Magpies back to save season

Hanging onto a place in the top four with seven matches to go, Wangaratta Magpies find themselves in a precarious situation heading into this weekend. After a shaky start to the one-day season in 2025, the Magpies hold a 2-3 win-loss record at the resumption of the 45-over competition, sitting just in finals contention. However, given the calibre of the opposition, they’ll need a near-flawless two months if they want to remain in the hunt for a ticket to finals. Having not played any cricket since their unsuccessful T20 grand final, and given the heat in the week leading up to the match, Magpies captain Cooper Matheson said they might be a bit scratchy and lacking touch. “We’re all looking forward to it, but we’re a little bit underdone coming into it,” he said. “We didn’t train much and a few were away on Tuesday so we haven’t had a proper hit-out yet, but I’m hoping we can go into it still in some pretty good touch. “I’m sure there would’ve been a bit of backyard cricket going on [over the break].” Despite switching from a format which saw them make the decider, to a longer style of cricket in which they haven’t had as much recent success, Matheson said his side can take a lot from the T20 games. “It’s good to play the T20s, because a few blokes who get stuck on strike in the one-dayers, in the T20s they were ticking it around, so you’re bringing a lot of that into the one-day stuff,” he said. “Hopefully it pushes our scores up a little bit. “Bowling-wise, it’s probably helped us a bit as well with bowling at the death, we’ve gone pretty well at the death in most games, so if we can take that into our one-day cricket as well it’s only going to make us a better side. “It’s more of an application.” The Magpies will need to establish and maintain momentum quickly if they want to move up the ladder and feel safer, but this week’s match won’t be easy. Playing up at Beechworth against the fifth-placed Wanderers, Matheson said a win this weekend is vital to their chances. “We’re sitting in probably the worst spot we can at the moment – we could be lower, but fourth is bad because it’s very easy to miss out,” he said. “I don’t think we have too bad of a run home, so hopefully we can get a few early wins and get the momentum going from there. “If we drop the first two, it makes it very hard for us to stay in. “Beechy are right on our tail and we’ve got them this week, and I know they’ve got a few blokes in this week.” The match gets underway earlier than usual, set for an 11am start at Beechworth’s Baarmutha Park.

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