SANFL 2006 ROUND 23:
GLENELG v SOUTH ADELAIDE
Welcome back to the finals
By DALE CLARKE
THE grand old blue and white flags waved proudly, the Panthers walked
off Adelaide Oval with their heads high, and the club song was sung loud in a
packed Panther change room.
The Panthers punished Glenelg with brilliant teamwork and running on
the open Adelaide Oval canvas.
The comfortable win left a warning message to the four other
finals-bound teams: with all finals except the Grand Final played on Adelaide
Oval, the Panthers are dangerous.
And they will regain leading goal kicker Ben Warren, who had a sore
knee after Thursday training. South coach Robert Pyman
had no doubt his team would feel at home playing finals at Adelaide Oval.
It's a nice long oval and it suits running teams, he said. The next
thing is to not just hang on to that but to look to next week and play a final
and win a final.
Woodville-West Torrens recruit Dale Ellis played his best game of the
year, nailing eight goals, joining Warren, Damian Cupido,
Alwyn Davey and Denis Iljcesen as potential game breakers on the scoreboard.
Glenelg looked almost pencilled in for finals in the second quarter on
Saturday, when it led by 18 points, with all the momentum coloured yellow and
black.
The Panthers' tackling pressure in the third quarter was where the game
swung towards South.
Led by Davey and David Clarke, South left the
Tigers with no luxury of space, winning at least three holding-the-ball free
kicks in that quarter.
Full credit must go to this group here at the moment
who have achieved something that no other team has been able to
achieve, said Pyman, the first coach since John Reid
to take South to the finals.
SCORES: South Adelaide 4.5 9.6 17.11 24.13
(137) defeated Glenelg 3.2 10.5 11.7 16.12 (108).
BEST: South Ellis, Archard, Davey, Clarke, Thewlis,
Smith, Sampson, McGlone, Parry; Glenelg Sundqvist, Gibbs, Graham,
Sherwood, Mitchell, Moore.
GOALS: South Ellis 8, Archard 3, Davey, Cupido, Wright 2, Thewlis, Iljcesen,
Kenna, Smith, Clarke, Kruger, Carlile;
Glenelg Sundqvist
6, McConnell, Duldig 3, Gibbs, Kirk, Cranston,
Graham.