Round 5 Hostplus SANFL League Match Previews

It was a time of transition and, rightly, new coach Matthew Clarke wasn’t making any grand promises when he previewed the season with Andrew Capel.

“I’d be lying if I said I had a clear picture of how quickly we can be competitive but clearly my aim is to get the team playing a really competitive, hopefully exciting, brand of footy as quickly as possible. Then we’ll see where we stack up in the comp,” he said in The Advertiser Season Preview of a club that had made the previous three premiership deciders, winning two.

“It might take a little while … but we will be trying to be competitive very quickly.”

Wow, very quickly is exactly right. And the Bays have been more than competitive, their 4-0 record emphasising that. And playing an exciting brand of footy.

And they’re stacking up really well, thank you very much. They were ultra impressive in their win against last year’s conqueror Sturt in the Anzac Day grand final rematch and looked better than the 17-point winning margin indicated.

Without Jarryd Lyons, Cole Gerloff, James Bell, Will Chandler, Riley Holder, Luke Reynolds and Brad McCarthy – while Connor McLeod, Nick Stevens and Cooper Beecken were in the reserves – from last year’s grand final side, the new combination, boosted by the return from an injury-hit 2025 season by dashing defender Patrick Parnell, applied huge pressure across the ground.

The Tigers also moved the ball with dash and precision, often ending up with Lachie Hosie who, as usual, stepped up in a pressure game, booting six goals to win back-to-back Bob Quinn Medals. Clarke will know it’s still only a start. But what a start!

We weren’t sure about the Panthers’ start to the season – until the second quarter down at Noarlunga on Sunday.

After trailing by 20 points during a patchy first term, they made a statement they are in the battle for a finals spot with some impressive pace and run and clean ball movement as they banged on seven of the next eight goals to lead by 13 at half-time.

And when the Dogs bounced back to regain the lead in the third quarter the pacy Panthers rammed on four goals in eight minutes to end the quarter, then booted the first two of the last to ensure a crucial win that leaves them with a 2-2 record, the same as third-placed Sturt.

Ollie Davis is a gun in the midfield, where Arlo Draper also impressed, while Harley Sparks, recruited from West Coast WAFL, led the way from the back.

And South had 14 more inside-50s, 12 goalscorers and booted a deadly 19.5. Having won the Mayors’ Cup against the Dogs, South will now be targeting the Carey-Darley Cup the Bays have won for the past five years in succession.

But the Panthers have claimed the Cup 18 times in all to Glenelg’s 15, with one draw.

The Crows have had the upperhand in Showdowns over the past three seasons, the AFL side winning five of the past six – to edge ahead 30-28 all up – and the SANFL team going one better with six from six, to lead 13-10 overall.

While the upturn in the Power’s form in the past fortnight and Adelaide’s disappointing trip to Brisbane have made the AFL game look much more of a toss-up, you might think the SANFL contest would have the Crows as odds-on having won their past two and being fifth, while Port is winless on the bottom.

But it doesn’t work like that in these big contests and the Magpies have been making ground.

They led for much of the game before being pipped by Norwood at The Parade by seven points, midfielder Will Lorenz racking up a stunning 39 possessions. He leads the way in the SANFL this season, averaging 32.

The Redlegs are back at 2-2 – along with half the comp – so, after back-to-back wins, it’s business as usual.

And Nik Rokahr, a proven votewinner, is surely getting down to his usual business of picking up Magarey Medal votes, as he added 33 touches against Port Adelaide to the 34 he had racked up against South in Round 3.

Norwood’s fierce-tackling, high-pressure game makes it hard for the opposition to score, its defence statistically the stingiest in the league, conceding just 59 points per game, but Legs fans would prefer it if their side’s attack could ramp it up a bit, just the ninth-highest scoring side in the league, kicking 63 points a game.

Night clashes also keep scores down and games closer and the Legs have been in three nailbiters in four games – losing to Sturt by five points and Glenelg by seven, while beating Port by seven.

The Bulldogs have been in games for long stretches but only have a draw against West to show for it, with losses against North by five points and Adelaide by nine putting their fans through plenty of stress as well.

They started strongly against South with five of the first seven goals and were right in it until late in the third quarter but a 34-point loss was hard to swallow.

Tall Tallan Rosenzweig gave a glimpse of what he has to offer in booting three goals. The Dogs have produced plenty of talent in the past few years but it has  a knack of being too good – and heading to the AFL.

While back-to-back losses were something Blues fans hadn’t had to endure for quite a while, the reigning premiers still have a couple of long-standing winning runs they will put on the line against the Bloods.

Sturt has won its past 20 games in succession against West, not having been beaten by the Bloods since their 2015 premiership season.

And the Blues have also won their past 15 away games in succession, not having lost at another club’s ground since Round 3, 2024 against North at Prospect.

Their record under Martin Mattner has simply been spectacular and even though they have lost to the Eagles and Glenelg in the past two rounds, they were a chance to win both late.

It’s not that surprising the Blues haven’t been having it all their own way with 11 players from last year’s grand final – skipper and Magarey Medallist Tom Lewis, dual best-and-fairest Casey Voss, Alex Holt, Daniel Fahey-Sparks injured and Tom Emmett suspended, Jack Oatey Medallist Angus Anderson and Flynn Perez recruited to the AFL, and Henry Carey, Luke Giacometti, Connor McFadyen and James Mathews having either retired or left – missing against the Bays.

Clearly there’s work to be done after last season was almost too good to be true, coach Martin Mattner saying “it’s about getting the mix of the team right”, looking for consistent four-quarter performances – and probably the chance to consistently pick his best team.

Westies slipped off the pace for the first time this season in a 41-point loss to the ladder-leading Eagles but they will feel now is as good a chance as ever to break their hoodoo against the reigning premier.

The equal-top clearance-winning team in the league with Glenelg – averaging 37 – the Bloods’ midfield is stepping up as one of the best going around, led by dynamic Kobe Ryan – who racked up 19 handballs, 10 clearances and 11 tackles against the Eagles to show how hard he was at the coalface – and powerhouse ruck Caleb May, who won 40 hit-outs last week.

His battle with the No. 1 knock ruckman in the comp, burly Amos Doyle, who is averaging 39 per game, will be a ripper that will set the tempo for the game.

The Eags are rolling along super impressively, four-from-four and the highest-scoring team in the league, averaging a tick under 100 points per game with five players in the top-10 leading goalkickers.

They are playing exciting footy emanating from a classy, experienced midfield that supplies plenty of opportunities for an impressive mix of talls and smalls up forward.

North will be wanting to be in it from the start after conceding eight of the first nine goals in a 13-point loss to Adelaide. Oli Francou (groin) was missed but Angus Schumacher stepped up even more with 33 possessions and 11 clearances.