South Adelaide Panthers v Sturt Sabres
Saturday July 26, 2008, 7:30pm at Marion

	South Adelaide Panthers	Sturt Sabres
Minor Round Record	4th – 9 wins and 9 losses	4th – 9 wins and 9 losses
Head Coach	Kelly Manning	Liam Flynn
Likely Starters	Daniel Kosmider Luke Frost Mark Fuller Thomas McKenzie Steve Pilkington	David Shepherd Mark Bauer Marcus Hakendorf David Bowley Mark Paget
Top Scorer	Mark Fuller – 16.1 ppg	Mark Paget – 14.4 ppg
Top Rebounder	Steve Pilkington – 12.2 rpg	Mark Paget – 8.9 rpg
Top Assists	Steven Williams – 3.3 apg	David Shepherd – 4.2 apg
Head to head	10/5/2008      South Adelaide 88 d Sturt 72 12/7/2008      Sturt 79 d South Adelaide 73

Bill Clinton was impeached. North Melbourne won an AFL premiership. American Pie was released (I’m talking the “Stifler” version, not the “day the music died” version). South Adelaide’s men featured in Central ABL finals.

All inspiring events; all occurred in 1999.

Daniel Kosmider is the only Panther remaining from South’s last finals jaunt. Since our league became a part of the ABA (then CBA) in 1998, Kosmider has played 198 games, scored over 1600 points and led the league in assists 3 times. But one of his career highlights must surely have been the game winning shot against Centrals on June 29 which launched South into its first finals series in 9 years.

How does the Panther team differ from the 7th ranked team of 2007? The addition of Justin Halleran, the league’s only import, has certainly helped. He provides 14 points a game that the Panthers didn’t have last year, and has helped fill the void created by Damian Scanlon’s departure. More significant, however, is the form of Luke Frost. Returning from overseas late last year, Frost’s scoring output has jumped from 6.6 to 15.2 points per game, the highest of any of his 7 years in the league.

Sturt took an extra couple of weeks to confirm their finals berth, doing it by defeating South at Pasadena on July 12. It would have been easy to write the Sabres off after Jordan Dodman made a mid-season switch to football, and Marcus Ng went down with a season-ending knee injury on June 21.

Mark Paget, who had been waiting in the wings since first hitting the court in 2004, relished the increased opportunities, leading the team in points and rebounds, and his 31 points against Woodville and 18 rebounds against West were significant factors in Sturt’s comfortable wins over other potential finalists. Sabre guards Mark Bauer and Nathan Vaughan have also been handy, both improving on their scoring averages from 2007.

With evenly matched teams boasting similar sized players at most positions, look for defensive tactics and scouting to play a part in the outcome of this game.

Promotional photo painstakingly prepared by Thomas and Marcus McKenzie.