South Adelaide has its best start to season since 1965, but coach Brad Gotch says ‘there’s a lot of work to be done’

HE’S guided South Adelaide to its first 4-0 start since 1965 but Brad Gotch is having no problem keeping a lid on things down at Pantherland.

HE’S guided South Adelaide to its first 4-0 start since 1965 but Brad Gotch is having no problem keeping a lid on things down at Pantherland.

“It’s pretty easy - we haven’t had much success,” Gotch said.

“It’s too early in the season to be popping the champagne corks just yet. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

Still, when looking at the early results of Gotch’s first year in charge it’s hard for South fans not to get excited.

In the first month of the SANFL season the Panthers have knocked off West Adelaide, which had won 10 of the past 11 games between the two sides, North Adelaide, which had won seven of eight against South at Prospect, and the granddaddy of them all — Central District at Elizabeth.

The Bulldogs had won their past 18 games against South and their past 16 at the Ponderosa - a streak which dated back to 1999.

It’s heady stuff for a club that has been a perennial underachiever for most of the past 50 years.

Gotch, who was brought in after Ron Fuller managed just one finals appearance in four seasons, says he took over a playing group that was desperate for success.

“They were just craving for something to happen,” Gotch said.

“They’re very driven now because they’ve tasted the hard times.”

But there was plenty of work to do when Gotch arrived after two seasons as an assistant at Port Adelaide.

The first thing he wanted to address was the culture within the playing ranks.

So he brought in consultancy group Leading Teams - led by Daniel Healy - and was shocked by the way his players viewed themselves.

“The first part of that is you cleanse your soul. Some of the things they were cleansing I was just staggered,” Gotch said.

“I don’t want to publicise those things but it was quite amazing what they thought of themselves and how the competition thought of them.

“Now they want to be perceived in a certain manner and that’s what’s driving them at the moment.

“They’ve certainly pulled back a lot on certain things that were hindering them from being good footballers.”

Gotch had watched South many times in the past four years because his son, Xavier, plays at the club.

Fuller had fashioned the team into an accountable, hard unit which was good at winning contested ball and clearances.

But Gotch identified fitness, skill level and team defensive strategies were in major need of improvement.

“They didn’t have much idea really - they’ve been used to just playing on their man,” Gotch said.

“There was one training in late November when I heard them as they were walking off saying ‘wow, we’ve never been taught that sort of thing, that’s how it works’.”

South has the opportunity to build on its strong start at home against the Eagles this Sunday and Gotch is hoping long-suffering Panther supporters will turn out in force.

“I’m definitely seeing an excitement,” Gotch said.

“Hopefully we can build on that and get more people behind us because the southern region isn’t behind us like it could be.

“We’ve been down here 20 years and we haven’t developed the cult following you’d expect.”