Season Preview 2024: Yass Magpies

The Yass Magpies are determined to turn things around following a challenging season that saw them collect the wooden spoon in the Canberra Raiders Cup First Grade. 

The Katrina Fanning Shield side come into round one with a chip on their shoulder, following grand final heartbreak where they fell short by a mere two points. 

In their second year in the League Tag competition, Yass aims to build on the good foundations they laid during their inaugural season. 

Yass first grade recruit Charlie Woolford wants to bring a new era of success for the club, which has weathered a string of lean years. 

“Obviously they [Yass] haven’t had the best of runs over the past few years, being at the Blues, I’ve had a pretty decent run so I just want to bring a bit of a winning mentality," said Woolford.

"Hopefully we can string a few games together and make a run for the finals.

“They haven’t made finals in quite a few years so a finals birth would be pretty good for the club”.

Magpies KFS player Sami Afele touched on how the side has been shaping up in the preseason and their determination to redeem themselves after a narrow grand final loss. 

“We’ve had a decent number of people at training, and we’ve got a really good core of girls that have played league before or some type of footy, so we’re coming along nicely," Afele said. 

“Losing last year sucked so the drive is even stronger now to have a grand final win”.

Yass League Tagger Nadine Ward is satisfied with how the team performed in their inaugural year, and is excited to capitalise on the solid ground work they've built. 

“For us, this year is really exciting, we were new to the comp last year so we didn’t really know what to expect but for our first year we did really well and we’re just going to grow from that”.

The Yass Magpies host the Tuggeranong Bushrangers at Walker Park in round one of the Canberra Raiders Cup and Katrina Fanning Shield.