Dalton sustained the injury in the opening five minutes of the Panthers' 20-goal loss to Maiden Gully YCW at Malone Park on Saturday.

The clash against the Eagles marked her return from the ACL injury that ended her 2021 season last July.

Panthers coach Bianca Garton said the injury had 'sucked the life' out of her team, which trailed 20-9 at quarter time.

"It was goal-for-goal early and I'm sure it would have been a great match, or at the least closer, but they ended up scoring 10 (goals) in a row," she said.

"We were just completely deflated.

"For Kim to do all that work to get back and for it to happen like that, it's so disappointing .... shattering.

"It was a complete accident. She just went to take off on that leg and she heard a pop. It's something she's done a million times at training in the last months, but just one of those unfortunate things.

"It really sucked the life out of the first quarter for us and for the girls it was just so disappointing."

Garton said to her players' credit, they lifted early in the second quarter to help close the margin to eight goals after the Eagles rallied late in the term.

"We did play a much better second quarter and narrowed the margin by three (to eight goals)," she said

"I didn't think the end margin really reflected the game, we still made them work for it - it certainly wasn't easy.

"But it kind of blew out in the last seven or eight minutes of the game.

"By then we had run out of options and I felt sorry for the B-graders (Bridget Jacobs and Emma Ruiter) that played as they had already played a full game before A-grade."

The injury to Dalton came on top of a rough week for the Panthers, who lost goaler Bridget Willox to an ankle injury and defender Tania Kerrison to illness.

Willox will likely miss at least three more games, including the Panthers' July 22 clash against Mitiamo, which could decide which team secures the double chance.

The teams' earlier season clash at Mitiamo ended in a draw.

Kerrison should be available for this Saturday's match against Bridgewater.

The Panthers, who slipped to fourth on the ladder, will look to regroup against the Mean Machine, another team that has experienced difficulty in getting its full line-up on the court this season, especially in Saturday's win over Pyramid Hill.

Only their second loss for the season, Garton said she was still happy with the Panthers' season over all.

"We got positives out of the game; we had patches of good play and we still won the second quarter," she said.

"The third quarter wasn't too bad, it was probably just the first and the last.

"Tracey (O'Donnell) had a ripper game on Tia (Webb) and got lots of intercepts.

"Kirsty (Hamilton) hasn't really played goal defence, so I threw her in the deep end.

"The next two matches are absolutely crucial for us. We have to beat Bridgewater this week to get ourselves back in that right frame of mind.

"We had that loss to Calivil United (on May 28), two weeks off and a big loss on Saturday and now we've lost Kim for the year and Bridget for a few weeks.

"We need something to turn it around and to keep challenging for that top three."

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