Saints march on, Port bows out
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In a remarkable achievement for the club, Sawtell Toormina Saints have progressed to their seventh straight AFL North Coast Senior Grand Final with a comfortable victory over Port Macquarie Magpies in the Preliminary Final.
Both teams started strongly with the first term exchanges indicating that a monumental battle was on the cards. This was reflected in the scoreline at the first break which saw the Saints with their noses in front by seven points.
Sawtell turned up the intensity in the second quarter and found that Port weren’t able to match them. A six goal to one term saw the lead out to 39 points at the long break and Sawtell were never troubled for the remainder of the match.
Port’s third term was drastically improved following sage advice at the break from coach Tom Marmo. They narrowly outscored Sawtell in the quarter but could only reduce the deficit by three points. Having topped up their numbers with several Reserve Grade and under 17 players the Magpies ran out of legs in the last quarter to see the Saints ease out to a comfortable 59 point win.
Veteran Jim Angel led the way for Sawtell with four goals. He received great support from the younger brigade with Mitch Napier kicking three, whilst Jordan Perks and Josh Little both added two.
Brendan Badenoch was Port’s main avenue to goal with four majors for the match. Lachie Philpott and Brice Hayward rounded out the scoring for Port with one goal apiece.
Sawtell coach Brandt Lee was more impressed with the performance than the scoreline. “Last week our effort was great but our distribution let us down. This week we’ve managed to maintain the intensity level and have improved our efficiency by both hand and foot to deliver the type of performance we expect of ourselves.”
Following the match Port coach Tom Marmo was already looking to next season. “This season we’ve introduced young guys such as Kye Wilson, Ed Smith, and Marraki Kilpatrick to the team and next year we’ll be bringing through the next crop including Dom Byrne and Layton Gray. I’m really positive that these players can raise the standard of our team and help us to go further in next year’s competition.”
Sawtell Toormina Saints 14.15 (99) defeated Port Macquarie Magpies 6.4 (40)
The Senior result was a disappointing end to the day for the Port Macquarie club after their other two teams both won through to the Grand Final to give them three competing teams on the big day.
Port’s Women earned their place in the season decider with a good win over Coffs Harbour Breakers.
The Magpies were able to hold the Breakers scoreless in the first half to look comfortable at half time with a 35 point lead. However a spirited fightback by the Breakers in the third term saw Lisa Flick and Casey Miosge post goals to wrestle the momentum from Port.
The Magpies steadied in the final term through goals to Anishah Burnes and Cambridge McCormick to ease away to a 41 point win.
The big match experience of Port duo Cambridge McCormick and Amy Foo was a key factor in the outcome. Anishah Burnes finished the match with three goals, and the returning Britt Hargreaves was as reliable as ever to slot two majors.
Katika Adams, Cass Ronalds, and Rachel Mounter all battled strongly for Breakers but, in the end, the team’s injury toll was too high to overcome.
Port Macquarie Magpies 8.8 (56) defeated Coffs Harbour Breakers 2.3 (15)
Earlier in the day Port Macquarie’s Under 17 team bounced back from last week’s disappointment to record a 37 point victory over the Grafton Tigers.
After a harrowing one point loss in the Semi Final the last thing the young Magpies wanted was another close match and they ensured this wouldn’t be the case with an opening term blitz that saw them out to a four goal lead at the first break. They maintained their focus during the second and third quarters to extend their advantage at each break and pulled further ahead in the final term before two players were given enforced breaks and Grafton were able to add some gloss to the scoreline.
Kye Wilson kicked three goals for Port, with Ed Smith, Harrison King, Jukiah Crowhurst, and Alex Byrne each adding two.
The Tigers looked as though the week off leading into this match did them more harm than good as it took them until quarter time to switch on and get into the match. Clancy O’Neill (four goals), Joel Ashby (two goals), Evan Whitty (one goal), and Kade Bagnall led the way for the Tigers but the slow start left them with too much ground to make up.
Port Macquarie Magpies 12.11 (83) defeated Grafton Tigers 7.4 (46)
The last piece in the Grand Final day puzzle was claimed by Coffs Harbour Breakers whose Reserve Grade team beat local rivals Sawtell Toormina Saints.
This match was close up until three quarter time, with just 16 points the difference in favour of Breakers, but a three goal final term sealed a comfortable win.
Josh Hunt was busy all round the ground for Breakers and sealed a strong performance with three goals. The other multiple goal kickers for the victors were Jack Parmenter and Adam Mason with two goal each.
Sawtell had Jordan Lark as their main focal point with three goals but were unable to find another multiple goal kicker in what proved to be a key factor in the match outcome.
Coffs Harbour Breakers 11.5 (71) defeated Sawtell Toormina Saints 5.4 (34)