UNLIKE its opponent playing its first ever SANFL Women’s Grand Final, South Adelaide has made a habit of running out on the biggest stage. Back-to-back flags in 2018-19 – the second of which was under current coach Rick Watts – before claiming last year’s SANFLW premiership after falling agonisingly short the year before.

As Watts prepares for his fourth grand final as senior coach, he said he could draw comparisons back to the 2019 decider where his Panthers team lifted the trophy to become the first side to win multiple flags in the competition.

“It’s really exciting,” he said. “A little bit different, we feel like we’re the underdogs this year and credit to Woodville, they’ve been absolutely fantastic and owned the moments. It’s a little bit different approach to what we’ve had previously and there’s probably a little bit more like 2019 where we played at Glenelg and beat North Adelaide in the wet ironically. “Where we probably weren’t favourites coming in, but we had the confidence that our best footy was good enough to win in the game.”

Comparing to the more recent grand finals which have also come under Watts’ tutelage, the South mentor conceded the Panthers were “probably a bit down on troops” but believed the motivation of losing the second semi-final to the Eagles will play a massive part in the game.

“We’re probably a couple short on our best team, but the girls now have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder like we did last year after losing the grand final in 2023,” Watts said. “We felt that in our first final that we were in control of the game but we let ourselves down defensively in the last four or five minutes and it was really heartbreaking for the girls.

“We’re in a position where we’re willing to fight for everything and we’re not just turning up and thinking it’s another grand final, the girls are really keen to win another one.”

One of the more heartbreaking stories leading into the grand final was that of a second anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury to Shae Archbold, who missed the entire 2023 season with the injury, returned in 2024 and was in blistering form this year. She booted three consecutive goals in the preliminary final, before going down awkwardly and having to be helped off. Scans confirmed it was a second ACL for the talented tall.

“We just consoled her and just told her that she’s been there before and done it and it’s a good opportunity for her to reset and her mindset’s been fantastic,” Watts said/ “She put the work in previously, it’s a little bit different now that she’s a lot older than when she did it when she was 16. “She’s absolutely devastated, but the positive is that she’s done it before and she’s gone through that experience so we’re confident that she’ll be able to do it again with the support of her teammates around her.”

South Adelaide’s tall stocks have been tested of late with Taya Maxwell already out injured, and Soriah Moon managed through the preliminary final after missing the second semi-final due to a groin complaint. While Watts said he was initially going to rest her for a second straight match, a lack of pain and a determined Moon meant she got out on the field, albeit in spurts.

“She didn’t have any pain for the Sturt final so we decided we’d just play her on limited minutes so we played her four minutes in the first quarter and six minutes in the second quarter,” he said. “Then depending on the scoreline we were going to rest for the rest of the game and it panned out that way that we could rest her.

“However Doreena Hansen got a knee knock and then Shae went down, so Soriah only went on in that last quarter because of those. We had two forwards go down, so she had no pain and she’ll come into this game cherry ripe and playing back to her full minutes.”

Though not ideal having minimal minutes from one of the best players on the league, Watts praised the work of Tamika May for stepping up and filling a key role through the ruck, having also played forward prior.

“She did a great job at the start of the year playing as a key forward, but when the chips were down and we needed her after Taya (Maxwell) went down and the kids were playing in the state program, she’s really stood up and given us something so especially against Cutters, she’s matched up really well,” Watts said.

“She was fantastic and we were looking at some other options for Soriah to try and stretch their defence, but as its turned out with the injury, Tamika’s played a lot of ruck minutes and has allowed Soriah to ease her way into it.”

The injuries have made it “really challenging” to pick a final side to face the Eagles on Sunday. Among those left out of the preliminary final team were ex-Port Adelaide players Laquoiya and Litonya Cockatoo-Motlap who were both “unlucky” last week, though Watts said “one or both” of them would return for the decider.

“There’s a couple of other girls who were very stiff not to play but they gave us three or four games throughout the season that were absolutely fantastic for us and it just shows the depth that we have at the club,” he said.

Watts added that the “kids” improving throughout the year had only further strengthened the depth at the Panthers, naming Hope Taylor, Emma Charlton, Layla Vizgaudis and Tabitha Prosser as ones who had gone to another level in 2025.

“Those girls really are the way of the future for us and we’re excited to have them for another year and we’re really excited to see what they can do in a grand final on the biggest stage,” Watts said. “We saw what Taya Maxwell was able to do last year as a 15-year-old, and we’re excited to see what Emma and Layla and Hope and Tabby can do on Sunday.”

As for a look at the opposition Watts had nothing but respect for the Eagles and the way they had gone about their football this year.

“They’re great, they’re really well coached and Narelle (Smith) has got them playing a style of footy that takes our strengths away,” Watts said. “I think they did a bit of research on us and it really matched us up defensively, so they’re very hard to deal with.”

Watts cited the eight-goal third term against Central District earlier this year as an “incredible” feat that is unlikely to ever be broken, but also admitted the Eagles’ defence was just as impressive.

“They’ve improved their defence dramatically and they’re very hard to score against,” he said. “It’s going to be a cracker of a game and we’re hoping that flip of the coin goes our way in the end.”

South Adelaide has two keys to stopping the Eagles: Restricting the forwardline and limiting the intercept marks from defence.

“It’s obviously stopping their tall forwardline, three or four players down there who are really, really crafty and smart,” he said. They’ve got a lot of speed, (Alice) Tentye is a player that we really respect and gets ahold of us, so we’ll have to put a bit of work into her.

“But also their intercept marking in our forward 50 has been a challenge for us, and that’s something that we’ve been focused on the last couple of weeks. 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.

“So for us 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.”