It was a disappointing loss for the Busselton Magpies who were defeated by Harvey Brunswick Leschenault in the last quarter of round one in the South West Football League.
Both teams had similar opportunities and bouts of strength, but it was HBL forward Taine Williams who kicked a perfect bag of six goals which sealed the game for the visiting side.
The Magpies put up a good fight, but sadly lost the first game of the 2019 season by a mere nine points, 8.11-59 to 10.8-68.
Magpies coach Steve Lester said the team did really well in the third quarter and were leading the game by 10 points.
"We just could not hang on, we slipped a bit and needed to do a bit of polishing going forward in the last quarter," he said.
"It was a close game, a couple of things went our way when we had our opportunities but it just did not fall our way in the last quarter and HBL made the most of their opportunities.
"That was probably the difference in the end."
Lester said with both teams having around the same shots at goals, and both teams missing a number of opportunities and only two goals in the game - there was not much difference in strength.
"The visiting side may have taken opportunities better, they had Williams who ended up kicking six goals, which was probably one of the differences at the end of the day," he said.
"One of our forwards had six shots and kicked three-three.
"The effort was first-class and our pressure was excellent, we probably lacked a little bit of polish going forward when it was needed, which is something we will address during the week."
Magpies players Tom Begley and Matt Welborn had outstanding performances in defense during Saturday's match against HBL.
Next weekend, the Magpies take on Donnybrook in an away game. Lester said it will be a tough match with Donnybrook also coming into the game with a loss.
"They are going to be pretty fired up, it is going to be a big challenge, but if we can bring the application we had in the first game we will have a chance."
