Eagles fall to dominant Magpies

Busselton rebounded from a poor performance last weekend to record a dominant 58-point victory over an injury-depleted Collie Eagles at Sir Stewart Bovell Park on Saturday.

The Eagles were missing a number of players, but unveiled former AFL midfielder Ryan Crowley in their 16.11 (107) to 7.7 (49) loss to the Magpies.

Busselton were missing important players as well, with captain Aiden Fraser and key position player Jed Kemp both notable omissions.

The Magpies had first use of the breeze and jumped out of the blocks.

The home side was strong across half back and through the midfield, while Reegan Mrsich started where he left off the previous week, kicking three goals in the opening quarter.

After early second-quarter goals to Jackson Arbon and Ethan Bowman, it looked like the Magpies were going to run away with the game. The Eagles responded by putting together their best period of play for the match.

They kicked three quick goals to reduce the margin to 21 points and looked like they could mount a challenge.

This was quickly snuffed out though, with Busselton kicking two late majors to take a 31-point lead to the main break.

The breeze dropped away after half-time, but that did not stop the home team from dominating in the third quarter.

Jacob Ness, in his debut, was superb across half back, halting many of the Eagles’ forward forays. While the Eagles kicked two goals in the term, they were finding Steve Cameron (seven goals) too hard to match up on, as he booted three goals for the quarter.

While Mat Michael (three goals) provided the Eagles with a forward target, kicking two early goals, Busselton ended up running away with the game in the last quarter.

The match opened up and the key forwards continued to dominate.

Cameron kicked two more goals, before Mrsich soccered the final goal of the contest to complete a comprehensive victory.