South Adelaide Reserves vs Glenelg Reserves
Round 14 - Flinders University Stadium - 09/07/2022

Goals: Freitag 5, Bradley 2, Spacie
Best: Freitag, Collins, Duncan, Clifton, Turner

The fast-starting South Adelaide Reserves fell 2 points short of Glenelg during a see-sawing clash at Flinders University Stadium on Saturday.

Coming off back-to-back wins, the Panthers looked lively early as they booted the first 3 goals of the game. However, the side conceded the next 7 goals before fighting back and ultimately falling agonisingly short, 8.9 (57) to 9.5 (59).

Spearheading the Panthers' attack was Damon Freitag. Looking unstoppable up forward, Dimma finished with 9 marks and 5 straight goals.

Also impressive for South Adelaide were Jacob Collins, 21 disposals and 12 tackles; Charlie Duncan, 19 disposals and 6 marks; and Fraser Turner, 31 disposals and 7 marks.

Facing off against the Tigers for the fourth time this season, the Panthers looked to level the series 2-2. And it started to plan, with Angus Bradley registering the first goal of the day within the opening 20 seconds.

The Panthers continued to hunt – with the side putting tremendous pressure on the footy. Then back-to-back goals by Freitag within 6 minutes opened up a 20-point lead for South.

But this lead wouldn’t last long as the side’s pressure slipped and, as a result, the Tigers kicked 3 unanswered goals to close the opening term.

The Tigers would go on to kick a further 4 unanswered goals during the second term. To make matters worse, Rhys Mutch and Brian Gill both went off injured. Leaving the side 2 rotations down for the remainder of the match.

However, even with things turning sour. The boys kept fighting. Jake Cresswell took an eye-catching mark at halfback to help prevent a late Tigers goal. His efforts helped keep the halftime deficit at a more manageable 21 points.

Freitag, thanks to a holding the ball tackle by Darnell Tucker, finally broke through midway through the third term with South’s first major score in over a quarter of play. He then struck again, this time with an assist by Collins, to cut the deficit to 10 points.

But the side couldn’t cut it down any further as the visitors once again finished the quarter strong with 2 unanswered goals. Leaving plenty of work to be done by the Panthers in the final term. 

Things started well, with Freitag booting his fifth of the match a minute. Harry Spacie followed up minutes later with his first – then Bradley struck with his second to cut the deficit to 3 points.

What followed was several tense minutes where the Panthers, who despite having the ball within their forward arc, just couldn’t get a clean possession or enough time to kick the winner. After several stoppages in front of the goal, the team was beaten by the siren and by the Tigers, 8.9 (57) to 9.5 (59).

South Adelaide Reserves will now look toward their clash with Norwood at Flinders University Stadium on Sunday, 17 July, from 11:30am.