Brendan Lines

SOUTH Gawler made its way back onto the winners list on Saturday, taking a 25-point win over Kapunda in Saturday’s A-grade BL&G round one clash.
While the season’s 119-day postponement was a long wait for all, it would have felt even longer for the Lions who took their last win in round 13 last season – coincidentally, also against the Bombers.
Assistant senior coach Daniel Kiryk said the club’s list is in good shape coming into the new season.
“Obviously with COVID there was a lot of interruption, and our fitness sort of took a bit of a hit as well as skill,” he said.
“So we worked really hard on just controlling the footy by hand and foot. It all come to the fore today and we executed that quite well.”
Kapunda’s execution going forward caught out the Lions as Justin Zanandrea (three goals) and Fraser Smith (three goals) opened the Bombers account in the first quarter to guide the Bombers to a 10-point lead at quarter time.
South took charge of the contest at the bounce in the second term, with Bailey Fielke converting a goal from a clearance in the opening seconds. Jackson Press edged the Lions into the lead for the first time of the match with his first major of the day at the eight minute mark.
Kapunda’s defence was under the pump as South went inside fifty 16-times-to-four in the second, before a late major to the Bombers kept the margin to just seven points at halftime.
South kept willing the ball forward in the third and the goals kept coming, as Dom Costanzo, Nathan Bartsch and Dean Cutting’s majors added more scoreboard pressure.
Debuting Kapunda coach Fraser Evans – who swung himself forward at halftime before the third quarter onslaught – said it was a learning experience for his side’s 13 first-gamers, and for himself as the man in charge.
“In the third we just weren’t able to get our hands on the footy in the middle, or put enough pressure on the ball carrier to give our back-six a chance,” he said.
“I probably learnt a lesson myself that I should have swung myself back when things were getting a bit messy, because we just weren’t able to give our forwards a chance.
“At the end of the day we have 13 new players in our team from last year, and obviously I’m one of them as a new coach with a new structure… we went down to South Gawler feeling confident we could play some good footy, but it just didn’t show up after halftime.”
South defender Josh Wittwer (14 possessions) and Costanzo (20 possessions) were the  big accumulators that helped turn the tide in the Lions’ favour, setting up a final term in which the home side iced the game quickly with three unanswered majors to Smit, Press and Bartsch.
Kapunda came back late, but the door was firmly shut on the contest.
South Gawler captain Jackson Dare complemented the efforts of the youngsters, but said there was work to be done to ensure the side doesn’t come out slow against the top teams.
“Our second half was just a really good effort,” he said.
“We had three debutants, including two young kids, and they all contributed. Jordan Tippins kicked a couple good goals and looked lively, and Dean Cutting over from Wallaroo was a valuable more mature body.”
South Gawler will play its next game in a couple weeks after it gets both of its bye weeks out of the way back-to-back, while Kapunda will also have this weekend off.