These were the statistics from both the Yass Magpies and the Queanbeyan United sides going into Saturday night’s Ladies’ Open Tackle match at Walker Park. 

Ahead of the game, Queanbeyan were ahead by the slightest margin on points, but that came to nothing against a Magpies side which, according to coach Josh Hardy, played their “best half of footy all year.”

“In that first 30 minutes the girls came out and really fired.

“They were all looking forward to it, it’s obviously a big game. I don’t think the Blues have ever been beaten, so the girls were obviously looking to have a red-hot crack.” 

That turned out to be an understatement as Yass took the lead early in the match and, on a slippery and uneven surface, managed to outwork Queanbeyan comprehensively. 

However, there was one drawback to the game which Hardy will be looking to address with the team in the weeks to come. 

By half-time, Yass had amassed a 16-0 lead, and yet in the second half they were only able to add six more points to their tally, while Queanbeyan won the half with 12 and finished with a respectable 22-12 score. 

During the game, Hardy bemoaned his side’s inability to maintain their intensity for the full 60 minutes, and he is aware that the issue needs addressing before finals roll around. 

“Just getting into the back end of the games, we get a little bit complacent [and] we just make some silly errors,” Hardy said. 

“Self inflicted errors [like] silly offloads and little bits and pieces. I think that was the worst one, the conditions probably didn’t help us, and we were throwing a couple of loose footies around and we got lucky a couple of times. 

“I think that would be it, just a little bit of complacency towards the back end of the [match].”

Despite the difficulties presented by the weather and their own errors, the key to success for the Magpies lay in sticking to their game plan. 

“We didn’t change anything too much, we like to just go about our business as per usual,” Hardy said. 

“The girls have been training the same way since the end of January. We didn’t want to throw any changes in such a big game, so we just let them go out play their style of footy and it paid off, thankfully.” 

The victory means that Yass will maintain their unbeaten season and will leapfrog Queanbeyan to ascend to the top of the ladder. 

Next week, on Friday June 22, the Magpies will take on the Valley Dragons in Belconnen from 7:15pm.