Australian Football

Match Report

Sunday afternoon brought the old rivals together at Alberton Oval as the Magpies faced the Redlegs. The rivalry has been awfully one-sided over the course of the last five seasons, the Redlegs have taken the points in all but two of the past 14 outings including this year's season opener at The Parade. While the Magpies were still on the cusp of finding their feet as an AFL reserves side, the Redlegs took a 19-point win. Despite recently being somewhat exposed by the Bulldogs and the Panthers, the Magpies sit on the top of the ladder with one hand on the minor premiership.

The Redlegs were woefully inaccurate early on, their six-point quarter-time lead built on missed opportunities after kicking 2.7 to the Magpies' 2.1. The Magpies capitalised on their arch-rival's goal-scoring problems in the second term, kicking 4.2 to the 'Legs three behinds to take a 17-point lead by half-time. When play resumed for the second half, the Redlegs accuracy didn't improve much but it would still see them reel the Magpies' lead back to within a kick by the final change. Norwood kicked 4.4 to Port's 2.1 as the deficit was brought back to just two points at three quarter-time. The final term was rather dull in terms of the scoring, but this arm-wrestling match would no doubt have led to massive finger-nail issues in the crowd. Unfortunately for the Redlegs, their only score of the term would be a point. The Magpies would take the only goal of the quarter, along with a pair of behinds they would take the victory to the margin of nine points.

Samuel Gray was named best afield for the Magpies, while the Redlegs named Sam Baulderstone as their best afield.