge for South to find game-to-game consistency, its next step as it heads onwards and upwards.

The Bulldogs booted 7.1 to nil either side of half-time against West at Elizabeth to kick away the winter blues after three straight losses.

Bustling Beau Thomas provided the spark, booting three goals, clunking powerful pack grabs and standing tall in ruck, while Maximus Monaghan had 20 touches and booted two goals in a breakthrough performance and Rhett Montgomerie led from the back with 13 relieving marks.

“It’s been a rough month for us with lots of changes – some precedented, some unprecedented,” coach Paul Thomas said.

“It was good to have a break, reset, iron out some things and revisit what we’re good at.”

The Dogs will need that down at Noarlunga.

Sturt’s winning run had been the talk of the town in the build-up to a testing clash against Woodville-West Torrens, which had been the most recent opponent to leave Unley with a W – in Round 5 last year.

Could the Blues make it 24 consecutive minor round wins to equal Port Adelaide’s long-standing SANFL record, set in 1913-15? The Unley Oval scoreboard at quarter-time already had the answer: Sturt 10.6, Eagles 0.1.

Talk about an emphatic response. The Blues won by 124 points – do you mind? – in about as big a statement of intent as you could muster, on 11-0 and three wins and percentage clear of the pack.

The Blues showed just how dangerous their upgraded attacking style can be, Connor McFadyen getting on the end of it with seven goals from seven kicks.

Coach Martin Mattner said, “the mentality of the group is that they just want to keep getting better”.

The Roosters will head to Unley determined to throw themselves into it after a setback in an 84-point loss at the hands of Adelaide.

Harrison Wigg (33 disposals and 11 clearances), Angus Schumacher and Cody Raak stood up against the odds but they will need plenty of support if North is to stop the Blues’ charge.

There were a few ultra-impressive SANFL wins last week – and the Tigers’ was one of those.

You might not have thought the second-placed back-to-back premiers tackling the eighth-ranked side would be a tough challenge but you bet it was. Norwood at The Parade is a test at any time but Jade Sheedy’s men aren’t playing anything like a side that’s eighth after their slow, injury-hit start to the season.

The Bays lost key defenders, premiership player Oscar Adams and giant teenager Harry Ramm in the AFL mid-season draft and, as if they wouldn’t be stretched enough down back, 200-gamer Max Proud missed through a back injury, while dual premiership defender Brad McCarthy is sidelined with a knee injury.

Also without injured star midfielder Corey Lyons, Glenelg was trailing by a goal in time-on of the third quarter – after having been pipped at the post by Sturt the previous week.

But the Bays bunkered down and found a way, kicking four of the last five goals to win by 16 points and strengthen their place in the top three, leading to coach Darren Reeves describing it as “the best minor round win I’ve been a part of since I’ve been at the footy club”.

It’s a fair hint from his men just how hard they’re chasing a historic premiership hat-trick. Stand-in West Adelaide coach Sam Elliott knows all about the problems injuries can cause – the Bloods have the longest injury list in the league with 18 – that’s a starting line-up.

But we love that there are no excuses made and Elliott’s men continue to throw themselves into it.

They were unlucky not to snatch a win against North, while against Central they pushed the fast brand of footy they’re aiming for with two goals in two minutes to take the lead in the second quarter – but they paid the penalty with turnovers contributing to a run of Dogs goals that took the game away.

With perseverance, the rewards will come – sometimes out of the blue. Just ask South supporters.

It’s always a bit of a surprise when Port and Norwood go at it from outside the top five.

But that only makes this clash of old enemies all the more crucial.

Port (4-6, sixth) and Norwood (3-8, eighth) will feel they are better than that and will have been hugely disappointed wins slipped away last week.

The Magpies were gunning for four in a row only to fall seven points short against South, while the Legs have been so near, yet so far, thumping West and South in the past month but coming up short in the dying moments against the top sides Sturt and Glenelg.

Being “gallant” is tough for a coach because it means you’ve missed out but Jade Sheedy was right in saying that’s what Norwood was against the Tigers. Sheedy and Port coach Hamish Hartlett won’t want “gallant” this week.

They will want the W. And that’s what makes this match-up between famous old rivals all the more mouthwatering.

The Eagles need to be looking forward, not back, after a game to forget.

There’s no question the team that had won six out of 10 before the trip to Unley and is still comfortably in the top five earned those wins and that position for good reason, so that’s why we’re expecting a positive response in another tough match-up against 8-2 Adelaide.

And there’s no question it will be tough.

The Crows’ 10-goals-to-none third-quarter barrage in a 74-point thumping of North Adelaide showed their extreme firepower and sent a warning to any opponent, with Chris Burgess, who bagged seven goals, almost unstoppable right now.

With 33 for the season he is within three goals of Ken Farmer Medal leader Lachie Hosie.

But coach Matthew Wright loved most that it was “a real team effort – everyone played their role for us”.

Eagles coach Sam Jacobs – a Crows great – will know his men need to be on right from the start this week.