A six goals effort by young gun Josh Donohue has inspired the Redlegs to victory over arch rival Port Magpies in round 1 of the Williams-Gallagher cup at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.

There were no changes to the named 21, the game getting off to a typical arm wrestle as the old foes sized each other up in the first quarter with both sides being hard at the ball and body.

The Redlegs made their move in the second quarter with six goals to two and surging to a 29 point lead at the main break, Taylor Walker and Ed McDonnell were presenting well as targets in the forward line, Trotter, Gallagher and Lower in control of the midfield, Davis, Duigan and Bown rebounding well and Josh Donohue pounding on anything loose around goals.

By half-time the Magpies were down to just 18 fit players with game breaker Jeremy Clayton, Zane Kirkwood and Stephen Eichner all watching from the bench. The moment had arrived for the Redlegs to deliver a knock-out punch and when Josh Donohue kicked his forth one minute into the third quarter, you sensed the home-side would not be letting this one slip from their hands.

To their credit the Magpies dug deep and worked their way back into the game, clawing their way back to within 2 goals, before the Redlegs steadied and with fresher legs, put one hand on reclaiming the Williams-Gallagher cup by 22 points.

Josh Donohue was the most influential player on the ground, not only for his 6 goal contribution to the scoreboard, his inside 50 pressure, chasing and general work-rate simply outstanding. Best mate, Paul Puopolo was given various roles throughout the right and got them all done with a minimum of fuss extremely effectively. Ken Tyrrell had arguably his finest game at league level to date, providing first use of the ball to his team-mates at stoppages while his field-play is improving with each outing. Midfielders David Trotter and Nick Lower got through a mountain of work, were hard at the contest and used the ball effectively and with accuracy.

The Reserves side had a disappointing night at the office, going down by 53 points to the skilful, hard running magpies who made Duane Stewarts men pay for each and every error. Alex Stopp was the teams best on the last line of defence, ably assisted by Steven Pollock at centre half-back. Pleasing news from the game being that Stephen Doyle got through the game unscathed kicking 2 goals while resting up forward as did Luke Nitschke who returned from a hamstring strain.

We say goodbye to Ryan Schoenmakers, Alex Stopp and Ben Speight for up to the next 8 weeks as they full-fill their State Under 18 commitments, we wish these three fine young men the best and have no doubt they will do themselves, their families and their club proud on the national stage.

It was a most pleasing return to the winners circle for the Redlegs, but as the old cliché says "you are only as good as your next performance", the next 2 weeks we find out what Season 2008 holds for the Redlegs, starting with North Adelaide at Prospect Oval, a challenge that can't come quick enough.

David J Bean
League Team Manager