The New York Magpies travelled to North Carolina looking to continue their winning form, however the team’s travel plans were thrown into disarray by a lightening storm leaving NYC. With half the team arriving in North Carolina only hours before the game, a few key players unable to make the trip and the blistering heat of the south, the Magpies experienced a less than ideal preparation.
However, all that was forgotten as the umpire bounced the ball and it was game on. New York pulled a few surprises early starting Mitchell at Full Forward. It paid immediate dividends though as he kicked the opening 2 goals of the match. New York kicked another through Blandford and opened up a handy lead. However, North Carolina stormed back into the game winning the centre clearances and kicking the next 3 goals. Keating then marked strongly and goaled from long range to see NY lead by that goal at quarter time.
The second quarter was a tough contest. Both teams fought hard to gain ascendancy in the clearances. Mantzaris started to work his way into the game allowing Buxton, Taylor and Lin to all accumulate plenty of the ball. Mitchell was lost to injury, however Brennan lifted his work rate and the NY forwards got on top. McMaster and Norman controlled the backline, allowing first gamer Pezanko and Kyle to gather plenty of the ball and goals to Brennan, Blandford, Keating and Buxton saw NY take a 6 goal lead into half time, whilst not conceding a goal in the quarter.
After the halftime break McCormick was moved to a wing, Vanasek was pushed forward and with Buckingham, Loader and Kerr all making an impact on the contest the ball was kept in the Magpies attacking half of the ground. Donner continued to be a presence in the goal square and Walkington added a touch of class to the forward line with his quick hands and football nous. When the North Carolina crowd favorite, Ben Squires, marked and kicked truly the Magpies opened up a comfortable 8 goal lead at the last change.
The fourth quarter saw the Magpies continue to play well as a team, however Spataro, having one of his best games for the club, unfortunately went down with a serious knee injury. The Magpies rallied and were able to cover his loss through Norman and Baskett, while Nick Walker relished his time across the half forward line, kicking a tremendous solo goal and perhaps a contender for the goal of the year.
In the end the Magpies had too much class and won by 56 points taking their season standings to 6 wins and 1 loss.
After the match Assistant Coach Adam Overell said “North Carolina are a tough opponent and we knew coming down here we’d have to play at or near our best to get the result. I was pleased with the way the boys stuck to the game plan and played team football. We didn’t have any standouts today, which was illustrated with our even spread of goal kickers, just a good, solid team effort. I was also wrapped with the performances of Pezanko, who played his first game of AFL ever, and Vanasek, who was coming off 2 years out with a knee reconstruction.
NY Magpies 14.5.89 def North Carolina Tigers 5.3.33
NY Best: Kyle, Keating, Brennan, Buxton, Lin
NY Goals: Blandford 3, Brennan 3, Keating 2, Mitchell 2, Walker, Buxton, Lin, Squires
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After suffering their first loss of the season a few weeks ago, New York didn’t have to wait long for their chance at redemption. The Magpies had a few key players returning and were primed to start well and that’s exactly what they did when their Captain, Andy Brennan, kicked the opening goal in the first two minutes of the game. Brennan had finished off some strong bullocking work by Donner in the forward line.
However, the Magpies seemed to relax and Philly took full advantage, winning the contested ball in the middle and controlling much of the first quarter. This enabled them to go into the quarter time break leading by 1 goal.
The second quarter saw the Magpies continue their sluggish form. The game was being played in the Magpies back half and if not for the tremendous work of their back line, the Magpies would have been down by a considerably larger margin. Caldwell, Thompson and Davis all held their opponents to little or no influence while Georgiou, McMaster and Miller found plenty of the ball. When the Magpies were able to finally get control of the possession, McMahon took a brilliant one on one mark in the goal square to kick the pies only goal of the second quarter.
At the half time break the pies were down 5.10.40 to 2.2.14 and looking in serious trouble. The coaching staff made a few changes and told the players in no uncertain term that they weren’t working hard enough.
This seemed to work as the Magpies came out breathing fire and kicked 5 goals in 10 minutes. First it was Blandford and Buxton combining to hit a leading Squires who kicked truly, then Rush and Brennan combined to kick truly for the Magpies. This was followed by goals again to Brennan and Buxton as a result of work of Kerr, Mantzaris and Taylor in the midfield. By the time Spataro had kicked truly the Pies had taken the lead and had the momentum.
Both teams wasted scoring opportunities for the rest of the quarter and NY went into the last break leading by 3 points and full of running.
The last quarter was played at a frenetic pace and with McCormick, Lyndon and Stone all winning the ball forward of the centre, however the Magpies kept wasting chances to give themselves breathing space. Keeffe, Walsh and Desai all got their hands on the ball and provided plenty of supply to the forwards and it resulted in a brilliant piece of team play ending with Torney taking a great mark running with the flight of the ball. Torney composed himself and kicked truly from 35 meters out to give the Magpies some breathing space. Despite both teams missing a few more shots on goal, the Magpies held on and out winners by 10 points. This was a high pressure game played by two high quality teams.
New York’s record for the season now sits at 5-1.
After the match New York Assistant Coach Adam Overell paid credit to how much Philly had improved saying “they got us in Philly a few weeks ago and put up another strong performance today which shows they have really come a long way”. However, Overell was also trying to find a reason for New York’s lacklustre first half saying “we thought the guys looked OK in the warmup but they just couldn’t get out of first gear in the opening half. We made a few moves at half time but it was the players who decided to put their head over the ball and have a real crack in the second half and it showed what we can do when we get going. However you can’t play half a game of football and expect to be successful so that’s something we’ll have to go away and work on”.
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