The Western Magpies were defeated by 20 points, 16-12-108 to 13-10-88, by the second placed Broadbeach in a high pressure clash at Chelmer on Saturday. Both sides were guilty of lapses in concentration and had moments when they dominated only then to be dominated.
The Magpies allowed Broadbeach to take early control to go to a 3 goal lead early before fighting back late in the quarter to be on top at the first break.
The Pies then rued a poor second quarter in which they gave up an 4 point quarter time lead to allow the Cats to boot 7 goals to 2 in a dominant second quarter to lead by 31 points at half time.
Coach Glenn Humphrey at halftime asked his players to take the Cats on and be prepared to run and link up and his players responded with a dominant third quarter, booting 6 goals to 1 to be level at three quarter time.
The Pies were also patchy at other times in the match and after the scores were level at three quarter time the Pies booted the first goal of the last quarter to give their supporters hope they could go on with the job. It was not to be as the visitors better use of the ball into their forward line late in the match enabled them to earn a well deserved victory.
The Pies and their coaching staff were disappointed all the same as they played good football for two and a half quarters but went missing for the other time in the match. Broadbeach punished them with 11 of their 16 goals in a quarter and half of football. Coach Glenn Humphrey commented "our attack on the football and commitment to working defensively was terrible. For parts they were good enough, but not for long enough.”
A highlight of the match was a third quarter Magpies goal when Matt Hockley played on from a kick-in with a long kick to young gun Matt Uebergang on the wing who kicked a 60 metre bomb to an unmarked Matt Davis who was able to stroll in unopposed to kick the goal--it took all of 10 seconds (a three-Matt goal!!).
Chris Hunt continued his recent good form with a strong display in defence both in the air and at ground level, Dom Beer was again good in ruck and around the ground, Peter Kilroy was solid and creative at half-back on return from a few weeks out with injury, Matt Uebergang showed why he regarded as one of Queensland's best prospects with glimpses of his prodigious talent, Aaron Yusia-Maricic was creative on a wing, Matt Davis presented all day up forward and Ben Jaenke-Cain and Ben Landry were hard working in the mid-field.
Two concerns for coach Glenn Humphrey are the inconsistency of his team and poor disposal with missed targets resulting in costly turnovers and he will be working on this aspect of the team's preparation during the week in readiness for another big clash with Labrador on the Gold Coast on Saturday. The young Pies are more than a match for any QAFL opponent when they put it together but need to do it for 120 minutes to be able to win the tight contests.
Last Modified on 26/05/2014 21:25