BRENDAN LINES

SOUTH Gawler’s run towards September is back on track after belting Kapunda by 62 points in Saturday’s Barossa, Light & Gawler A-grade football clash.

For the first time since round four this season, the Lions are back into the top four.

Levelling the ledger at home to three wins and three losses, South is well on its way to making the Den a happy-hunting ground once again, according to player-coach Jack Osborn.

“We’ve made an emphasis on really protecting the home ground and we really went out with that attitude and wanted to show that ‘this is our field, and this how it’s going to happen’,” he said.

“We need to make sure we’re keeping our season alive, the top standard of teams like Tanunda and Angaston are playing amazing football, so we’ve just got to make sure we’re there in the last part of this year to be able to compete with them.”

The conditions at Eldred Riggs Reserve bogged down both teams’ midfielders early, but the Lions dug their claws in and put pressure on the contest with 12 first-quarter tackles.

Grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck, the Lions went on to score three first-quarter goals, courtesy of Jarred Johnson, Leslie Baker and Osborn, to gain the ascendancy over the Bombers.

A 21-point margin at the first break looked within Kapunda’s grasp, but the Lions were just warming up, piling on seven goals in the second-quarter.

The under-fire Bombers’ only resistance came from Jack Huggard with 20 disposals and nine marks in defence for the match, as skill errors continued to plague them around the contest.

Lion Josh Wittwer was supreme across half-back, his 13 disposals and five marks for the game turned South’s defence into attack every time and helped set up his forwards.

As Osborn rucked his 0wn ball to snap an early second-quarter major, the Lions went on to make goals look easy as Jackson Dare, Chapman and Baker kicked South away to a 67-point lead at half-time.

The Bombers found some spark as Brad Prior kicked their first, and helped by midfielder Matt Stent’s 13 disposals for the match they closed the gap for inside 50s to 10-8 in the third term.

The Lions led by 60 points at three-quarter-time, after the Bombers hit the scoreboard.

But South was not about to rest on its laurels, as Dom Costanzo kicked truly and Jackson Press slotted his second major to compliment a solid 13 disposals and five marks for the game.

In the end, it was the Lions’ fast start that proved too big of a hurdle for Kapunda to overcome.