Sawtell and Port claim important wins

Sawtell Toormina Saints have sprung the first surprise of the AFL North Coast season by beating the Coffs Breakers under lights at Fitzroy Oval/The Old Camp.

Breakers were without the services of McKinlay Pearce, Chris Frangos, and Jacob Sincock who were on the Gold Coast for Sydney Swans Reserves duty, but it looked as though their absence would be more than covered when Breakers held a 10 point lead at three quarter time. The Saints produced a six goal to none final term to run away with the match and claim the early season bragging rights.

A highly entertaining and quality match saw the two teams locked on the scoreboard at the first break. The Saints forged ahead in the second quarter to open a two goal lead and it looked as though the missing trio of Breakers players could be the key to the match, before Breakers rallied strongly in the third to limit Sawtell to a solitary behind whilst kicking four goals of their own. Breakers couldn’t maintain the intensity and Sawtell decisively reclaimed the lead to run away with the win by four goals.

Mitch Napier backed up his seven goals in round one with a further three against Breakers, and was joined on this mark by Kane Radford. Todd Fagan added two goals whilst the Saints had four other individual goal kickers.

For Breakers, the returning Nick Stanlan-Velt and Shaydan Close each kicked three goals, whilst Luke Valdes and Jay Guthrie each booted one. Ultimately it was the lack of a spread of other contributors that proved the difference on the scoreboard.

Sawtell Toormina Saints 12.10 (82) defeated Coffs Harbour Breakers 8.10 (58)

Port Macquarie Magpies got their season underway in style, recording a 147 point win against the undermanned Grafton Tigers.

In an ominous opening to the match Port booted five opening quarter goals and held the Tigers scoreless. Grafton improved in the second term after some stern words from coach Chris Curthoys and were able to post their first goal of the match, but other than this it was one way traffic as the Magpies piled on seven goals for the quarter.

The second half followed the same script with Port adding a further 13 goals against one more from Grafton to end in a confidence boosting victory for the Magpies.

Grafton on the other hand have plenty to work on and will be looking forward to their first match of the season at Ellem Oval next Saturday where they know they will compete better.

Port spearhead Sam Johnson was surprisingly quiet last week but has now raced to the lead in the League goal kicking charts with 11 goals against the Tigers. He got great support from the mercurial Jesse Schmidt with five goals, and Luke Boxhall with four.

Luke Butler and Sam Hardes were the only players able to post majors for the Tigers on a busy day for the team’s backs.

Port Macquarie Magpies 25.13 (163) defeated Grafton Tigers 2.4 (16)

In the Women’s competition, Sawtell Toormina Saints marked themselves as the team to beat with a strong 52 point victory over Coffs Harbour Breakers in wet and slippery conditions.

Keira Basset gave a goal kicking master class in just her second match of AFL, kicking six of the team’s total of seven majors, including a number of snapped goals that wouldn’t have been out of place in AFLW.

Saints had the best of the first quarter, going to the break with a 15 point advantage. The rain set in by early in the second quarter making ball handling and kicking much more difficult and this was clearly reflected on the scoreboard with just two goals added across the second and third quarters, both by Sawtell.

The rain had mostly cleared for the final term and Sawtell had their most productive period of the match, kicking three more goals to ease away to what looked a comfortable win. However Breakers battled strongly throughout, made the Saints earn every possession, and certainly weren’t outclassed.

Sawtell certainly felt the benefit of continuity, having also played in round one. Breakers have that advantage next week against Port and should be much better placed for the chance to be backing up.

Sawtell Toormina Saints 7.10 (52) defeated Coffs Harbour Breakers 0.0 (0)

For full results click here.