Australian Football

Match Report

The last game for the weekend takes us up the Port Road to the Alberton Oval, where the Magpies hosted the Eagles in the Battle of the Birds. You have to go back to 2018 to find the Eagles' last victory against their fellow feathered foe, because over their two games in 2019 the Magpies took all the points. In Round 5 they took a 41-point win at the Eagles' nest at Oval Avenue, then rammed the point home at Alberton in Round 16 by 63 points. While the reigning premiers were forced to fully duke it out against their 2020 Grand Final opponents in their three-point win at Woodville, the Magpies' accuracy on goal in the final stanza cost them against the Tigers at Glenelg. 

That accuracy had very much improved today, but for 13 minutes in the middle of the first term, they did go to sleep a little and allowed the Eagles to stay within touch. At quarter-time, the Magpies were up by seven points, the scoreboard reading 4.2 to 3.1. But then came the second quarter, which by itself ended the match as a contest. Port rammed through 7.4 to the Eagles' single goal, the deficit blowing out to 47 points going into the rooms at the half-time break. Suddenly the Eagles were in panic mode, it was quite visible when play resumed. They spent most of the third quarter sending the ball out of bounds on the full. Port attack wasn't as fiery in the third term, but there seemed to be little they needed to do against the apparently impotent Eagles. Port added on 2.3 to the visitors' 1.1, the Magpies' lead now out to 55 points. It was definitely a shock result for the current champs, so it was a case of back to the drawing board for Jade Sheedy as the Magpies finished the job with a 3.2 to 2.3 final term to take a 10-goal win to get back on the winners list. 

State squad member Cam Sutcliffe was voted in as Port's best, notching up 25 disposals and laying six tackles. The Eagles named James Tsitas as their standout, who made 39 disposals, 21 kicks and seven marks.