Yass Magpies: Season Preview

After a difficult couple of years, the Yass Magpies are locked and loaded and looking to qualify for Semi Finals football.

Whilst the Katrina Fanning Shield side will be looking to bounce back from their Semi Final defeat against the Woden Valley Rams last season.

For the Ladies League Tag side, they welcome a host of younger players as they look to qualify for the Top Four this year.

In what can only be described as a difficult season last year, the Yass Magpies welcome new head coaches to the club in 2026, with the appointment of Anthony Vitler and Rana Baker.

Baker, a damaging middle forward, will continue playing with the added responsibility sure to take his football to another level, whilst Vitler will take the reigns from the sideline.

Winning only three games last season, outside back Dave Barrie is hoping his side can win an even share of their games to put themselves in the hunt for the finals.

“We want to at least win fifty percent of our games and at least put ourselves in a position to play semi final football,” Barrie said.

“I feel that would be a big improvement, we need a lot of things to our way but that is our sincere intention.”

Meanwhile, the Katrina Fanning Shield side will be looking to return to the top of the competition after falling short in the elimination final last year, with Sydney Harrison stating the group showed strong resilience to qualify for the finals despite not getting the job done.

“We will look back at last year and take a few positives and negatives from it, we climbed our way up the ladder despite low numbers and a few injuries which set us back and we couldn’t finish the job we wanted to do,” Harrison said.

This year sees a host of players return to the team, including Sam Poidevin, who is excited to see what the group can do this year, in particularly the new spine combination.  

“We are looking really good this year, we have plenty of numbers, with a few back such as myself, from injury, we are looking fresh and really strong which is exciting and we are looking forward to taking on the 2026 season,” Poidevin said.

“We’ve got a new spine combination, anyone across there is looking really good and clean so keen to see how we go.”

The Ladies League Tag side will be aiming to qualify for finals after missing out last season, with Christie Bauer excited about the young core the team has, which may take some time to develop.

“We are a really young team and just coming together and figuring out what we are doing and just continuing to build our club up,” Bauer said.

Throughout the offseason, the side has been looking at improving their fitness with this being an entire club approach, with Hayley McMahon saying it builds a strong club culture.

“The vibe at training has been really good, we have been focusing on fitness not just as a team but a whole club and by doing that it really helps everyone feel like one group and not separate teams,” McMahon said.

The Reserve Grade side will be looking to go one better this year, after a heartbreaking defeat in last year’s decider, with the Under 19s team looking to bounce back from a difficult season in 2025.