The Magpies, in their centenary year, would be so far in the red for the premiership they might have to consider a colour change.

Tanunda’s ‘victim’ on Saturday was triple grand finalists Freeling who they defeated by 62 points on a reasonable surface at Freeling given the overnight rain.

The Redleg defence had no answer to the twin Tanunda targets of Alex Kennedy and Ben Britton who notched 16 goals between them.

Strangely, the easy winners Tanunda, only had four goal kickers while Freeling had eight in a losing side.

The answer lies with a Freeling defence, so extended and depleted, they were unable to call on replacements who could force the Magpies to exercise other options.

Gun forward Alex Kennedy is not noted for his pace, but can move well for a tall, and was yards faster than his opponent and ended with nine goals.

Ben Britton punted seven from another situation which the Redlegs couldn’t defuse because of the quality of supply coming out of midfielders such as Tom Schiller, Ben Newberry and Craig Underwood.

In another ominous sign for the competition, consummate rebounder Rohan Baird began to find his football feet after several years off.

A feature of Baird’s game is his ability to pick off opposition plays and then punish on the rebound.

However the real difference between the two teams was ruckman Luke Wells whose absence from the representative team is a real puzzle.

Granted there was no Stuart Lamond as an opponent but ‘Billy’ is in sensational form and continually gives this star Magpie midfield first use of the ball.

Although they were 10 goal winners, it was felt by those present, that Tanunda hadn’t pushed the pedal to the floor and that there was more power remaining.

Returning Schluter medallist Mal Greenwood also appeared to get through unscathed.

Coaching is a tough gig, and no part is tougher than to coach a team with injury and depletions against a stellar team like the Magpies which is on the rise and playing with momentum. But this was Scott Leal’s task on Saturday and except for two flurries of goals in the second and last quarters the Redlegs were never in the hunt.