Matthew Panos wins Jack Oatey Medal

MATTHEW Panos worked from stoppage to stoppage willing his side forward in the final quarter of yesterday’s SANFL grand final epic like he’d been doing it all his life.

SANFL - Norwood v Sturt - Qualifying Final at Adelaide Oval. Matthew Panos. Photo Sarah Reed.

MATTHEW Panos worked from stoppage to stoppage willing his side forward in the final quarter of yesterday’s SANFL grand final epic like he’d been doing it all his life.

In reality, the 23-year-old was a key forward who failed to break into Norwood’s 2013 premiership team less than a year ago.

“It’s been a pretty amazing transition,’’ said Panos, who won the Jack Oatey Medal for best on ground in Norwood’s four point win over Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

A host of big bodied midfielders had left The Parade in the off-season and Redlegs coach Ben Warren and his assistant Scott Bassett devised the radical plan to convert Panos into a midfielder.

It paid off on a grand scale yesterday as the 191cm on-baller gather 28 possessions and 12 clearances in a match defining performance.

The winning Norwood team before the game.

“They told me in November and gave me a bit of time to get my head around the idea of running 14 or 15km in a game,’’ Panos said.

“I had a bit of an interrupted pre-season but I’ve loved the role. “Obviously it’s harder and you’ve got to be switched on around the stoppages but I’ve put in a lot of time with (assistant coach) James Gallagher and that’s given me a lot of confidence.” So good has Panos’ season been that the Redlegs may lose him to the AFL in coming weeks but yesterday he ensured he will for ever be a Norwood premiership player and a Jack Oatey Medallist.

“It’s unbelievable, I honestly can’t describe the emotion,’’ Panos said. “It’s been a lot of hard work for me personally after missing out last year and for the team.

“It is the most rewarding feeling and I’m just so proud of all the boys. We’ve worked so hard.

“We were 2-4 going into that Crows game and everyone wrote us off but we knew if we could get our game going we could do this.”