The Western Magpies left Coorparoo yesterday afternoon shattered following a 1 point loss to Morningside in the Sports Ready QAFL U/18 Division 1 Grand Final going down 8.9.57 (Morningside) to 14.7.56 (Western Magpies). Despite the obvious dissapointment of not winning the premiership the desperate, gutsy and determined performance from this group of young men has demonstrated a bright future for the Western Magpies and the whole club is very proud of them.
Two weeks ago Morningside ran over the top of the Magpies convincingly however it was not going to be the case again this week as it was clear from the very first bounce that the Magpies were going to be stong in every contest of the battle. The pressure applied from the Magpies on the more highly rated Morningside Team was outstanding through tenacous tackling, chasing, spoiling and smothering which initially stunned the Siders and the Magpies kicked away to an early lead.
Connor Sengstock was again outstanding in the Ruck against a much taller opponent and lead the charge along with inspirational Captain Stuart Wenham who was a prolific ball winner in the clinches all day for the Magpies. Chris McClennan was as always fearless in his approach to winning the contested football but was lost to the game with a hamstring injury early in the second quarter. The Magpies continued to apply the pressure through Alex Kitching who was hard at everything all day and Allan Borchardt was giving plenty of drive with his pace and damaging left foot.
The Magpies took a 4 point lead into the half time break and had successfully smothered the Panthers usual free flowing style of football but the question remained could they sustain the effort for the second half. Early on in the third nothing had changed and the arm wrestle between these two great football teams continued and goals were at a premium and the score changed but niether side could gain any significant advantage. Cameron Mithell-Hill and Paul Hardess with the support of Chris Hunt, Bryce Crossley, Jesse Hemple and Corey Colhoun continually rebounded Morningsides forward raids and the Morningside defence were also performing well as the ball pinged up and down the ground. The Western Magpies had generated mote scoring shots but were doing it in behinds and manged to stretch the lead to 6 points at 3 quarter time.
It was at the start of the last quarter that Morningside were able to take the momentum and break away from the Magpies pressure to kick three consecutive goals and establish a 12 point lead. In the next frenzied part of the final quarter the teams traded points and with time ticking away it looked as though Morningside would run away with the game. However some desperate work from the Magpies defence got the ball forward and Nick Reed kicked two goals to bring the margin back to 1 point. The Western Magpies were unable to kick a goal in what would be their final opportunity at goal but the behind leveled the scores which brought about a frenzied last few minutes with every player on the ground putting it all on the line. Morningside got the ball forward and a long shot at goal rolled across the face for a boundary throw in from which a Morningsde snap shot just snuck in for the solitary point that would win Morningside the Premiership.
It was an epic performance by the young Magpies to just fall short but we are all very proud of your effort boys and we look forward to you forming the corner stone of the Western Magpies AFC successfull future!!
"Swoop 09"
Last Modified on 07/09/2009 14:14
