McCarthy Homes Match Review - Reserves Crash out of Finals

The Western Magpies Reserves crashed out of the finals, and much like the Senior side - saved their worst performance till last.  It was their second biggest loss of the year when defeated by a slicker and more polished Palm Beach-Currumbin in the Elimination Final at Surfers Paradise on Sunday. 

The Pies were on top for the first ten minutes of the match and should have had 3 goals on the board from the early exchanges but did not get reward for effort and from then on they were chasing their tail and the PBC players for the rest of the match. 

The Pies went down by 9 goals, 11.9-75  to 2.9-21. You have to go back to round one when the Pies were defeated by Mt Gravatt by 65 points to find a bigger defeat this season. 

Played in blustery conditions, the Magpies started brightly enough with skipper Sean Mewing and the ageless Peter Kilroy pumping the ball forward but the Pies could not raise the two flags.

PBC were able to put 2 quick goals on and then with the Pies favoured by a flukey cross wind could not trouble the scorers in the second quarter while the Lions kicked 4 goals, one after the siren, to hold a commanding 5 goal lead at half time. 

It was more of the same after half time as PBC used a pace advantage and growing confidence to continually outnumber the Pies at the contests and find a running team-mate at will as the Pies looked to be chasing for most of the third quarter. The Pies were made to look slow by the Lions slick ball use and run and carry. The Magpies were only able to score 1 point for the entire second and third quarters. 

The final quarter saw coach Des Lashman throw his side around in an effort to find some spark and the Pies did dominate the forward entries and even up the contest but the horse had well and truly bolted. The Pies could only add 1-5 for the quarter to boot their lowest score of the year.  

As would be expected with the scoreline it was the defenders who figured in the best players as they were continually under the pump. Chris Hunt worked overtime at CHB and Harry Marshall at fullback and and Kurt Vine across half back competed hard all game but were often overwhelmed with the Lions charging forward in numbers. 

Peter Kilroy had plenty of the ball, especially in the first half and was the Pies best player and Sean Mewing also tried hard to lift his teammates on a wing. Ironically Kilroy was the oldest player on the ground but it was the Lions youth and pace that brought the Pies undone. 

Other experienced players in Gareth Crawford and Gerard Moore battled hard all game in midfield and Brodie Easton also tried hard to stem the tide. 

It ended a horrible week for the Pies, who 8 days ago were looking forwards to a positive finals experience but the Seniors went down to miss the finals,  then the Woodsmen were defeated in the Grand Final on Friday night and then Sunday's loss in the Reserves.

This leaves the Colts as the Magpies only team still in contention as they begin their finals campaign Saturday morning at 9 am when they take on Palm Beach-Currumbin in the Second Semi Final at Palm Beach. (despite finishing on top of the ladder!)

Palm Beach Currumbin 2.0-12 | 6.4-40 | 9.8-62 | 11.9-75

defeated

Western Magpies 1.3-9 | 1.3-9 | 1.4-10 | 2.9-21

Goals: S. Mewing, L. Murray
Best: C. Hunt, P. Kilroy, B. Easton, S. Mewing, H. Marshall, K. Vine