New York Magpies Win!

The (2) New York Magpies won their first ever USAFL National Championship after beating 7-time champions the (1) Denver Bulldogs 4.4 (28) to 1.1 (7). The Magpies got to the final after taking care of the (8) Golden Gate Roos in their last game of the round robin portion of the tournament.

The Magpies had too much class for Golden Gate and weren't really pushed allowing them to save their energy for the final. Coopers MVP, Andy Brennan, ran free off half-back giving New York a number of scoring opportunities. Denver, on the other hand, had a much tougher game against the (2) Orange County Bombers even though they eventually ran away with the game winning by 4 goals.

In the first of other two games, the (4) Baltimore Washington Eagles beat the unranked Boston Demons by 3 goals in something of a deja vu performance. The Eagles played a fast run on game that was too much for the Demons. In the second, the (6) Seattle Grizzlies were able to overcome a determined (5) Nashville Kangaroos. Nashville lost their star ruckman, Luke Stockdale, and Seattle was able to take advantage to win by a goal. Former Revo, Jeff Purcell was unstoppable for Seattle.

Photo courtesty: Chyloe Kurdas, AFL Victoria

After watching a very entertaining Divvy 3 game in which the 2011 Nationals hosts, the Austin Crows won their first championship, the Divvy 2 final was something of a blow out as the Australian ladened Calgary Kangaroos had too much skill for the (9) Minnesota Freeze to take their second Divvy 2 championship in 2 years. In the last game before the Divvy 1 championship game, the Denver Lady Bulldogs were able to hang on to win against a the combination of Canadian ladies teams, Calgary and Montreal.

With temperatures in the 90s by the time the Magpies and the Bulldogs lined up for the final, the crowd was taking advantage of the cold Coopers available in the beer tent. New York started out of the gates fast, kicking the first goal in seconds of the bounce. Through the hard work of players like Chris Georgiou and Joel Daniher, the Magpies were able to get out to handy 1 goal lead by half-time. Denver's Brendan Feddema had an outstanding game in the back line, stopping many of New York's attacks and driving the ball in to Denver's forward line. The first half ended with flared tempers as Feddema gave a hard tackle after the mark and was given the same in response. New York 2.1 to Denver 1.1.

In the second half, New York's Ojas "Juice" Desai had the game of his life to help put the game out of Denver's reach. Denver decided that the best way to take care of the Coopers MVP Brennan was to put on a hard tag and give him some hard hits and bruises to make sure he remembered the game and guaranteeing is colleagues at work would want to know what the heck he had been up to. Brennan had the last laugh kicking a great goal, winning a championship and taking a case of cold Coopers Red back to his team mates.

Written by: Chris Adams
Source: www.usfootynews.com