Daily Grind Women's Match Report: Round 9 vs Norwood

Daily Grind Women's Match Report

South Adelaide @ Norwood
Round 9 - Coopers Stadium - 1/05/2021

Goals: Buchanan, Charlton, Flanagan-Sjoberg, Hickey
Best: Charlton, Whiteley, Buethke, Hickey, Campbell, Smith

South Adelaide keeps their finals dream alive with a one goal win over the ladder leading Redlegs at Coopers Stadium on Saturday.

Needing to win to stay in finals contention, the Panthers managed to end Norwood's seven game winning streak with a hard-fought 4.3 (27) to 2.9 (21) victory.

Returning to the Panthers from AFLW duties, Teah Charlton led the way for the blue and white with 29 disposals and 6 clearances. Meanwhile, Panther debutant Jordann Hickey celebrated her first game with 9 touches and a goal.

With plenty on the line, the reinforced Panthers outfit struggled to get much momentum during the opening term as the ball spent majority of the quarter in Norwood's forward half. In total, the ball stayed inside the Redleg's forward half for the opening six minutes, but they would only amass four behinds for the term.

The Panthers, who had limited looks up forward, managed to strike with a behind of their ownand as they came storming into their forward 50 looking for the first goal of the match, they were beaten by the siren.

Trailing by three points at the first change, the second term was Panthers turn to attackand after several close calls, Charlton was able to shrug a would-be tackler and kick truly on the run for the first major of the match.

Just two minutes later, the Panthers were able to force another turnover up forward, and this time Sophia Flanagan-Sjoberg was able to collect it and goal from deep in the pocket.

With the first two majors of the match coming in style, the Panthers entered the main break with a promising 2.2 (14) to 0.4 (4) lead. 

Despite holding the lead, the Panthers were trailing the inside 50 count, 13 to 15. But Jaslynne Smith, Lisa Whiteley and Gypsy Schirmer helped minimise the damage throughout the day as the three combined for 11 rebound 50s. 

South Adelaide continued where they had left off during the third term, with Nicole Campbell hitting up Hickeywhose strong mark allowed her to go back and drill her first goal in the blue and white.

Norwood would not respond with their first goal of the day until the eleventh minute mark of the third term, but despite being their first goal after 45 minutes of play, it cut the lead to just eight points.

Taking a 3.2 (20) to 1.7 (13) lead into the final break, the Panthers still had some work to do in order to shut out the top placed Redlegs.

After a tense opening few minutes, the Panthers managed to chip the ball through Norwood's numbers and they finished the play perfectly by hitting up Lauren Buchannan who was dead in front of goal.

Buchannan's goal, much like hers during Round Seven, proved to be the game-winner; but that didn't stop Norwood from threatening to fight back.

Norwood responded with a goal of their own just three minutes later, cutting the Panthers' lead back to seven points.

The home side then continued to pepper the goals, and just as they seemed to have kicked the goal to bring the scores levelSmith dived across just in time to touch the ball, inches from the line.

After some relentless defending, the Panthers were able to finally rebound the ball out of danger and score a much needed behind with just a minute left to play.

The following sixty seconds were extremely tense, but with Norwood breaking the anti-density rule it allowed the Panthers to regain possession which they held long enough to safely see out the 4.3 (27) to 2.9 (21) win.

Mirroring the 2019 season when the Panthers brought Norwood's eight game winning streak to an end, this win saw the Panthers bring to an end their seven-game unbeaten streak.

South Adelaide will now look to continue this winning form when they face off against Sturt at Prospect Oval on Saturday, 8 May, from 10:30am.

Show the Girls that your are #SouthProud in 2021!