AFL North Coast: Port Macquarie Magpies defeated by Coffs Harbour

The Breakers were hardly challenged on the way to a commanding 18.14 (122) to 7.9 (51) victory.

Captain Jesse Schmidt, who returned just in time for the first bounce after getting married last week, said the ‘Pies were never in the hunt.

“They were the far better team, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

“You can whinge about not being able to get on to train as much as you like, but they’d have been the same.”

Port Macquarie trailed by 16 points at the first change, 37 at the main break and it had blown out to 63 points by the start of the final term.

“It’s easy to say it didn’t feel like the final margin was that big, but they kicked a few more goals than us in every quarter,” the captain said.

Schmidt knows it will take nothing other than a lot of hard work to drag the losing margins down over the season.

“We just need to make that 70-point difference 40 and then 20,” he said.

The final quarter was arguably the Magpies best of the match, where they only conceded three goals to two, but the damage had been done.

“We’re still developing and have a few new faces that are new to the game,” Schmidt said.

“We just need time together to get to learn each others games.”

“A few more senior players would go a long way to helping us out, so it could be a rebuilding year for us this year.

“We’re still developing so we have limited experience, but Coffs were a class above.”