MAGPIES BOUNCE BACK
Andrew Thomson
A week is a long time in football as the Western Magpies bounced back from last weeks disappointment to have a hard fought 12 point win over Broadbeach Cats away from home on ANZAC Day
And a year is an eternity in football as last year the Pies managed to boot 8 goals in the first quarter against Broadbeach before suffering a heartbreaking loss, whilst on Saturday they booted 9 goals for the entire match and held on for a hard fought win.
The Pies took a good lead early on, before giving it up and then fighting back into the contest to get on the board in 2015.
It was a battle of attrition as both sides worked hard into defence to clog up forward areas to make goals at an all-time premium.
The Pies were switched on from the first bounce and were on top early, but again were wasteful up forward which allowed the Cats to stay in touch at quarter time.
The Pies worked hard around ground in the second term to extend their lead to 4 goals at half time -speedsters Sonny Aneet and Aaron Maricic on the wings provided plenty of pace, run and carry through the midfield and both provided drive and zip all match. Richard Wenham also had his best game for some time with good speed and linking with the midfield running out of half back. Drew Mitchell also had a return to form with strong play at half back and fellow defenders Hayden Thick and Luke Scott, in his first match on returning to the Nest, held the home team at bay. Up forward Val Pope and Matt Thompson slotted goals to extend the Pies lead.
The Pies then fell into old habits, switched off and went to sleep resulting in 4 quick goals by halfway through the third quarter to the Cats and the Pies trailing by 6 points at three quarter time. The Pies were held goalless in the third quarter.
The Magpies re-grouped in the last quarter with Dom Beer getting on top in the ruck and Callum Carseldine, Val Pope and Lachlan Woods wresting midfield control to enable the Pies to have enough forward entries to boot 3-6 to go to a 17 point lead mid way though the last quarter before Broadbeach kicked a late consolation goal.
Youngsters Joel Workman and Sam Copland also showed they have already learned from their experience last week and did several notable things to indicate they will be only get better as the season goes on.
Coach Glenn Humphrey said “It’s very good to get the win, the boys have worked pretty hard for it, so it was good to see them get rewarded for their hard work.
Our approach at the stoppages and our contested footy won us the game. Once we won the contested footy, we shared it well, and broke the game open.
They got back into the game in the third quarter because they started wining the contested footy.
We stopped them from having free running players down the ground, they had to go through our numbers to get where they wanted to go."
The Magpies head to Stafford to meet old rival Wilston Grange next Saturday and will need turn up ready to play against a Gorillas side that has recruited well in the off-season.
Western Magpies 2.4 - 16 | 6.5 - 41 | 6.10 - 46 | 9.16 - 70
defeated
Broadbeach Cats 1.3 - - 9 | 2.8 - 20 | 7.10 - 52 | 8.10 - 58
Best: M.Aneet - R.Wenham - A.Maricic - C.Carseldine - D.Mitchell - V.Pope - D.Lawrence
Goals: V.Pope 3 - M.Thompson 2 - A.Maricic, M.Davis, JWorkman 1