New York Magpies vs. North Carolina Tigers
Raleigh, NC, 2:00pm

With 27 players, injured players and support crew the Magpies traveled to Raleigh to face the North Carolina Tigers in the Tiger Dome.

With a small playing squad and the promise of hot weather the Magpies had to be ready for the fired up Tigers.

The first quarter started off scrappy for the 2004 Division One runners-up with North Carolina flooding their defense and thus clogging up the Magpies forward line. With the early loss of Brent Curry the Magpies had to rely on an injured Jono McClelland to make up our American players quota. The latter part of the quarter the Magpies started to clear the ball out of the middle due to some great ruckwork by stand in skipper Brian Jackson, as well as our on ballers in the form of Reuben Murray, Doug Lewis and Adam George. This opened up our forward line where our big guns in Kym Laube, Gavin McLeod and Robert Kelly were starting to take advantage.

Quarter time scores Magpies 4.3 (27) to Tigers 0.1 (1)

The second quarter started off much the same as the first. The backline in Bruce Cameron, Tommy Thompson, Gary Lerch, Muggo and Marcus Keller were holding firm as North Carolina started to make some forward thrusts. Brett Lewis was being productive in winning the footy and kicking it long to our forwards who were bringing the footy to ground so our flankers in Walt Lin and Dennis Mullarkey were able to crumb the footy and take some shots at goal. Some inaccurate kicking cost the Magpies a bigger half time lead.

Half Time scores Magpies 7.9 (51) to Tigers 1.2 (8)

After the half time break the Magpies looked a little lethargic at the start of the third quarter. With Dylan Bryant holding down the key spot at full forward, the Magpies where trying to deliver him the footy, but the pressure applied by the tigers and our sometimes lazy last disposal made the forwards job a lot harder. With Adam Manners given a sweeping job on the half back flank line the Magpies had plenty of chances going deep into attack but couldn’t convert. The last few minutes of the 3rd Quarter the Tigers kicked 3 quick goals due to some good work from their taller brigade. The Magpies went into the three quarter time huddle a little frustrated.

Three Quarter time scores Magpies 9.13 (67) to Tigers 4.4 (28)

After a stern talking to by Robert Oliver the Magpies headed out for the 4th quarter fired up to break open the game. With Jimmy Polulach showing plenty of the run, and with the Magpies able to win the ball out of the middle the Magpies finally opened up the game. With a much debated about move of Bruce Cameron to Full-forward and Shane Devine to Center Half Back the Magpies finished the game off with plenty of run and accurate kicking, finally applying the scoreboard pressure Coach Oliver had been asking for at three Quarter Time.

Final Scores Magpies 14.17 (101) to Tigers 4.5 (29)

The Players would like to thank the girls (Helen, Josie and John Bethune’s better half) for coming down and helping out with water duties. Also special thanks to Anthony Hendrie and Juice for making the trip and offering Rob Oliver their help. Matty B as always you’re a the master of the camera … another job well done and to John Bethune for making the trip as our umpire … – Thank you. Also special thanks to Jono and Muggo for making the trip and beefing up our American numbers. Also we wish Adam Manners the best of luck and hopefully next year we can see him again in a Magpies Jersey. Congratulations to Pies first gamers Dylan Bryant and Marcus Keller… well done boys. To the task completers Saturday night, great effort and hopefully everyone had a great time on Saturday night.

Finally, the club would like to thank North Carolina for putting on a great weekend and being a great bunch of guys. We look forward to many more games against them and hopefully this will build into a great rivalry between the 2 clubs.

Match video highlights

To download to your computer for local playback right click on the following link and choose “Save Target As...” or “Save Link As...” Video Highlights ( 23M Windows Media). Or watch in the player below & note – Broadband connections: playback may take a couple of seconds to start – Dial-up users: these files are too big and you will NOT be able to download or play – sorry.