News

After the Magpies' drubbing at the hands of the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night, they would have been looking at the Seagulls to provide candidates for promotion and a few obliged.

Paul Medhurst was the pick of the bunch with 27 possessions and ruckman Chris Bryan had 10 marks, 22 touches and 20 hit-outs.

James Clement, playing his first game for several weeks after a calf injury, was solid across half-back.

Ideally Clement, who played about 70 per cent of the game, would probably need another run with Williamstown, but the Seagulls have a bye next week so he will probably go up.

"He didn't do a lot wrong. He had 11 possessions, his man got away from him only a couple of times," coach Brad Gotch said.

Rhyce Shaw had 22 possessions and tall forward Ben Reid, 18, looked most promising.

The one downside was an achilles injury suffered by midfielder Brodie Holland.

"It flared again. I don't know how badly whether it is just a one or two-weeker . . . so they will assess that when it settles down," Gotch said.

"He was really upset. He just can't get on top of it (the injury) at the minute. Every time he starts pushing it he starts limping around."

Williamstown had lost its past four games, but relished the change to firm conditions yesterday.

Deadeye forward Patrick Rose, one of Willy's VFL-listed players, booted eight goals.

Frankston was caught short when it lost tall forward Brett Dore (knee) in the first quarter.

The Coburg Tigers upset an inaccurate Casey Scorpions by 18 points at Casey Fields yesterday. Angus Graham, Jay Schulz (four goals) and Greg Tivendale were prominent for Coburg, while Brett Voss (six goals) shone for the Scorpions.

Coburg's Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls was reported for striking Casey's Andrew McQualter.

Werribee found touch with a 56-point win against the Northern Bullants yesterday. "It was our best performance for about four or five weeks," Werribee coach Simon Atkins said.

"We stuck to the game plan and nullified a few of their onballers."

Western Bulldog Andrew McDougall in defence was Werribee's star performer.

North Ballarat hammered Tasmania by 109 points at Launceston yesterday, kicking 19.13 to 3.4 in the second half. Kangaroos Ed Lower, Lindsay Thomas (four goals) and Matthew Campbell were prominent for the Roosters.

Top team Sandringham unleashed an 11-goal last quarter for a home 33-point win against the Bendigo Bombers on Saturday.

The Zebras were trailing by 16 points at the last change, but booted 11.2 to 3.1 to charge home.