South player Daniel Collins, left, and Sollies’ Ben Goodridge await the outcome of the ruck contest between Alan Margatich and Jarrad Davies.
Continuing on with the upsets of last week, Sollies ambushed top side South in Pirie on Saturday and ran away 57 point winners.
South won the toss and elected to kick with a slight breeze that had earlier assisted their B grade to run over the top of the Cats.
They started with Margatich, Struck, Schmidt and Horner in the middle against the Cats midfield of Cooke, Millard, Cable and Bearman.
It was a tight opening 10 to 15 minutes with both sides getting their hands on the ball but no clear forward momentum.
South’s managed the first goal of the game after nearly 10 minutes of play and Sollies replied a few minutes later through Richard Cable.
As the quarter went on the momentum started to shift the Cats way as Cable kicked his second to give it the lead but this was soon cancelled out with South’s second goal.
It was only a point on the siren that split the two teams at the first break.
Sollies would have gone into the first change happy with a good start and feeling confident about increasing its lead with the breeze but its coach insisted that they not get carried away and that they continue to work hard.
The second quarter was all the Cats as it kicked five goals to one to open up a 26 point half time lead.
The midfield contest was tight with Margatich and Cooke having a great battle.
Horner and Schmidt were finding the ball for South but so were Millard, Hastings and Bearman for the Cats.
Zak Siemer had an outstanding first half for the home side with its entire back six on top.
Up forward McIntyre managed to kick a couple and small forwards Goodridge and Redman were proving to be a handful.
In the third quarter there would have been many expecting to see a South fight back but it was Sollies which continued to impress as it stretched its lead beyond five goals for the first time in the match.
South did manage to kick four for the quarter including a couple in a row which briefly swung the momentum its way.
However, with a couple of late goals the Cats managed to win the term and increase its lead to 33 points at the final change.
Heading home with the breeze the Cats put its foot down in the last as it was on top all over the ground.
Stephen Swayne and Ben Goodridge were damaging off the wings while Cooke began to get the better of Margatich and Millard in particular started to dominate the clearances.
Goals came to McIntyre, Redman, Cable, Hastings and two to Bearman as their six goals to two sealed an emphatic victory.
Best for Sollies was Siemer who, not only repelled numerous South attacks but also, set up Sollies’ forward movement.
Swayne was in everything from his wing and played consistently well all day while Millard found some of his best form with an outstanding game in the centre.
South’s best were Horner, who had plenty of the ball and was excellent at the stoppages, while Margatich won his fair share of taps and provided a tall marking option around the ground.
Jess Rivers was also solid down back.
South will be shell shocked having lost two games in a row and facing Port next week - which beat it last time by 50 points.
For the Cats this win puts it back on level terms with the top of the table and goes a little way to making up for last week.
This result, among others, has set up a interesting second half of the year.
