Sport
13 April, 2023
Youthful Magpies ready to take court for 2023
A youthful Maryborough A grade team will take to the court looking for a positive start to the season, as they seek to improve from a seventh-place finish in 2022. They have a tricky first-up assignment against Castlemaine, who ended up making the...
A youthful Maryborough A grade team will take to the court looking for a positive start to the season, as they seek to improve from a seventh-place finish in 2022.
They have a tricky first-up assignment against Castlemaine, who ended up making the finals last season, but can take great confidence into their corresponding meeting at Princes Park last season, in which the Magpies only lost by four goals.
New coach Jordan MacIlwain says that there is an element of the unknown in regards to what Castlemaine will bring to the table on Saturday.
“We’re a little bit into the unknown. Castlemaine recruited really well last year, so we’re not sure how many of them have stuck around and who’ll they have this season. They seem to have a few good recruits there,” she said.
Nevertheless, MacIlwain said that an enthusiastic group of girls were ready to go for the season ahead, with an influx of juniors from Maryborough’s under 17s ready to make an impact in A grade, after finishing fourth in season 2022.
“We’re lucky that we have a versatile group of younger girls coming through from the juniors. We’ve included Abbey Nalder and Millie Cassidy in our A grade team. Both will be strong on the court and will be fiercely competitive on the court in the coming years. Abbey is a great goal-shooter, very accurate and strong, and Millie versatile in the mid-court,” she said.
There was also great news for the netball team mid-week when Cassidy and Ella Patten were included in the Bendigo Football Netball League under 17 representative squad.
MacIlwain said it was a credit to both that they were able to make the final team.
“They had a huge pool of girls to pick from. It shows that the junior pathway we have created and the work we have put in has started to pay off. But you can only give them so much — they also have to want to push themselves, so a real credit to those girls for going and challenging themselves. Ella is busy with basketball and Millie is busy with golf. They’ve only just come into the sport, so it’s a credit to them for showing their skills,” she said.
The defensive side of the court will be new-look for Maryborough this year, with Maggie Tranter and Eliza Roughead missing for the season, yet MacIlwain will also put trust in younger players for the role.
“Maggie Tranter recently had a baby, and Eliza Roughead is also pregnant. They’re huge losses, but we luckily have retained Finley Wagstaff and Alex Williams for our defence. We’re looking at a younger defence, but one I’m sure that will continue for a couple of years and can only grow working together,” she said.
In the two meetings that Maryborough and Castlemaine had last year, it was the latter who came out victorious on both occasions. In round two, Castlemaine were made to work for their victory, eventually taking a 50-46 win on Good Friday.
In the return meeting, a strong Castlemaine team were able to take a good win against a depleted Maryborough team, eventually winning 76-34.
MacIlwain said that working on the team’s fitness has been the big focus for her ahead of the season.
“We have worked pretty hard. The biggest takeaway from last year was our fitness let us down a bit. So, hopefully, we’ve done the right things and motivated each other to get to those sessions and do the extras. We’re hoping to move a bit further up on the ladder. Looking at the team, it’s really strong, so we hope we are rewarded with a few wins,” she said.
