JOY AT LAST FOR PIES

TSL BREAKTHROUGH WIN

THE wheel had slowly been turning for Devonport and coach Mitch Thorp’s young troops finally broke through for their first TSL victory of the season on Saturday.

Having pushed top five sides Lauderdale and Glenorchy — and blown a chance to win against the Tigers — in the past five weeks, Thorp had a sense it was only a matter of time before the hoodoo was snapped. It came to fruition in the coastal derby against Burnie, with the Magpies prevail- ing 14.10 (94) to 9.6 (60) at home to not only secure their first points of the season but also send the Dockers to the bottom of the ladder.

Thorp hailed the watershed performance, and believes it could be the catalyst to cause some finals-bound teams some headaches in the second half of the season.

“We knew we weren’t too far away and the boys were terrific,” Thorp said.

“Probably the week before, the boys walked off the ground against Glenorchy and knew they weren’t too far away from beating reasonable sides.

“After the Glenorchy effort I could sense the boys were confident heading into the week.

“When we started the first quarter the way we did it was pretty evident they weren’t going to let it slip like we did against the Tigers.

“The monkey is off the back, this now gives us that confidence that we have won a game that we needed to and it can probably springboard us into the back part of the year.”

Thorp has been unwavering through a three-year plan with his Pies, who had a big turnover of players in the off-season.

He said it was now about continuing to put the building blocks in place, with a date with high-flying Clarence awaiting at Blundstone Arena this weekend.

“I don’t think [Saturday] was necessarily our best performance, in the last month we have played some good sides and have been right in those matches.

“If we can sustain the fourquarter effort and method, we will be OK.

“It is a three-year build and for most of these young blokes it has been a steep learning curve over 10 weeks and to get the first win is the first brick in the wall.”