West Adelaide has continued its giant-killing run, this time upsetting South Adelaide.
THE upsets keep coming for West Adelaide, as it put a dent in the finals aspirations of South Adelaide on Saturday.
WEST Adelaide continued to cause destruction to clubs chasing finals spots when it conquered South Adelaide by 26 points in Noarlunga on Saturday.
The Bloods have made life extremely precarious for the Panthers, who are a game plus percentage behind fifth-placed Glenelg. The Panthers have just four games remaining while the Tigers have five.
The victory is the fourth for the Bloods from the past five rounds and their victims have included Adelaide, also a game behind the Tigers, and fourth-placed Norwood.
Despite losing their first nine games for the season, the players kept faith with coach Mark Mickan’s message and he said they were reaping the rewards for their commitment and passion.
“There is good belief and they played with good discipline, played for each other and that makes a difference,” Mickan said. “Credit to the players, the leadership and determination and spirit to just keep going and believe in what we were trying to do was not far away from reaping the rewards.”
The Bloods had the strong wind at their backs for the opening quarter and took advantage to build a commanding 37-point buffer at quarter-time. It was 43 before Tyson Brown nailed a late goal for the Panthers.
The visitors capitalised on quality ball from the centre and bombed it in long to put the Panthers defence under the pump. And the Panthers’ defence did not handle the pressure well.
The Bloods had 19 visits inside their attacking 50 for the first term compared to four, ample evidence of their domination.
It was a quarter of action Panthers coach Garry Hocking lamented as being decisive in the outcome.
“They had 13 scoring shots and it was a four-goal breeze at best, we did not defend well enough,” Hocking said. “It was not a 13 scoring-shot breeze.
“For me it was only the first quarter. The boys play with effort, they are having a crack.
“I’ve still got complete confidence in the group and we are still in touch with the top five.”
When the Panthers failed to ram home the wind advantage in the second term, grabbing the crucial premiership points was always going to be a big ask.
The Bloods’ pressure was terrific, onballer Kaine Stevens continued his fine work, Josh Schiller had an impact and Aaron Fielke set the tone with attack on the contest.
The Bloods defenders stayed composed, but too often the Panthers secured possession only to lack targets deep in attack.