A fine nine: Brock Harvey leads South Bendigo to shootout win over Magpies

At Harry Trott Oval on Saturday, South Bendigo had the biggest gun in an entertaining back-and-forth clash with Castlemaine.

Bloods forward Brock Harvey kicked nine goals in his side's 21.6 (132) to 14.6 (90) victory, including two early in the final term to ice the game.

Harvey was locked in a battle with Magpies full forward, and coach Michael Hartley, who slotted seven of his own and proved his ability in the air, is going to be a handful for opposition defences all season in the BFNL.

The 42-point defeat was slightly unfair on Castlemaine, who were right in the match for most of the day.

The rhythm of the game for the first three quarters was set in a cycle of the Bloods getting out to a five-goal lead before the Magpies brought it back to a two-kick game and the Bloods responding from there.

The Bloods showed a great deal of mental resilience, continuously responding when the Magpies gained ascendency, which left co-coach Isaiah Miller proud of his side's first win in 2024.

"It was pleasing to see when they challenged us, we responded especially through the midfield winning clearances at critical stages," Miller said.

For a midfield that has deservedly been pumped up this pre-season, the Magpies were comfortably beaten around the footy, with the Bloods dominating centre clearances and applying far more tackling heat.

Tait Poyser was given the role of negating Bailey Henderson, and he did a fantastic job, with the star Magpie having limited impact in the first half.

Henderson was swung forward in the second half after Bradley Keogh rolled his ankle.

Kalan Huntly was excellent for the Magpies, but he had little help.

"I thought our midfield was awesome with their contested work," Miller said.

"The boys held their width better than last week and weren't sucked into the contest.

"We gave Tait (Poyser) the job on Bailey Henderson, and he shut him out of the midfield, which limited their ability to get the ball going forward."

When John Watson kicked his second of the third term after the siren, the Magpies had brought the margin back to 11 points.

They had the momentum as well, kicking four of the last five majors in the third stanza.

But it was as close as they came, with the Bloods nailing seven goals to two in the last quarter.

Magpies coach Michael Hartley was pleased with the effort but admitted skill errors likely cost them the match.

"The endeavour and fight was there, but we lacked a little polish with our fundamental skills," Hartley said.

"When we turned it over, they went down the other end, and Brock Harvey got on the end of a few.

"It's a bit disappointing because we were thereabouts right up to three-quarter-time, but the scores from turnover ended up killing us, and they pulled away."

When it's firing, the Magpies ball movement is of top-five quality.

But they are still searching for the final connection piece which should come in time.

Hartley looks a presence down forward and could win a game or two of his own boot this season, but when the ball hit the ground on Saturday, the Magpie's small forwards were nowhere to be seen, with the Blood's defence always getting numbers around the footy and mopping up.

"When the ball hit the deck, our defence was really good at getting it out of the danger zone and rebounding well to set up some scores," Miller said

"There's still room for improvement, and we're in the process of figuring out some matchups, having lost a couple of bigger bodies, but yesterday was good signs after half-time."

Brody Haddow started the day poorly causing a back half turnover that led to the Magpies opening major, but the gun accumulator bounced back and was the Bloods best midfielder.

He was well supported by Anthony Zimmerman, who kicked three goals from the midfield, while fellow recruit Matthew McNaughton was in far better touch this week.

Riley Walsh and Will Marks were good in the ruck, and it proved a point of difference in the absence of Magpie's number one ruck, Brodie Browne-Kerr, who is out with a broken wrist.

In more bad news for the Magpies faithful, quality midfielder Callum McConachy also missed the clash with a broken wrist.