WEST Coast Fever has given skipper Courtney Bruce a milestone match to remember, downing the Collingwood Magpies by 17 goals.

The Fever were dealt quite the blow pregame when Alice Teague-Neeld was ruled out with Covid, replaced in the squad by Zoe Cransberg.

The first quarter was a quarter of swinging momentums. It was goal for goal for much of the opening few minutes of the term, but it was the Magpies who got the first goal off an opposition centre pass. They then began to build a bit of a lead for themselves, and it got out to as much as three goals, but then the Fever brought it back and scores were level once again.

Then as the quarter began to drag on, it was the Fever who began to build a lead for themselves. They got on top late in the term and by the time the quarter time siren went the margin had ballooned out to 10 goals in favour of the visitors. The Magpies made number of changes at quarter time, trying to shake up the midcourt and see if they could change how things were going for them.

Collingwood had a much better start to the second quarter than the Fever did, and the Magpies brought the margin back to as low as six goals. Unfortunately for the Magpies, all their hard work got undone in the last six minutes of the term. Not only did the Fever bring the margin back out to what it was at quarter time, but they extended it out even further.

One thing that did not help the Magpies was that they were missing super shot after super shot. This meant that not only were they not bridging the gap on the scoreboard, but the missed shots would then turn into rebounds for the Fever and they would start working their way down the court again.

At the main break the margin was 17 goals. There was also an injury concern for the Fever in the dying minutes of the half when Bruce went down with an ankle injury.

The Magpies made more midcourt changes at half-time, including moving Ash Brazill to centre and Molly Jovic out to wing defence. In good news for Fever fans, Bruce returned to the court at the start of the second half.

The Magpies got the first few goals of the third term, but just could not make much of a dent in the Fever lead. Although the Magpies would go on to win the quarter by three goals, they certainly did not do it easily. The Fever defence was so strong and so tight that they really made the Magpies goalers earn every shot they got. At the final break, the margin was 14 goals.

Collingwood came right back at the Fever in the last term, and managed to get the margin down to as low as eight goals with about five minutes to go. The Fever then rallied and really got going again, and stretched the margin to 17 and went on to to take the win. Both of these teams are back on the road next week.

The Fever are in Queensland to take on the Firebirds, while the Magpies are travelling up the Hume to face the Swifts.

COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES 9 |13 | 17 | 14 (53)
WEST COAST FEVER 19 | 20 | 14 | 17 (70)

STARTING SEVENS:

Collingwood Magpies:

GK: Geva Mentor
GD: Jodi-Ann Ward
WD: Ash Brazill
C: Molly Jovic
WA: Kelsey Browne
GA: Sophie Garbin
GS: Shimona Nelson

West Coast Fever:

GK: Courtney Bruce
GD: Sunday Aryang
WD: Jess Anstiss
C: Verity Simmons
WA: Emma Cosh
GA: Sasha Glasgow
GS: Jhaniele Fowler