Dallas Provides the Magpies with a Reality Check

In the Marquee matchup on super Saturday in Austin, the final match saw the Magpies take on in form Dallas. It was the clear from the opening bounce that Dallas was going to provide New York with some tough competition. Brennan won his first coin toss as captain and choose to kick with the breeze. However NY again got off to a slow start as Dallas controlled the opening 10 minutes of the game. They were able to capitalize on this with a crucial goal against the wind that had the Magpies reeling. Again the Pies fought back and Hawkins was on the end of some solid work up the field to kick truly. Mitchell and Oui dominated the dangerous Dallas forwards and that enabled the Magpies to mount multiple scoring attacks. However, the Pies couldn’t capitalize and were only up by 2 points at the half.

The coach pleaded for 1 final effort from his players and New York came out strongly. But the wind was a major factor and Dallas used it to their advantage. After holding on for the first 10 minutes of the last half, the flood gates opened with 2 quick goals to Dallas which broke the hearts of the Pies. Dallas finished full of running and sealed the win with another goal moments from time. However, epitimizing the Magpies’ spirit, with only moments to go in the game, Ash Flavel courageously put his head over the ball and the incident resulted in a badly broken nose for Ash.

Whilst the Magpies tried hard Dallas looked to be the fitter team that wanted the win a little more. Magpies’ best on ground Sam Mitchell summed it up well saying, “It was a good reality check for us and gives us plenty to learn from. We know we have some work to do, but it’s a long season.”

Dallas                4.  4.  28

New York           1.  3.  9

Best: Mitchell, Georgiou, Gluck, Buckingham, Dawkins, Davis, Squires

Goals: Hawkins