JESSE Schmidt and Rod Sonogan celebrated milestones in style as Port Macquarie Magpies held off Coffs Harbour in a 12.8 (80) to 7.18 (60) on Saturday.
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The Magpies first win over the Breakers since round six has set the scene beautifully for an almighty clash between the two teams in next week's qualifying semi-final.
They knew they needed to win the final round encounter to give themselves a confidence boost heading into the finals.
Now they can be a real threat and two more performances like this one could lead to premiership glory.
After an even first quarter, Port were able to limit the Breakers to just three behinds in the second term as they added four goals to their tally to take a handy 25-point lead into half time.
Breakers surged in the third stanza with six goals to one to hold an eight point lead at the last break and the Magpies needed to dig deep and did exactly that.
A five goal to nil last quarter proved decisive as the home team claimed a 20-point win.
This was a fitting way for the Magpies to celebrate the milestones of Schmidt (200 matches) and Sonogan (100 matches). Schmidt celebrated his big day with three goals, and was joined on this tally by Kaleb Crowhurst and Braden Saggers.
Breakers normal forward line output was down, with only Brett Vella and Ben Gibbeson able to kick multiple goals with two each.
Inaccuracy cost the Breakers dearly as they managed five more scoring shots than Port but couldn't steer enough between the big sticks.
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