St Mary’s shine in eight-straight start
NEWTOWN & Chilwell coach Damien McMahon admits his side was simply outplayed by a St Mary’s side that blew the game open in a blistering first half.
Going down by 27 points under the lights at Anthony Costa Oval, McMahon said his side was no match for the rampant Saints, who were supremely led by spearhead Tom Gillies.
“We just got outplayed, that’s the best way to put it,” McMahon said of the Eagles’ Round 1 loss.
“Their forwards were red- hot early, particularly Gillies, who took a few good, strong contested marks on the lead and kicked the ball through the middle.
“I think they kicked eight straight before they missed one. On the flip side, we couldn’t make it inside our forward 50, and when we did, we couldn’t convert.
“Look, their forwards got on top of our backs early and controlled us in that part of the ground. The stoppages and inside 50s were pretty even, but that was biggest difference in the game.”
In a positive for the undermanned Eagles, who were missing Lochlan Dhurrkay and Bevan Shelley among others, they finished the match strongly by holding the Saints goalless.
“We had the breeze in the last quarter and they probably dropped off because they knew the game was won and we stepped it up a little bit,” McMahon said.
“But the damage was done in the third quarter. We got it back to 21 points and it looked like we were about to surge and we gave away a silly free kick and a 50m penalty that eventuated in a goal and it swung the momentum back the other way.”
McMahon was full of praise for the grand finalist, who he regards as the early-season flag favourite.
“My personal view is they are going to be the hardest team to beat,” McMahon said.
“They have recruited as well as anyone and they haven’t really lost a lot. They’ve still got players to come back in and I think they’re going to be a very good team.
“They’re very well organised and well structured and they played accordingly. We were under no illusions that they were going to be a formidable opponent, and for us, it was an education to play one of the best teams in Round 1 and get an understanding of where we’re at.”
The Eagles will improve, but McMahon believes it could take time to click.
“We’re a team that needs to play a bit of footy together to come together,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of new players at our club and they’re playing some key roles, but we’ve got to work out how we can move the ball better than we did last night (Saturday night).
“We need to be cleaner with the footy, and if we can do that, I think we’ll be one of the better teams in the competition as well. We’ve got a number of players unavailable due to injury.’