South Adelaide beat Central District in SANFL to stay alive in race for finals
South Adelaide needed a win against Central District to keep their finals hopes alive and they reigned supreme after a strong opening half.
South Adelaide is still alive in the race for a finals berth after conquering Central District by 30 points at Elizabeth Oval on Saturday.
The victory lifted the Panthers within a win of fifth-placed Norwood, although the Redlegs won’t play their round 16 contest against Sturt in the split round until next weekend.
The Panthers, coming off four successive losses, built the platform for the win with a dominant first half when they claimed a commanding 41-point lead.
“We knew they would lift their energy after half-time,” Panthers coach Jarrad Wright said. “It is not too often you come to Elizabeth and get an easy four-quarter win.
“The way the boys fought back in the last quarter was promising.”
The heat was on early as both sides attacked the contest with a willingness to get the hands dirty.
Bulldogs’ defender Luke Habel nailed the first goal seven minutes into the contest, but the Panthers responded immediately after terrific work from onballer Abe Davis.
After taking the ball from the ruck, Davis handballed inside to Ben Heaslip, who snapped truly.
As the first quarter lengthened so too did the dominance of the visitors. Their tackling and pressure was outstanding and they constantly denied the Bulldogs the chance to break free.
In contrast, the Panthers were more composed and hungry for possession to dominate the clearances and inside 50 count.
They pounced on any Bulldogs’ turnover, and there were plenty, to create scoring opportunities with brilliant movement as players ran to space to be an option for a teammate.
Such was the ease of some Panthers’ movement, they looked as if they were doing training drills at times and they were far more disciplined then the opposition. Duel Magarey Medallist Joel Cross and Nick Liddle were active, while Joe Haines continued his impressive work in defence.
The Bulldogs refused to pick up players and that allowed the Panthers to get free movement of the ball. And even when the Panthers did make a skill error, their superior workrate enabled them to regain possession.
After leading by 23 points at quarter-time, the Panthers bagged three goals in the second term and restricted the home side to just two behinds.
Whatever Bulldogs coach Roy Laird said to his players at half-time had the desired impact with the home side finally turning up to play.
There was far more intensity and desire for the defensive actions from the Bulldogs and they worried the Panthers with their lift in passion for the battle.
Travis and Jarrod Schiller were busy for the Bulldogs, who got their hands to more ball at the stoppages.
The Bulldogs nailed the first five goals for the third quarter and it took the Panthers 24 minutes to kick a goal when Liam Fitt was accurate with his set shot.
While the Bulldogs kept persisting in the final quarter, the damage had been done and the Panthers held firm to get the much needed win.
“We were insipid early and gave them too much space,” Bulldogs coach Roy Laird said. “And their good players then hurt us.
“We got ourselves back in it by playing a more competitive gam and created opportunities. We have to learn to play like that longer.”
SCOREBOARD
SOUTH ADELAIDE 5.2 8.3 9.8 11.13 (79)
CENTRAL DISTRICT 1.2 1.4 6.5 7.7 (49)
BEST - South: Cross, Liddle, Davis, Haines, Karpany, Brown. Central: Patterson, J. Schiller, T. Schiller, Llewellyn, Menzel.
GOALS - South: Overall, Davis, Fitt, Whittlesea 2, Liddle, Cross, Heaslip. Central: Menzel, Fort, Hoskin, Marsh, Habel, T. Schiller, Durdin.
UMPIRES - Sobieraj, Sboro, Lewis.
CROWD - 1545 at X Convenience Oval, Elizabeth.