The Pambula Panthers have edged out the Tathra Sea Eagles for outright lead of the Sapphire Coast AFL competition on Saturday.
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The Panthers got the jump early in bitingly cold and windy conditions at the Pambula Sporting Complex before the second quarter where the wind shifted to the backs of the visiting Tathra outfit.
The Panthers fired in some good options around the 50 early in the piece and were a couple of goals up by the break after playing from the south end of the ground.
The scores were almost deadlocked at the main break with Tathra trailing by one, but the Panthers got the better of late stages of play to win 12-6-78 to 9-9-63.
The Sea Eagles quickly shifted the tables and the points were hovering around even shortly into the second as Jason Ainsworth and Clint Philips got some options out of the middle for attacking forwards Adam Blacka and Luke Taylor.
Taylor at full forward made few mistakes to lead the scoring for the Eagles with five majors on the day.
Lachlan Small and Flynn Cook were among the top performers for the Panthers, while Mitch May and Shane Gartside were recognised for their efforts out of the Tathra camp.
Up front for Pambula it was Jono Di-Donato and Kyle Tucker taking control with the ball, kicking three goals apiece.
It was a high scoring third quarter that established Pambula's lead, firing five goals to Tathra's three.
And then in the final quarter the hosts held out the visitors quite well to limit the Eagles' scoring options and take a 15-point buffer to the final siren.