Report below produced by Rachel Halleen (Assistant Coach of the team)

It was a tough week away for the Under 14 Mandurah Magic touring team at the Australian Club Championships in Hobart.  Having lost their captain and point guard, Rachel Pettit to a severe ankle injury in the week leading up to the championships, along with several girls suffering from a flu like illness, the girls were nervous and lacking confidence heading into the tournament.  Our first game on Monday was tough going down to Nunawading Spectres 55 - 17.  We lost guard Tayla Deters to an ankle injury, leaving her on crutches and out of action until the final game of the week.  Fortunately we were able to back this up with a win over Northern territory Suns by 46 points later that afternoon.

Our following game the next day was a must win against Gosford City Rebels in order to finish in the top 12, however after what was a points for points match the girls suffered a hard loss by 9 points. 

This lost left us in third place in our pool with another two games to come the next day.  We lost both these games going down to the Southern District Spartans by 28 points and the Canberra Nationals by 11 points. 

The next day we faced the Northern Territory Suns again and after fighting fatigue and sorness were able to run out winners by a commanding 19 points.  In the final for 21st place we played against the Sturt Sabres from South Australia but our run of injuries continued with Jade Briety hurting her ankel and ending up on crutches.  Young Tayla Deters bravely returned from her ankle injury in this match to play even after suffering a bout of gastro.  After a tough game the girls ended up in 22nd position losing by 37 to Sturt.

Key players for the Magic girls were Georgia Haines and Nikita Harris.  Having faced girls much taller and wider than themselves, Georgia and Nikita stamped their authority in the key way and finished the tournament as the team's top scorers.  Elise Read was also a key player and did a fantastic job at fulfilling the point guard role, as did Renae Curtis who was also in our top three scorers for the week.

Despite our run of bad luck and coming 22nd place in the competition, the Magic girls were presented with the "Jenny Cheeseman Fair Play Award" at the closing ceremony.  Jenny Cheeseman is an ex Opals player and captain and the pirpose of this award is to recognise the club that conducts itself in a respectful manner towards officials and other teams by players, coaching staff and supporters.  The award is evaluated on the following criteria technical fouls, positive play, respect towards opponents and officials, behaviour of team officials and behaviour of team supporters. 

It was an honour to recieve this award, and it goes to show that it doesnt matter how many games you win, how tall your opponent is or how young your coaches are, great sportmanship will never go unnoticed.  We feel priveleged to be the first touring team for the Mandurah Magic to recieve this award and many thanks goes to the club, your support has been much appreciated.