Sport
14 July, 2022
Pies look to turn the tables on strong Gisborne opponent
Maryborough succeeded in their task to climb back up the Bendigo Football Netball League A grade ladder last week, with their win against Golden Square moving them from ninth to seventh, and will look to make further moves against Gisborne this...
Maryborough succeeded in their task to climb back up the Bendigo Football Netball League A grade ladder last week, with their win against Golden Square moving them from ninth to seventh, and will look to make further moves against Gisborne this week.
Most importantly for the Magpies, the win allows the club to regain some confidence ahead of some winnable games coming up, with the likes of Eaglehawk and Strathfieldsaye on the horizon.
All eyes this week, however, turn to Gisborne, with the Magpies looking to turn the tables on the third-placed Bulldogs after losing to them in round four.
In that game, the Magpies lost by 18 goals at home, while only scoring 36 goals. However, having scored 74 goals against Golden Square last week, they’ll be confident they can attack the scoreboard again on Saturday.
Central to that once again is Keely Hare, who capped off the celebrations for her 100th game with an excellent performance which yielded 50 goals.
That game also saw the return of Jordan MacIlwain to provide support, and she didn’t miss a beat upon return, scoring 24 goals and working well in tandem with Hare.
Tori Chandler was another to impress on Saturday, controlling the pace of the game from mid-court throughout, constantly feeding great opportunities for both Hare and MacIlwain to score with ease.
A repeat of those performances against Gisborne would be very handy — the Bulldogs currently boast the third best defensive unit in the competition, trailing only top two sides Sandhurst and Kangaroo Flat.
Out of the sides currently out of the top five however, Maryborough could best be equipped to break through the Bulldogs’ defenders, clearly having the best offense out of the bottom five on the ladder.
For the Magpies, a second consecutive win could provide a launchpad for a good in-season run, with games against ninth-placed Eaglehawk and eighth-placed Strathfieldsaye set to follow. Win both of those games and it would be more than likely that the Magpies will move up into sixth place on the ladder.