DESPITE losing two of their shooters on the eve of the match, a stellar performance from inclusion Nyah Allen has seen Collingwood Magpies put their first win on the board for 2022, defeating the Sunshine Coast Lightning by 10 goals.

It was goal for goal for much of the opening first five minutes, but then the Lightning did skip away to a small lead. Collingwood was able to eventually reel it back in thanks in part to a super shot from Allen, but then Steph Wood found her range and converted a super shot herself to extend the Lightning’s lead back out.

The Pies then gained some momentum and built a bit of a lead themselves. Right throughout the first term the Magpies were certainly not afraid to whip long passes into the goal third, with some as long as the entire third.

In contrast the Lightning much preferred to go short and sharp with their passes into their shooting third. At quarter time it was the Magpies who led by four goals.

The second quarter was where the Magpies really started to open things up for themselves. It was goal for goal for the opening five minutes of the second term, but then the Magpies just started grow their lead even more.

As the power five period hit, the Pies had extended their lead to 10 goals. The Magpies remained in complete control for the rest of the power five period and their lead grew with it. At half-time the margin had ballooned out to 15 goals.

Something that was certainly not helping the Lightning was that they had not found their radar in super shot range, with Wood unusually inaccurate from that range. The Lightning bridged the gap slightly in the opening part of the third term, but they could only get the margin down to as low as 13 goals.

Although the margin got as high as 17, as the teams turned for home the margin was 14 goals in the Magpies’ favour.

The Magpies were doing things pretty easily in the first ten minutes of the final term, taking a 15 goal lead into the final power five of the match.

The Lightning brought Reilley Batcheldor back on to the court and she found her super shot range straight away, and the Lightning were starting to get back into it a little bit.

The Lightning came right back at the Magpies and got the margin down to 10, but they ultimately left their run too late, which saw the Magpies take the win.

Shimona Nelson was impressive for the the Magpies all night, positioning really well all game and on fire under the ring. Allen starred with her whopping 23 goal assists from 25 feeds, and scoring 14 goals from 19 herself. She teamed up well with Kelsey Browne (29 goal assists, two deflections) in feeding through to Nelson, whilst Molly Jovic (two intercepts, two deflections) and Ash Brazill (one intercept, three deflections) worked hard through the midcourt. Jacqui Newton also collected two intercepts, as well as a team-high four delfections.

Mahalia Cassidy got the job done both ways with 11 goal assists and three deflections, whilst Maddie Hinchliffe looked impressive in wing defence with two intercepts and four deflections. Cara Koenen (32 goals from 33 attempts) and Wood (15 from 24, and 23 goal assists) combined well in the circle, though the latter uncharacteristically struggled with accuracy, predominantly from the Super Shot period (four from nine).

Next round sees the Lightning up against the Vixens on Saturday, while the Magpies are travelling up the Hume to face the GIANTS on Saturday night.

COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES 20 | 19 | 17 | 18 (74)
SUNSHINE COAST LIGHTNING 17 | 08 | 17 | 22 (64)

STARTING SEVENS:

Collingwood:

GS: Shimona Nelson
GA: Nyah Allen
WA: Kesley Browne
C: Molly Jovic
WD: Ash Brazill
GD: Jodi-Ann Ward
GK: Geva Mentor

Sunshine Coast:

GS: Cara Koenen
GA: Steph Wood
WA: Laura Scherian
C: Maddie Hinchliffe
WD: Mahalia Cassidy
GD: Tara Hinchliffe
GK: Kadie-Ann Dehaney