Playing at the Tathra Sea Eagles’ home ground of Lawrence Park, the Panthers put up a tremendous fight, but couldn’t match the hosts on their own soil. 

In the senior clash, the Panthers were trailing by just 11 points at the main break, but the hosts rallied in the second half to run away with the game 15-14-104 to 6-13-49.

Earlier the Panthers women’s side had gone down to the Eaglettes, who are looking to stamp their authority as a premiership flag favourite this season. 

The Panthers couldn’t find enough scoring opportunities as the match slipped away from them 8-6-54 to 1-7-13. 

Unfortunately the Panthers reserves had also been soundly beaten in an earlier clash with the Sea Eagles on the day.

In the senior clash the teams appeared evenly matched in opening passages of play with just five points separating the pair at the first break. 

Ian McBain provided a best on ground effort for the Sea Eagles early in the match, finding plenty of free space to take some strong marks and set up forward play.

The Panthers put two defenders on Tathra’s prolific front man Dean Gartside and were almost effectively able to shut him out of the game for a large part. 

However, Tathra’s Bermagui pick up in Marcus Shaw made up the effort with some dominant runs out of the middle to lead the charge, kicking five goals for the hosts. 

A lot of the contention came through the middle where Dylan Cook and Charlie Shepherd were able to cause some havoc for the Panthers in the were left unchecked. 

However, Tathra’s midfield is a strong point for the club this year with Troy O’Loghlin, Billy Stubbs and Luke Taylor showing good endeavour to keep the Panthers at bay. 

Sean Smith continued his good form, kicking two for the visitors, while Tom Ferguson also bagged a pair. 

Pambula had fired into the second quarter with three early goals, but soon the Eagles rebounded to lead by 11 points at the break. 

A massive second half performance was where the hosts shone, out-kicking the visitors 3-1 in the third quarter and five goals to none in the final period to blow out the scoreline. 

In the Eaglettes clash with Pambula it was regular contender Sam Crowley shining, kicking four goals.

Molly Willington, Eliza Terrey and Gina Bricachek were all in strong contention for the homeside, while Tayla Wilson and Lee Collimore were key for the Panthers.