THE Magpies Open team took to the court this weekend in a Super Round contested over two days in Busselton and Leschenault. With many players away, the Open team had to pull up players from A Reserves and the ‘Semi-retired Legends Bench’ to field a team on the Saturday game against South Bunbury in Busselton.
The untried combo tried hard in the first quarter to gel as a team, coming off two down at quarter time. The girls stayed positive and drew on their combination of youthful exuberance and experience in the second quarter. A brilliant side line save by Sophie Brandis inspired the team with Shinae Dugan following this up with three spectacular intercepts and Jess Burge and Chon Milner contributing with lightening snatches from the Bunbury team to be five up by half-time.
Motivated by Milner’s enthusiasm and experience, the girls resumed the court with a blistering attack on South Bunbury with a chase down by Dugan, strong intercepts, tap outs and rebounds by Burg and Sasha Bradley and accurate shooting by Rennie Sansom. Tight defending across the court made South Bunbury work extra hard for every goal as Busselton drew to a 10-goal lead.
Steph Millen brought fresh legs to attack in the last quarter, teaming up with the tireless youth of Brandis in goals. The midcourt was feeling the pain, resulting in some hasty passing and turnovers and Busselton conceded three goals early in the final quarter before gutsy intercepts by Burg and Mikaela Everuss drove the team home to an entertaining eight-goal win.
With little time for recovery, the Open team travelled to Leschenault on Sunday for the second game of the weekend, playing Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault (HBL). A bit of muscle stiffness had them down early by four points to HBL, but a finger tip intercept on full stretch by Belle Hancock and strong rebounding at both ends triggered a recovery to within one goal.
A spectacular intercept by Riley Culnane saw them even after the quarter-time break. Tight defense work and a flying intercept from Harmony Sutherland, a loose ball snatch by Burge and strong confident shooting from Emma Bradley put the Magpies six goals in front, but they couldn’t maintain the momentum and half-time saw them with a one-goal lead.
A strong four-goal surge by HBL greeted them on return for the second half, with tough physical defense by HBL ensuring they maintained their lead. Despite continuous effort by Ashton Embry and Hancock to feed the shooters, the tough defense line from HBL helped them gradually pull away to a 10-goal win.
It was a well fought game in the Open Reserves for the first three quarters against South Bunbury but the last quarter got away from them resulting in a loss. Coach Jodi Dugan said “the new girls to the squad are getting to know each other’s game and starting to show great potential for a very promising season and will only improve with training and game time”.
Round three see’s all teams travel to Harvey on May 1.