MAGPIES SWIM OVER DOCKERS IN THE RAIN
Lookout Park had never looked so perfect in lieu of an Australian Rules Football game. With eight tents and 2 bleachers awaiting the 300 expected spectators to the game, everything was set for a great game of Aussie Rules. That was until the skies opened up. The Dallas Magpies Australian Rules Football Club, played a completely different style of football on Saturday, to convincingly beat the Cincinnati Dockers during a heavy rain storm at Lookout Park in Richardson, 64 to 14. With the rain pelting the players the entire day, Dallas and Cincinnati played a scrappy hard fought game with a very slippery Football. With this victory, Dallas now leads the all-time series 3-0. 1. After losing a nail biter in Chicago just two weeks prior, the Dallas Magpies were hungry for a victory to rid them of the bad taste left in their mouths. Due to heavy rain and thunderstorms, the kick off was postponed until 2:45pm, and when play got underway the ground was deep in water. Though the rain never let up, many valiant supporters were rewarded with an exciting and hard-fought game of underwater Football.	Figure 1: Russo handballs out of trouble.
Supporters at the game included a few Dallas Cowboys players, one of them Mat Mcbriar, an Australian Native who is currently a punter on the Cowboy’s roster. Cincinnati opened up the scoring quickly to take the lead with a 6-point goal in the first 2 minutes of play. But Dallas answered strongly and kicked away in the first quarter with four unanswered goals, three of which were scored by Dallas’s Team Captain, Stuart Rackham, playing in front of the goals in the Full Forward position. The second and third quarters were controlled by Dallas’s on-ballers, Anthony Gueterres and Seth Haesecke, who made sure that Dallas would win the contests when the ball went loose on the wet ground, as it continued to do throughout the hard fought game. One of the few memorable clean possessions of play that the game enjoyed came from a center bounce when Brandon Blankenship ran clean through the center to find Rackham with a bullet of a drop punt that never rose higher than head height, while still traveling 40 yards. Dallas extended their lead by running fresh legs off the bench, and keeping the forward line free so that Rackham and Center Half Forward Glen Paton could control play in front of the goal. Sean Stover, back up by Sean Neary played a great second half stopping the ball from ever getting past the Center Half Back line, by running over Cincinnati players when the ball came down in their dangerous half of the ground. At the end of the game, Dallas’s unequivocal victory was a 50 point lead over Cincinnati, with Rackham kicking six goals in the rain and mud. Dallas now moves up in the MAAFL standings to third place with a 2-1 record. With the MAAFL title still well within reach, the Magpies face two tough back to back road opponents in Nashville and Atlanta before playing their final home game in Dallas against Milwaukee in September. Pictures from the game thanks to Jason Kindig Photography. Pictures can be found here: Page 1, 2, 3

The 2004 Magpies MAAFL Schedule/Results: 

Date	Opponent	Results
May 15	vs. St. Louis	W 69-60
June 5	@ Chicago	L 89-84
June 26	vs. Cincinnati	W 64-14
July 24	@ Nashville
Aug. 28	@ Atlanta
Sept. 11	vs. Milwaukee

About the Dallas Magpies:

The Dallas Magpies are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, dedicated to fostering national and international amateur sports competition as well as promoting a cultural exchange between Americans and Australians. The Magpies participate in the Mid American Australian Football League, a division of the United States Australian Football League, and also have a player, Brandon Blankenship, competing on the U.S. National team internationally. The team is active in promoting the Australian national sport and Australian culture through clinics at area schools and by sponsoring events such as the annual Australia Day and ANZAC Day celebrations in the Metroplex.

For more details on organizing a school clinic, playing footy with the team or supporting the Dallas Magpies Australian Football Club, e-mail the recruiting department (recruiting@dallasfooty.com).