MRS Property Reserves Match Report Round 10: South vs Centrals

MRS Property Reserves Match Report

South Adelaide vs Centrals
Round 10 - Flinders University Stadium - 29/08/20

Goals: McCreery, Whittlesea 3, Bogle 2, Machin
Best: Whittlesea, McCreery, Bogle, Kappler
Injuries: Hoffman - Ribs, Elmes - Thumb, Sawford - Hamstring

South Adelaide Reserves suffer a hard-fought 36-point loss against the ladder-leading Bulldogs at Flinders University on Saturday.

Coming into the game as the underdog, the Panthers managed to match it with the top placed Bulldogs up until halftime but the Dogs efficiency with the wind prove to be the deciding factor in the 9.4 (58) to 13.16 (94) loss.

Despite starting the match with the strong wind advantage, it was the Bulldogs who kicked the first goal of the match - however the Panthers first of the match, which came just minutes later, was kicked with much more style thanks to a clever dribble from the pocket by Jake McCreery.

This early shootout would continue as the Bulldogs replied almost instantly with a goal of their own to which the eventual Best on Ground, Tom Whittlesea responded to with a goal from close range.

Whittlesea would follow up minutes later with a goal from a very difficult angle to extend the Panthers lead to double digits. Then the twentieth minute saw McCreery continue his push for the goal of the day, this time with a snap from the opposite pocket.

Playing in his first reserve match was the Panther pathway product, Phoenix Spicer who showed his class by taking on and beating two defenders before hitting up Daniel Sladojevic who was playing his first match of 2020 but Sladojevic's kick just struck the post.

A gusty mark by Mark Noble then made sure that the Bulldogs could not strike back with a late goal and the Panthers headed into the first break with a slight 4.2 (26) to 3.0 (18) lead.

However, the second term would see the Panthers have to defend against the strong breeze and despite some valiant play by Luke Bogle and Jaidan Kappler, the Panthers couldn't hold out against repeated Dogs attacks and went into halftime trailing 5.4 (34) to 7.5 (47).

With limited rotations, the Panthers struggled to hold off the Bulldogs, even despite enjoying the wind advantage during the third term, and the Panthers would go onto concede six second half goals while booting four of their own one of which was another goal of day attempt by McCreery. 

South Adelaide now face Sturt at Peter Motley Oval on Saturday September 5, from 11:30am.

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