Sport
21 July, 2022
Tricky trip for Magpies
Maryborough move on from their tricky trip to Gisborne last week with a trip to sixth-placed Eaglehawk on Saturday afternoon. The Hawks will be a tricky task this week given they are riding a high after defeating third-placed Golden Square away from...
Maryborough move on from their tricky trip to Gisborne last week with a trip to sixth-placed Eaglehawk on Saturday afternoon.
The Hawks will be a tricky task this week given they are riding a high after defeating third-placed Golden Square away from home last Saturday — a result which put them right back into Bendigo Football Netball League finals calculations, with the race for fifth between the Hawks and fifth-placed Kyneton seperated by just 2.45 percent.
For the Magpies, they’ll be striving to improve their competitiveness again after going down by 172 points to Gisborne last Saturday. Despite kicking the first goal of the game, the Magpies were unable to score another for the remainder of the game.
The game against Gisborne was a hard one to measure by any means, particularly with the inside 50 count going the Bulldogs’ way 92-15. However, the Magpies will have been able to take a lot out of their game against the Bulldogs from a statistical output, knowing where they have the ability to improve against the best team in the BFNL competition.
Thomas Gardam had a very solid day against the Bulldogs, collecting 31 disposals as well as taking eight marks. He was named best for the Magpies, while Coby Perry (38 disposals, 10 clearances), Kya Lanfranchi (32 disposals, 10 rebound 50s) and Aidan Hare (17 disposals, 15 tackles) were others to catch the eye of senior coach Rick Andrews.
When these two sides met at Princes Park in round five, it was the Hawks that proved far too strong, with seven last quarter goals allowing them to take victory by 122 points, scoring 20.20 (140) to the Magpies’ 2.6 (18). Hare, Lanfranchi, Gardam, Lachlan Hull, Jayden Hooper and Liam Murphy were best for the Magpies on that occasion, while Chris Freeman and Hare were the goalkickers.
This week is the start of an interesting final month for the Magpies, and with games against Kyneton, seventh-placed Sandhurst and fourth-placed South Bendigo among other games in their run home, the Magpies will go into games knowing that competitive performances could shape the outlook of the final five under pressure.
Outside of that, the club’s under 18s have an exciting opportunity to potentially move three games clear inside the top five, provided they defeat the seventh-placed Hawks on Saturday morning.