Swallows wear down Magpies

IT was hard to find a park at Henshilwood Oval on Saturday as the Irymple Swallows took on the Merbein Magpies in a tough round three game.

The Magpies defence was good early, frazzling the Irymple attack with playing coach Johannah Gray and Keita-Rose McKee as keeper and goal defence respectively.

Shelby Trigg in attack for Irymple shot accurately and at the end of the first quarter her Swallows were four goals ahead.

Irymple took the Magpies by the beak in the second quarter shooting four goals straight between Trigg and goal attack Tarlia Couzner.

This is the first season the pair have played together and Trigg was happy to admit it has been a great pairing.

Indi Spratt in wing attack was doing all the right things and helped put pressure on the Merbein players in defence.

Aimee Geyer in attack for the Magpies and Teagen Pettigrew on the wing helped stem the Irymple flow a little but Merbein were still in a scoring deficit at half-time, down by eight goals.

The Swallows increased their lead in the third quarter with the support of Sam Garraway and Alice Leeder in defence who both had fantastic games. Zoe Chiswell in goals for Merbein shot accurately when she could get her hands on the ball and Gray in defence provided constant support for her Magpies players who were tiring.

In the last quarter, Merbein had Vanessa Rodi on the wing trying to lift the Magpies but Irymple were too strong with a winning margin of sixteen goals.

“I couldn’t have been happier with the win and having two weeks off was great,” Trigg said.

She was delighted that Leeder had stepped up into goal keeper and Sam Garraway played so well after having an injury scare during the week.

“We play Wentworth next week and we will take it as an exciting opportunity to play this well-oiled team,” she said. “We will keep chipping away at training.”