BodyKey Chiropractic - Ressies Review
Andrew Thomson
UNDERMANNED RESERVES BATTLED ON GAMELY
A patched up and undermanned Western Magpies Reserves were well beaten on the scoreboard but battled hard to the end of the match and their season against top placed Morningside on Saturday.
The Pies long injury list caught up with the Reserves and managed to patch together a team with top up players from several lower division clubs and a few ex-players in Luke De Nys, Jesse Pukullus and Todd Billing and club conditioning coach James Nightingale answering the call.
The Pies went down 19.12-126 to 2.4-16.
A goalless first half reflected the nature of the team but the Pies never gave in and in the second half restricted the Panthers to 7 goals while snaring two goals themselves.
A highlight was a goal to defender Sean McEvoy in his return match from injury after receiving three 50 metre penalties to go from half back to the goalsquare --he couldn't miss!!
Luke De Nys had a fine game in defence in his first and last for the season and forced the question to be asked of "what might have been?". Brady Allen also worked hard in defence and not surpisingly another defender in Jamie Page also had plenty to do in another consistent performance.
Stand-in skipper Bryce Crossley again had plenty of the ball in midfield and led from the frontand will be a warm favourite to add a second JB Medal to his trophy cabinet. Joshua White has been a fine recruit this year and again had a busy game on ball and veteran Sean Mewing was a workhorse in trying to stem the tide early in the match.
Despite the 110 point loss coach Craig Allen was pleased with the effort shown by his team, especially after half time, but skill errors and turnovers were pounced on by a strong Morningside team who made the Pies pay on the scoreboard.
This was the final outing in what was a tough season for the reserves in 2017
Morningside 7.3-45 11.4-70 16.10-106 19.12-126
Western Magpies 0.0-0 0-2-2 1.3-9 2.4-16
Western Magpies
Goal Kickers: S. McEvoy, J. Pukallus
Best Players: L. De Nys, B. Crossley, B. Allen, J. White, S. Mewing, J. Page