Kaidan Bell’s last minute sideline conversion helped the Magpies see off the fast finishing West Belconnen Warriors.
The biggest of upsets occurred at Walker Park on Saturday, when the Yass Magpies scraped home with an unlikely 22-20 win over third-placed West Belconnen Warriors courtesy of a Kaidan Bell penalty goal after the siren that sent the home crowd into raptures.
“It was probably our best performance of the year”, said Magpies coach Luke Berkrey. “I thought we defended well and knocked off a pretty good side.” The last time these sides faced off, the Magpies fell short, losing by nearly 40 points. “They’re a contender given the year they have had, so to beat them the way we did was just so good. I thought we were probably better than the score line reflects, but it doesn’t matter, a win’s a win”.
For the Magpies, the season hasn’t been easy. The side has quality players and has demonstrated strength, but has struggled to bring it together adequately and be consistent. “There are parts of the season that are frustrating, that is one of the first times we have put together a real 80-minute performance from start to finish. You know they scored a couple of tries, obviously we were down the whole second half, they scored one of the kick kicking over the top and one where they pushed the ball wide. I was pleased about the boys and how they showed up and defended against a big, strong side.”
“Jyi Little scored three tries, Cooper O’Connor was massive for us, plenty of carries when we needed him and Rana Baker was awesome in his role, these boys helped us a lot against a strong Belconnen side that certainly have a big pack but maybe with the ground being wet we certainly upped our defence and made them uncomfortable at times and offset them with our defence Lane Davis came through strong defensively he was huge coming up with big shots and put them on the back foot I don’t think may teams have done that to them this year.”
“Lane Davis played lock, but he’s been playing in the front row too this year. He is still only young, and he has been a great player for us.”
“Kaidan Bell got the ball over from the sideline at the end of the game to win it for us.” “I said a few weeks back what a pleasure it has been to see Kaidan develop. He showed so much promise in Gundagai, and we feel as though now he’s living up to his potential. When we got the chance to take the two points, I asked him what he thought, and he said to me, “I’ll kick this easy.” “That confidence he has in himself filled throughout the whole team, myself especially, I knew it was going through the sticks between the ball ever left his foot.
“It’s always a pleasure to play and win in front of the home crowd at Walker Park. This is something we will remember for a long time. We have the bye this weekend, and we are looking to stack momentum as we face the Belconnen Sharks the following week.”
– Liam Stuart
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