Mangoplah makes short work of Eagles

It was a rough weekend for the Narrandera Eagles, with all three senior football teams going down to Mangoplah CUE. The senior netball teams had more mixed results.

While not all the final scores are known yet, both B Grade and A Reserve had close, nail-biting wins against Mangoplah, with B Grade finishing up on 41-40 and A Reserve 38-37.

C Grade, the Under 17s, and A Grade all found the Mango teams too strong and suffered losses. The Under 17.5s footy side found themselves quickly swamped by Mangoplah, with the Mango team tearing out in front in the first quarter.

While the Eagles were able to get some points on the  board, the first quarter ended with Mango nearly 20 points ahead. For the rest of the game, the Under 17s were unable to close that gap.

They maintained a competitive edge, keeping pace with the Mango side’s advances, but were never able to make up the distance. The final score was 64-43.

The Reserves had a disappointing loss. The Reserves side started out competitive, but in the third quarter the Mangoplah team put on a burst of effort, kicking five goals to put a 50 point lead on the reserves. The final score was 82-38.

“It makes it pretty hard to get into the final rounds,” said reserves captain Shaun Gehringer.

“There was a glimpse of hope, but we’ll have to win the next two games.”

All the seniors’ teams will have a bye next weekend, but Mr Gehringer is optimistic for the next two games.

“We’re just hoping everyone turns up to training and really puts in the effort for the next two weeks.”

The seniors also had a loss to Mangoplah, although the Eagles were frustratingly ahead for the first half of the game. The seniors were ahead by five goals at the end of the first quarter, a lead they maintained at half time.

Mangoplah were rapidly closing the gap, however, and by the end of the third quarter Mango had pulled ahead, with the score sitting on 71-57.  Mangoplah consolidated their win in the last quarter, kicking five goals to widen the gap in points.

While the Eagles were still able to get points on the board, kicking two goals and two behinds, they were unable to catch the lead Mango had set. The final score was 104-70.

All the seniors’ teams will have a bye next weekend. The juniors’ teams are heading into the semi-finals.

While not all the information is available at the time of print, it so far the Under 11s will meet the Northern Jets in the first round of the semis, although the match location is yet to be confirmed. The Under 13s appear to be out of the competition, and the fixture for the Under 15s is yet to be confirmed.