PORT Macquarie's brightest young Aussie rules players will be out to do well at representative level on their home turf tomorrow and Sunday.
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The players will take to the field for North Coast AFL in two matches against Hunter AFL, Mid North Coast AFL and Central Coast AFL at Wayne Richards Park.
Matches are played in the under 13, 15 and 17 divisions. The opens will head to Armidale to play against Tamworth AFL tomorrow at Bellevue Oval.
North Coast AFL has copped a few recent floggings at the hands of the Hunter and Central Coast teams, but Craig Carroll who coaches the Port Magpies reckons that could all be about to change.
Carroll has coached most of the boys right through their careers at club at rep level. He's quietly confident of success this weekend.
"This is the strongest under 17s representative team we've ever fielded," he said.
He tips Max Lower, Max Carter, Fraser Carroll, Dylan Marchingo, Oscar Anderson and Kobe McClure to make "an awful lot of difference" in the team.
"It's a bloody strong team," Carroll said.
The boys know a hell of a lot about winning Aussie rules matches. Their Magpies team has won the past 37 games on the trot.
The last time they lost was in the 2012 grand final. The Magpies went down to North Coffs 62-60.
North Coffs' winner came with the last kick of the game.
It was a kick in the guts for the Magpies boys. They hadn't lost a game all year.
They won 15 in a row and the grand final in 2013, and the same in 2014.
They've won seven straight so far in 2015.
The boys are aiming for a unique hat-trick consisting of three straight undefeated seasons. If they do, it will be 43 consecutive victories.
They haven't even looked like losing yet this year. The Magpies have won games by more than 10 goals on average.
The closest team to beating them was Sawtell, who lost by just 20-odd points. It's a momentum thing for the kids. Each week they select the "golden fist" winner - the player who punched above his weight.
That player gets to cross off the previous number on the board in the dressing room and write the new winning streak on it.
It means the team is the hunted, Carroll said.
"The other teams are lining up to knock us off," Carroll said.
Representative matches start at 8am on both days.
There will be matches at 6pm on Saturday, under lights.
