The Eagles are flying again with impressive win over South Adelaide

Woodville-West Torrens proved with an impressive 42-point victory over South Adelaide that it is back to its best after a slower than expected start to the season.

The real Woodville-West Torrens has finally put its hand up as a title contender after accounting for South Adelaide by 42 points at Woodville Oval yesterday.

A bewildering five-game losing streak has been put in the rearview mirror following victories over then top-placed Norwood and now the Panthers, who went into the contest in third position.

“We have been going in the right direction for the past five weeks,” Eagles coach Sam Lonergan said. “In terms of public perception, the results we want to see are now going in the right direction.

“But in terms of our internal stuff and the way the guys are adapting doesn’t just happen in a week, that has been the past five or six weeks of training. Now we are starting to see it unfold.

“In terms of the direction the group were going, we have not deviated. We have been going the same direction, the same message we were doing in pre-season.

“We are seeing it unfold under immense pressure, and that is not what we were capable of doing earlier in the season.”

South Adelaide’s Liam Fitt is tackled by Louis Sharrad and Joe Sinor of the Eagles. Picture: AAP Image/Keryn Stevens

The game was seemingly in a holding pattern for the opening quarter with neither able to assert itself on the contest with authority.

Gun Panthers onballer Nick Liddle nailed a goal just a minute into the game, but it would take another 21 minutes for another major to be registered.

While the Eagles had more entries inside their attacking 50 despite kicking against the wind, they just could not finish in front of goal and prime scoring chances went begging.

However, the Eagles, who lost Jimmy Toumpas to injury in the first quarter, made amends in the second term when they bagged three unanswered goals in six minutes to secure the momentum.

Not they didn’t make some of the work more difficult than need be. Jesse Lonergan, who was having a huge influence, dropped a simple mark in the goal square, but had enough time to retrieve the ball and dribble it through for a goal.

The Panthers were getting plenty of opportunities to fire the ball deep into attack, only to let themselves down with poor delivery and allow the Eagles’ defenders to constantly defuse raids with strong marking.

It took the Panthers 15 minutes of the second term to add to the scoreboard, debutant Luke Bogle bagging his first league goal.

Sebastian Guilhaus of the Eagles hunts the football on Saturday. Picture: (AAP Image/Keryn Stevens

When Liam Pitt nailed a goal a minute into the third term, his Panthers had regained the lead to ask some questions of the Eagles.

And the Eagles had the answers in bucket loads, turning up the intensity to take control with five unanswered goals on the back of terrific pressure and an increase supply from the stoppages courtesy of ruckman Jarrad Redden.

As the game lengthened so too did the impact of classy Eagles midfielder Jordan Foote.

The Panthers lacked the composure in the heat, coughing up turnovers with clumsy skills and poor decision making.

SCOREBOARD

EAGLES 0.4 4.6 9.9 12.15 (87)

SOUTH ADELAIDE 2.4 4.5 5.8 6.9 (45)

BEST — Eagles: Foote, Redden, Petrenko, Goldsworthy, Lonergan, N. Hayes.

South: Cross, Heaslip, Overall, Liddle, Haines.

GOALS — Eagles: N. Hayes, Rowe 2, Lonergan, Johansen, J. Hayes, J. Gaffney, Sharrad, Goldsworthy, Guilhaus, Redden.

South: Fitt 2, Bogle, Karpany, Liddle, Overall

INJURIES — Eagles: Toumpas (hamstring).

UMPIRES — Scott, Hundertmark, Lewis.

CROWD — 1575 at Maughan Thiem Kia Oval, Woodville.