PARKSIDE remedied its Watton Street hoodoo with a 15-point win over Wyndhamvale Falcons in the Western Region Football League division 2 qualifying final at Avalon Airport Oval on Saturday.
The Magpies have endured a long streak of bad results at the ground in the recent years and are hoping the victory will prove a turning point for future trips up the Princes Highway.
“We’ve had a bit of a hoodoo down at Werribee,” Magpies vice-captain Chris Muratore said.
“We hadn’t won there for about four years. For a few of us, we just wanted to get a win to able to sing the song there.”
Check out our gallery from the Altona Vikings v Sunshine Kangaroos clash by clicking on the image below.
Aside from the exorcising the negative vibes, a much bigger prize is on offer for the Magpies, who will get the first crack at undefeated minor premiers Yarraville-Seddon Eagles in the second semi-final at at Crofts Reserve on Saturday.
You get a sense that if any team is going to ruffle the Eagles’ feathers, it will be the Magpies. Time and again this season, they have proven to be the best of the rest and done it at a variety of venues and under varying conditions.
Significantly, the wider expanses of the finals
venues no longer daunts them.
Muratore says big grounds are no longer the Magpies’ Achilles heel.
“We’ve just got more depth through the midfield,” he said. “Now we can rotate 10 to 11 players through so we’ve always got that extra bit of run, where we used to rely on four or five blokes.
“It’s especially important on a big ground like Werribee where we’ve probably been found out a couple of times in the past couple of years.
“We’re able to use the bench a lot more, which gave us the fresh legs to keep running for the whole game.”
The Magpies – kings of the clearances for a long time – showed they have not neglected that part of the game. They smashed the Falcons at the stoppages with Paul Clemente, Nick Grant, Jimmy Franklin and Muratore prominent.
“We were first to the footy,” Muratore said.
“That pretty much won us the game.”
The Magpies had their noses in front by two goals at half-time and took the game by the scruff of the neck with a six-goals-to-nil third term.
Power forwards Fab Mastropasqua and Mo Khartabil each booted five goals and Darcy
McMahon was impenetrable across half-back.
The Falcons made a late charge, but it was too
little, too late.
Tim Badura continues to roam free for the Magpies and was best-afield for his role as a defensive wingman.
His contrast in style from the more attacking Adrian Gervasi on the other wing makes him so important to the team structure. “He won’t touch the ball 30 times, but he’ll do every single thing he can to help the team out,” Muratore said.
“He punches and spoils and tackles, chops out the backs all the time and fills in the holes.
“He does whatever the coach asks of him. He’s been unbelievable all year.”
The other division 2 semi-final will be a cut-throat one between Wyndhamvale and Coburg Districts at Crofts Reserve on Sunday.
In division 1, Altona Vikings stitched up the minor premiership and a week’s rest in the finals with a 26-point win over Sunshine Kangaroos at Grant Reserve.
Spotswood primed up for its title defence with a 194-point shellacking of North Footscray in the last round at McLean Reserve.
