Under-18 Match Report Round 5: South @ West

Under-18 Match Report

South Adelaide @ West Adelaide
Round 5 - Hisense Stadium - 25/07/20

Goals: Horne 3, Cook, Verrall 2, Barrett, Hoeck, Rogers, Spicer, Diack
Best: Horne, Spacie, Cook, Clifton, Verrall, Little. 

The South Adelaide Under-18s bounce back in spectacular fashion as they defeated West Adelaide by 46 points at Hisense Stadium on Saturday.

Following a narrow loss the previous round, the Panthers were adamant not to let another game slip away in the dying stages and this time they looked in control for most of the match and led at every break as they worked towards a convincing 12.16 (88) to 5.12 (42) win.

Jason Horne was outstanding in the blue and white as he collected a team-high of 31 disposals and also managed to boot a game-high of three goals.

Fittingly, it was also Horne who kicked the first goal of the match to hand the Panthers an early lead after just a minute of play.

The Bloods would not reply with a goal of their own until the twenty-first minute mark of the first term, to which Will Verrall would reply to for the Panthers just a minute later.

However, a very late West Adelaide goal would cut the Panthers lead to within a kick at the first break, with the scoreboard reading 3.2 (20) to 2.3 (15) at quarter time.

Despite having an early lead, it would take the Panthers sometime before registering their first major of the second term, in fact both sides combined for just six behinds within the first ten minutes of the second quarter.

But after Brayden Cook kicked his second goal of the match, the momentum swinged into the Panthers favour as the side combined for four unanswered goals midway through the second term.

Once again, the last goal of the quarter came via West Adelaide, but thanks to the Panthers late dominance they held a strong 7.7 (49) to 3.6 (24) lead at the main break.

South Adelaide would continue with this momentum after halftime, as Verrall managed to boot his second goal of the match after just a minute into the third quarter.

It would not be until ten minutes later however that the Panthers would register another major, as Horne followed up with his second goal of the game.

But continuing their run of late goals, West Adelaide would once again boot the final goal of the quarter but at that stage South Adelaide were enjoying a 9.12 (66) to 4.9 (33) lead.

The final quarter would see the Panthers run away with the win, and fittingly it was Horne that would kick the final goal of the match to hand South Adelaide the 12.16 (88) to 5.12 (42) win.

The fourth-placed Panthers now face North Adelaide in the annual Sammy D Medal match at Flinders University Stadium on Saturday August 1, from 11:00am.

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