Woodville-West Torrens halt goal-leak problem to control South Adelaide

WOODVILLE-West Torrens improved its record to 7-1 at Noarlunga today — identical to this time last year — but coach Michael Godden is convinced the club is far better placed.

WOODVILLE-West Torrens improved its record to 7-1 at Noarlunga yesterday — identical to this time last year — but coach Michael Godden is convinced the club is far better placed.

The Eagles nosedived to a disappointing elimination final belting at the hands of the Panthers in 2014 but yesterday demonstrated how far they’d come when they controlled most of the contest against the same opponent.

Godden said year’s strong start masked issues at Oval Ave, the most pressing of which was its habit of leaking big scores. Today it kept an opponent goal-less for more than a half of football for the third week in succession and its back line is statistically better than Norwood’s renowned defence.

“We’re a better football team than last year,’’ Godden said. “I think we’re more mature. We can dictate to the opposition better and I think we can defend a lot better.

“Last year we got to 7-1 rolling the dice a bit more but this year we’re harder to play against.”

South Adelaide has now dropped three games on the trot and in many ways lost yesterday’s match in the first half of the opening quarter. The Panthers dominated early on, kicking with a strong breeze and had the first four shots of the match but couldn’t register a goal. The Eagles then went down the other end and kicked a goal through Lachlan McGregor and the Panthers played catch for the rest of the day.

The Eagles didn’t make the same mistake in the second term, banging through five majors to nil with the wind and suffocating the Panthers with their pressure.

Three of the goals came through turnovers and the Eagles pressure and ability to block South’s exits was impressive.

“Scoreboard pressure is just so important against good sides,’’ Panthers coach Brad Gotch said.

“We failed to put enough on and then through the second quarter we gave away three turnovers goals and part of that is because you’re trying to force something to happen through the corridor.”

South will be sweating on scans on the knee of forward Peter Rolfe with early fears he may have again ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament.