THE LONG wait for the 2025 SANFL Women’s Grand Final is almost over with the two best sides of the season going head-to-head in a massive contest on Sunday afternoon. Woodville-West Torrens and South Adelaide cleared the rest of the field by five games and now play a fourth match in season 2025 to decide the flag. We preview the huge contest.

NEED TO KNOW

Date: Sunday, July 27
Time: 2:15pm local
Venue: Stratarama Stadium, Glenelg

FORM

For the fourth time this year, Woodville-West Torrens and South Adelaide meet, but for the first time it will decide the 2025 SANFLW premiership. These two sides have been the benchmark teams all year, and a dominant preliminary final win over Sturt ensured South Adelaide would get another crack at the Eagles after tight losses in Round 14 and the second semi-final.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Woodville-West Torrens: 2
South Adelaide: 8

The Eagles only first beat South Adelaide three weeks ago in Round 14 by eight points, before repeating the dose with a late Klaudia O’Neill goal sending Woodville-West Torrens directly into the SANFLW Grand Final. Prior to that, the Panthers had won the first eight meetings between the sides, including snapping the Eagles’ eight-game unbeaten start to the season. These two teams have never played at a neutral ground so the grand final at Stratarama Stadium will mark a first.

TEAMS

Woodville-West Torrens:

B: Imogen Trengove, Zahlia Niemann
HB: Kalliopi Gikas, Annie Falkenberg, Lucy Moore
C: Alice Tentye, Julia Faulkner, Amie Blanden
HF: Bianca Portaro, Klaudia O’Neill, Olivia Evans
F: Brianna Walling, Rosette Zerella
R: Leah Cutting, Marlie Fiegert, Cheryllee Waters
INT: Ashley Baker, Mckenzie Dowrick, Maia Freemantle, Audrey Holt, Christina Leuzzi, Ruby Lynch, Cleo Simpson, Sophie Zuill

South Adelaide:

B: Tiffany King, Esther Schirmer
HB: Charlotte Dolan, Jaslynne Smith, Samantha Pratt
C: Emma Charlton, Layla Vizgaudis, Hope Taylor
HF: Tabitha Prosser, Lucy Northcott, Doreena Hansen
F: Emily Brockhurst, Lily Baxter
R: Soriah Moon, Caitlin Couch, Lauren Clifton
INT: Melissa Anderson, Demi-lee Braun, Litonya Cockatoo-Motlap, Laquoiya Cockatoo-Motlap, Tamika May, Chloe Meyers, Seraphina Moon, Marley Tape

CHANGES

Tragically, Shae Archbold suffered a second anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury when going down in the preliminary final. The talented over-ager booted three goals in that game, and is sadly the only forced change between the sides. The Panthers have named Litonya and Laquoiya Cockatoo-Motlap among four inclusions on an extended bench with Chloe Meyers and Seraphina Moon.

For the Eagles, coach Narelle Smith sought and got approval to bring back midfield gun Christina Leuzzi for the massive contest, with towering tall forward McKenzie Dowrick and double bottom-ager Maia Freemantle also named to potentially return from injury.

AFLW DRAFT WATCH

Both these sides have incredible young depth, starting with the midfield brigades. Freemantle returns to a side where the likes of Lucy Moore, Julia Faulkner and Breakthrough Player Imogen Trengove have been starring, while Ruby Lynch can play a multitude of roles as well. For the Panthers, Emma Charlton, Layla Vizgaudis and Hope Taylor are the bottom-age contingent, with Lily Baxter a National Academy member and in fantastic form too.

COACHES SAY

Narelle Smith, Woodville-West Torrens coach:

“In the end I think it’s pretty clear that South and us have been the best sides all year so we just can’t to actually get out there and battle it out and no matter which way the result goes, we’ll hold our head high and know that we’ve been up in the top echelon of SANFLW which is off the back of a lot of hard work and just really proud of the playing group and how they’ve attacked the year.”

Rick Watts, South Adelaide coach:

“(We will aim to be) getting the ball in a little bit dirtier, a little bit uglier, so we can get it to grass so we can play a forward half game as opposed to allowing their intercept players to march the footy back out. That will be our main focus, trying to make it a forward half game for us and put a lot of pressure on them that way. Understanding that on the rebound we’ve also got to stop their players especially in the air.”

STATS THAT MATTER

Incredibly, neither of these sides has lost when leading at any break during the season. Both teams are 8-0 from leading at quarter time, with the Eagles 11-0 and 13-0 when up at half-time and three quarter time, while South is 13-0 and 12-0 from those advantages respectively. From an individual point of view, bottom-age guns Charlton and Moore lead the most possessions for the season in the three head-to-heads with 60 and 59 respectively. O’Neill’s five goals has her on top in the goals.

PREDICTION

South coach Rick Watts described it as a “coin toss” to decide who might come out on top, and that is a good way to describe it. Both these teams are simply superb with quality all across the board. The Eagles have arguably been the better side for longer this season, and with inclusions like Leuzzi and Dowrick, while South lose Archbold, the tip goes to the Eagles but in a narrow one by five points.