A scoreless second half has seen the Hay Magpies fall to the Tullibigeal-Lakes United Sharks 30-12 in the season opening Group 20 Magic Round at Leeton No.1 Oval on Saturday.

After taking a 12-10 lead into the break courtesy of tries to Rex Rokosusu and Ben Taylor, second half errors cruelled the Magpies as the Sharks ran in four tries to hand the Hay side a first up defeat in 2026.

Hay coach Zac O’Neill said that after a strong end to the first half, the Magpies struggled to complete sets after half time, which gave TLU too much possession for his side’s defence to withstand. 

“I thought that there was a 15 minute period that was good, we played simple football and we got on top for about a 15 minute period, went into the break 12-10, and then after that we just went away from what we needed to do,” he said.

“We turned over too much ball, I think we completed nine out of 33 sets, so that tells the story.

“We knew it was going to be clunky not having a trial game, but pretty simple to say, we’re looking forward to next week, we’ll fix a few things and hopefully get the job done against Yenda at home next week, the boys are fired up [and] ready to go again.”

Despite the Magpies’ struggles in attack, one area of slight positivity was the side’s defence.

Although they did let in six tries, O’Neill said that the fact Hay kept TLU to 30 points demonstrated good defensive resilience, though there were also areas on that side of the ball where significant improvement is needed going forward.

“We gave them plenty of opportunities to score, it could have been 40 or 50, the amount of possession they had, but it says a little bit about our defence,” he said.

“Our contact wasn’t good, and slowing them down, our wrestle, and we probably lacked a little bit of oomph in our defence, so we’ll work on that this week.

“That comes down to not having a trial game, we went out there obviosuly trying to win but we expected and knew it was going to be clunky, and now we know what we need to work on and we’ll go to work this week on it.”

In terms of individual player performances, O’Neill said that every player had a solid game individually despite the team’s struggles, with two players standing especially tall on Saturday.

“Patty Miller, he took a lot of high balls, their five-eighth or halfback put him under some pressure and Patty didn’t drop one,” he said.

“It was probably his first time starting as a first grade fullback for a while. 

“Johnny Weymouth came on off the bench and tackled his [backside] off.

“He played pretty well, he was in the back row to start this week and pushed up into the front row when we needed him and he was good.

“There was no one who had a bad game, it was just a bit clunky at times.”

Next up for the Magpies is a clash with Yenda, which started its season in remarkable fashion by upsetting two-time defending premiers Darlington Point-Coleambally 38-32 in a high-scoring opening round affair.

Heading into the clash, O’Neill said Hay’s focus will be on ball handling, completions and kicking early in the tackle count for field position.

“We’ll be just going out to complete as many sets as we can and earn the right to play footy in their end,” he said.

“I saw a bit of their game [on Saturday], they kicked early and put the opposition down in their own half and backed their defence, so I’m expecting a little bit of that against us and we’ll probably give a little bit back to them and back our own.”

The first grade match will kick off at 2:35pm at the Hay Park Oval No.1.

Crighton injury a concern

One concern for the Magpies heading into the Yenda game is an injury to captain Jock Crighton.

O’Neill said that he is waiting on a scan this week, with no other major issues on the injury front from round one.

“We had Jock go down with about 20 to go, so we lost our hooker, but he’s waiting on a scan, he couldn’t get one last night in Griffith,” he said.

“Other than that, I think everyone has come out of the game pretty unscathed ready to go Wednesday at training.”

Reserves start strongly with narrow win

The Magpies reserves had a stronger start to the season than their first grade counterparts, opening their account for the season with a 26-20 win over TLU.

In a match where Hay was reduced to 12 men when Zac Fitzpatrick was sent to the sin bin, it was a double to coach Luke James which proved vital in securing the two competition points.

Hay’s next opponent Yenda will bring strong form to their clash this coming weekend, after accounting for DPC 34-10 in their season opener at Leeton.

Women’s tackle side starts premiership defence with win

The Magpies’ all-conquering women’s tackle team started its premiership defence with a 48-24 win over the Yanco-Wamoon Hawks.

Doubles to Hannah Stewart and co-coach Jessie Carter were vital in securing the victory over the Hawks, in what was billed as an early season showdown between two of the stronger looking teams in the competition on paper.

Carter was again on the scoresheet in the league tag match, where the good vibes continued as Hay ran out 30-18 winners over TLU. 

Karly Fisher was also among the top performers in the match, crossing for a try and booting 5 goals for a personal haul of 14 points as the Magpies secured three wins from four matches on the day at Magic Round.