Saints are on a roll, Port bounces back

Photo: Brad Greenshields, Coffs Coast Advocate

Sawtell Toormina Saints surprising season of success keeps on rolling on!

The Saints kept their unbeaten record in tact when they claimed the honours in the second local derby of the season. The win extends the gap on the ladder over Coffs Harbour Breakers to 12 points who now know they have their work cut out to maintain contact with their nearest rival.

The Breakers find themselves in the middle of an injury crisis  that isn’t likely to end soon and which undoubtedly contributed to the 10 goal loss. Coach Kevin Wilson is sweating on the return of key players and will be urging the club medicos to work around the clock to get those players back on the park.

The Saints welcomed Jimmy Angel to his first match of the season and the old stager proved he can still mix it at this level with three goals. Big man Leif Stuart kicked three goals of his own in just his second match of the season to give the Saints a much more familiar and threatening look in attack.

Nick Stanlan-Velt continued his season of consistency with three goals, whilst Royce Close returned from Alice Springs to add two.

The key difference in the match was that Sawtell had ten individual goal kickers, with four of those posting multiples, whilst Breakers were limited to four goals kickers and only two multiple contributors.

Sawtell Toormina Saints 16.13 (109) defeated Coffs Harbour Breakers 7.7 (49)

The Sawtell Women’s season is almost a carbon copy of their men as they maintained a firm grip on the top of the ladder with a seven goal win over the Breakers.

Breakers were able to hold Sawtell to just three goals to three quarter time but it was their ongoing inability to build scoreboard pressure that was ultimately their undoing.

The game opened up in the last quarter with Sawtell adding a further three goals to seal the win. Keira Bassett was once again the main avenue to goal with three majors, and got great support from Maggie Mills with two, whilst Kacee Uikelotu managed her first of the season.

Breakers have the bye next week and will use this time off to regroup and re-focus. Coach Brad Giri, captain Bella Crawley, and experienced players such as Remi Banuelos will be working overtime to tweak the game plan in an effort to find a consistent avenue to goal.

Sawtell Toormina Saints 6.5 (41) defeated Coffs Harbour Breakers 0.1 (1)

Port Macquarie Magpies are feeling relieved after their win over Grafton Tigers, whilst the Tigers will be looking at the match as a missed opportunity.

After a bad loss in the previous round the last thing the Magpies wanted was a road trip to Grafton. They started well and held a six goal lead at half time, which increased to nine goals by the last break. If the Magpies felt comfortable at this stage they were soon looking over their shoulder as the Tigers went on a goal kicking run, posting five goals to two for the term to ultimately come up 29 points short.

The Tigers are a much better outfit at Ellem Oval and are looking like they can pose problems for all of the other teams when at home. The final margin could have been much closer with better kicking at goal as Grafton racked up 21 scoring shots against 25 for Port, but it was the slow start that was the root cause of the result.

Luke Boxhall and Sam Johnson stood up for the Magpies with four goals apiece, while Brice Hayward added two. They were well serviced by Craig Dicker who can always be relied upon to lead the way for his team.

Grafton’s main contributors were captain/coach Chris Curthoys and Kieran Francis who both kicked two. Luke Stanford was in middle of everything that was good for the Tigers and managed one goal of his own.

Port Macquarie Magpies 14.11 (95) defeated Grafton Tigers 9.12 (66)

For full results click here.