Tanunda spearhead Alex Kennedy spent Saturday night in the Angaston hospital - while his teammates celebrated a huge win over the Panthers.
The Magpies kick away to a 116 point win - despite the loss of the association’s leading goal kicker with concussion.
The undefeated Magpies - although not at full strength - overwhelmed an undermanned Panther combination at Angaston Oval.
Some of the Angaston players would have had trouble making the Tanunda B Grade side - such was is the depth differential between the two teams.
This differential probably exists with most of the rest of the competition which is the current strength of the Magpies.
However it took an injury to star full forward Alex Kennedy in the third quarter to set Tanunda alight.
At that stage they were only leading the harassing Panthers by five goals.
Tanunda suffered other setbacks in the game and had a full injured bench in the second half.
Fortuitously for them, Angaston were so understrength that they couldn’t rotate their onballers - not even ruckman Nick Egert - and they had to run the whole game out in those positions.
After Kennedy went off Tanunda blitzed Angaston with eight straight unanswered goals and ruckman Luke Wells was the main driving force in the upsurge.
The willingness to run from the backline - off their direct opponent - exposed Angaston’s inexperience and allowed them to hit their forward targets with ease.
There was no relief for the Panthers in the last quarter as the Maggies added another seven goals to just two.
There was little Angaston could do... it was little use tagging as there were too many good players in the black and white and flooding proved ineffective too.
The bigger bodies of Tanunda just crashed a path through or they kicked long goals anyway.
They had control of the air and their physical presence caused Angaston to burn the ball.
Wells was easily best afield and even when he failed to win a contest he continued to push and scramble for the ball. These ‘one percenters’ and second efforts kept full time pressure on the Angaston midfield.
Boh Wall’s work at the stoppages got Tanunda first use on many occasions and his delivery was nearly always to their telling advantage.
Both Ben Newberry, back from country duties, and centre-half-forward Ben Britton bagged five goals.
Veterans Karl Martin and Jon Kieboom were visions of yesteryear with splendid rebounding play especially when the game opened out.
Sam Agars was the key replacement up forward and was just another proof of the Magpies’ multiple options in all departments.
Andrew Pech - despite receiving some heavy knocks - kept getting up and winning his share of the football.
Others to feature for the Panthers were Matt Doecke, Brad Hughes, Kyle Mclean, Craig Harvey and Michael Danielle.
Other than this group there was a sprinkling of experienced players who were competitive at times, however after that the gulf in talent was immense.
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