Charlie Di Stefano stakes his claim for local footy mark of the year

A local footballer from Melbourne’s west soared to new heights with a stunning hanger which has been compared to one of the best from a former AFL high flyer. Watch it here.

“He’s won the car,” Parkside coach Chris Muratore screamed.

Muratore had just witnessed what he described as the “best mark I’ve seen in local footy”.

It came from his high flying wingman Charlie Di Stefano who staked his claim for mark of the year in the opening quarter of his side’s Western Football Netball League win over Point Cook.

After Dean Simmons sent the ball back inside forward 50, Di Stefano came from deep to pull off a mark which Muratore compared to Jeff Farmer’s huge hanger for Melbourne against Richmond in 1998.

“He got up on the Point Cook player’s head and then pushed himself into the air, it was huge,” Muratore said on Monday.

“He’s got good hops, I thought he was going to take a big grab eventually, but nothing like that. The footage probably doesn’t do it justice because the camera was so far away.

“The crowd went berserk.

“For the next six or seven minutes, I think every player on the ground was trying to take a hanger of their own, and there were some absolutely shocking attempts.

“I’ve got a few good ones to point out in the review.”

Di Stefano’s grab about midway through the opening quarter put an exclamation mark on an emphatic start by the Magpies who kicked six goals to one.

For the rest of the game, that’s about where the margin stayed as Muratore’s men ran out 14.7 (91) to 7.9 (51) winners.

“We started well, but I’ve been happy with the way we’ve started games all year,” he said.

“I was actually happier with the third quarter with how we handled the pressure. We defended for over 20 minutes and didn’t concede a lot of goals as we have done in previous games.

“The challenge for our guys was to respond to the challenge and find our way through that. I know we’re not going to have it on our terms for 120 minutes.

“We don’t always have to score sexy, sometimes you have to grind away which is what we were able to do.”

Di Stefano, who finished with two goals, was among the better players for Parkside who were led by Jy Lambley who produced his best performance of the season.

While the familiar names of Jackson Barrett and O’Neill Moncrieff were again among the best, Muratore was happy with the output of guys who needed to go to another level.

“It was Jy’s best game of the year, we needed it from him,” he said.

“We needed a few guys to take the next step and a few were able to do that. They probably hadn’t had the impact they would have liked but they found their best on Saturday.

“The double break (the long weekend and a bye) were good for us. We hadn’t been doing a lot wrong, it gave us an opportunity to reset and remind ourselves we’re capable of playing well against the good sides.”

The win saw Parkside move into top-five with crunch clashes against Spotswood and Hoppers Crossing to come in the next fortnight.

“We want to win away from home, we haven’t done that yet, so it’s our next challenge,” Muratore said.