Australian Football

Match Report

There was only one Saturday afternoon match on the schedule for this past weekend, which finds us heading over to the Alberton Oval for the contest between the Magpies and the Roosters. In the two games last year the Magpies took all the points on offer, with a six-goal win in Round 3 followed by a 10-goal hiding in Round 17. After rebounding from their opening round loss to Centrals with a resounding victory over the Redlegs last week, the Roosters came to the 'Pies nest with some renewed confidence.

That confidence seemed to show early, after letting the Magpies kick the first four majors they would kick four of their own, along with three behinds to Port's one the Roosters led by two points at the first change. However that confidence was soon put to the sword as the Magpies rammed through 10.2 to North's three behinds as the home side jumped out to a 57-point lead by the long break. That was basically the game-breaker for the Magpies, but to North's credit they set about avoiding an outright drubbing when play resumed. The Roosters would almost halve that gap by three quarter-time, kicking 5.3 and keeping the Magpies to just 1.2 to reduce the margin to 32 points. At the very least for the Roosters, it wasn't a repeat of the opening round disaster at Elizabeth, but they would leave Alberton with a 43-point loss after the 'Pies finished the game with a 6.2 to 4.3 final quarter.

Will Snelling was looking to make an impression on Power selectors, taking best on ground honours for the Magpies while the Roosters named Maris Olekalns as their standout.