MARYBOROUGH went within a whisker of registering its first win of the 2014 season at Eaglehawk’s Canterbury Park on Saturday.
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In the end a match-sealing goal at the 25-minute mark of the final term Eaglehawk’s Wade Minter, playing his ninth senior game, handed the home side a nine-point victory.
It was a tight and enthralling match all afternoon. Some supporters remarked the standard wasn’t great. Nevertheless with the Magpies switched on and super competitive and leading by a point at the last change, nobody left Canterbury Park until the final siren.
The two clubs went goal for goal in the first half. With rival key forwards Matthew Bond of Maryborough (four goals) and Sean Williams (6.1) on target the scores see-sawed from all tied up to a one or two-point margin.
After Williams and Cam McGlashan had goaled for a 12-point advantage to the Hawks close to half-time the Magpies fought back.
Coby Perry (who kept Brodie Filo very quiet) found Bond for a goal and when Hayden Slater snapped another Maryborough major the scores were level once more.
Eaglehawk’s tagger Josh Ketterer shut down Magpie playmaker Evan Hurse in the second half. Hurse had been close to best afield in the opening half with his run and carry, capped off with two goals.
Up stepped Billy Mahoney, Perry and skipper Luke Bucknall as the Magpies added 3.1 in the third term.
But the Two Blues would not go away. Williams, deadly with his left foot set shots, nailed a major at the Simpson’s Rd end and when McGlashan goaled from a few metres out following a spilled ball in the square it was back to a one-point ball game.
But then after Emmet Smith and Bond goaled midway through the last term, the Magpies sneaked out to an eight-point buffer.
The relentless run from the backline from Glenn Daly and captain Luke Button kept the ball in Eaglehawk’s front half. The home side struggled to the lead and finally Minter’s sensational two-grab falling mark, followed by the sealer, ensured the Two Blues’ victory.
Hawks’ coach Luke Monaghan said his players’ delivery inside 50 hadn’t been great and the ball was turned over too frequently.
“But Sean Williams keeps producing and Minter’s second half across half-forward was good.
“It was his first senior game for us this year. He played eight senior games as a 17-year old last year,” the coach said.
Statistics – Inside 50: Eaglehawk 56, Maryborough 41. Stoppages: Maryborough 15, Eaglehawk 14. Clearances: Eaglehawk 17, Maryborough 10.