Cody Bell and Kaidan Bell flank Coach Luke Berkrey on Saturday. The Trio have been playing well together with a win surely not too far away for the side.
The Yass Magpies continue to push for their first win of the 2025 season and probably should have taken the win against Gungahlin on Saturday with a number of moments and possible outcomes going against them in the see-sawing battle at Walker Park. Coach Luke Berkrey is keen on delivering a win for the town and the town needs to get along and support the Magpies to help that happen. He got two meat pies himself and was ably assisted by Cody Bell, who has been a revelation in the Centres thus far, scoring his second Hat-trick in as many weeks, both in a losing side, whilst brother Kaidan chipped in with a try and 3 conversions against the Bulls.
Yass is trying but they can’t seem to play for the entire game, some of the players appear to go missing for short periods of time where concentration issues emerge. It hasn’t been the case for the Bell brothers with Kaidan often setting up the majority of the scoring options on the left edge, many with his younger brother where the defence is struggling to contain him.
82 points were scored in the match highlighting the defensive lapses of both sides and defence is a key for a Luke Berkrey coached side.
Berkrey said, “We are just letting ourselves down defensively. It has been an issue all year, and something we are certainly working on and we will start to see some improvements.
“The scoreline probably doesn’t show it, but there was some improvement there.
“Unfortunately, I think they might have scored five tries off kicks. They killed us in the end.
“We need to focus on us and make sure we get that right before we can complain about the opposition.
“We need to improve the defence. We just need to get better for longer periods. We’ve probably taken a few little shortcuts, and they have come back to burn us, so we need to be a bit more consistent for longer periods and keep working together as a unit.
“Our left side probably had a bit of joy. I think they might have scored five of the six tries on that left-hand edge. They certainly did a good job out there, but the middle certainly did a big job, and they’re a bit undermanned at the moment, so they’re doing a great job for us.
“Cody Bell was a standout, I think he scored three tries, so he was a good one for us, and Cooper O’Connor again has been the same every week, he’s been great every week. He’s been a real joy to coach.
“I think he’s (Cody) currently leading the try scoring, he’s had about nine in the four games. He’s doing a great job of finding the try line, and some blokes are doing a good job inside and making sure he’s getting the ball at the right time.
“He’s been a good pickup for us, and hopefully, we can get more and more out of him.
“When we went into the market looking for new players, we went for the young guys. We’ve got a lot of guys anywhere from 20 to 23, so hopefully they take a lot of lessons out of the game and just keep seeing the guys improve and then moving forward over the next couple of years, I will get more and more consistency out of those players.
“It’s hard to go from the bottom to the top and it takes work and it takes time and it’s something that we’ve spoken about to the club that this is a thing that’s going to take time and if you want to go out and spend a lot of money and try and buy a team, it’s going to come back to bite you in a couple years time.
It’s hard to compete with some of the dollars being thrown around from the Canberra clubs as well, so certainly developing the players and then developing the juniors, hopefully whoever’s coming in long after me will reap those rewards.
“We’ve certainly had some good support at the games, and we are hoping to get a win there soon too, to thank them for that and keep them coming.
“I think the boys are gaining confidence slowly in regards to the way we are playing. In every game, we have certainly had moments where we’ve been on top of the teams we are playing, we’ve played some good sides, but certainly that win does boost up a lot of confidence, makes rolling into training on Tuesday a lot more fun and a lot easier. Hopefully, we can knock that over pretty fast.
“The team is pretty similar to last years. We lost a couple and then gained a few younger fellas as well. Hopefully, moving forward, we can keep that nucleus and just grow on that.
Kaidan Bell has been playing in the halves and holds a special connection with his younger brother Cody, having played much of their juniors together and playing backyard footy with their father Chris.
He said, “The season hasn’t been as bad as it maybe looks on paper. It’s not like we’ve been getting smashed, we’ve been in it. We’ve just had those ten minute lapses and that’s where the games got away from us.
“I’m happy playing in the halves. I feel like we’re starting to grow as a team and hopefully the results reflect that soon.
“Having someone as experienced as Berks on the outside is a pleasure. He actually called the pass for the ball on the inside on Saturday and then when he scored that try he called it again. He reads the game so well and has been a massive help.
Kaidan has also been kicking goals which is something that comes naturally for the young half.
“It came naturally (becoming the teams goal kicker). Growing up I was into it a fair bit. I’ve been kicking alright this year. I’ve only kicked for the two games as Jacob (Lucas) kicked round one and two. I like it, I enjoy the challenge.
Cody has enjoyed running off his older brother in 2025 as their understanding of each other’s games continues to deepen and flourish from backyard footy all those year ago to First Grade.
He said, “Yeah it’s going well, the people here are good. It’s fun, loose and just a good club really.
“It’s unbelievable. He knows me like no other and I know the same about him.
Cody highlighted the connection between him and his brother. “Without him I wouldn’t have these tries.”
“On the field I just tell him to do this or that and he will just give me the ball or he will kick it for me. We are pretty much in tune with each other.
“Overall as a team, I believe in periods we are just letting ourselves down. In those ten minute periods we just let it get away and then we are sitting there fighting to get back points to catch up again.
Cody nearly got the Magpies over the line with a treble on Saturday fighting until the end down the left edge with his brother
“You’ve got myself and Kaidan, the Sing boys and Jacob. It’s a new team really for Yass and if we can all gel together we could be handy team.
The Magpies will face their toughest test yet on Saturday in round 6 when they take on the Queanbeyan Kangaroos at 3:00pm at Seears Workwear Oval.
In other matches the Magpies League Tag went down 22-0. Reserve Grade were pumped 50-6, 19s were thrashed 60-8 while the Katrina Fanning Shield side went down 20-14.
Tully Potts
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