The undermanned Blues started without Joe Boyce and Sam Rundle but took the game up to the premiership favourites in the first half with only five points separating the two teams at half-time.

Glenorchy started to get on top around the clearances and stoppages in the second half.

Their cleaner ball movement and run and spread out of defence saw them kick eight goals to two to run out winners 13.17 (95) to 7.6 (48).

Sonny Whiting kicked the Blues' only two goals for the second half and finished with four for the game to be one of their best, but they struggled to exert scoreboard pressure from their forward entries against a strong Magpies defence that seemed able to repel the ball with ease.

Youngster Curtis Murfett was impressive, with Tom Claridge, Jake Smith and Joe Groenewegen other good contributors.

"It was a step forward in terms of our effort," Launceston coach Scott Stephens said.

"We went in really undermanned today and the boys got exposed to the top side probably earlier than they should have done, and obviously losing Joe Boyce and Sam Rundle on Friday didn't help.

"I thought our effort and intensity and tackling pressure was really high, which gave us opportunities. Did we capitalise on them all? Probably not. Did we make some turnovers and give them some easy goals? Yes.

"In the second half they changed things up a bit and we struggled to adapt and they continued to fold guys around their half-back and really launched from there, and our guys got a bit confused and couldn't pick up the free men quickly enough, and their class and cleanliness outshone us."

Jaye Bowden finished with five goals for Glenorchy in a good performance, with Rhys Mott, Sam Hall, Ben Kamaric and Tom Cleary other good players.

Glenorchy coach Aaron Cornelius said: "It was probably a bit like Lauderdale last week in that we were flat at the start, but we've been doing some hard training.

"In the third quarter, once we got our tackling going our play started to come, and you get your Jaye Bowdens and Rhys Motts winning the footy, and we ended up having a good win.

"We had 91 tackles for the game, which is about our average, and we had 67 against Lauderdale, and you have to have over 80 tackles to win the game.

"They started to lack a bit towards the end and our boys were still running on top of the ground, so we are definitely fit and when they take the game on it is exciting to watch."