Coach Zac O’Neill - The New Era of Hay Magpies

In Short

New Leadership: Local stalwart Zac O’Neill takes over as First Grade coach following last year’s Grand Final run, replacing Chris Stewart.

Roster Reality: The club faces recruitment challenges after the loss of stars Ben Arandt and Will Barnes, shifting focus toward old school fitness and local grit.

Secret Weapon: Rumours of a Fijian prospect from the local touch footy scene and potential PNG recruits offer hope for a refreshed backline.

The Hay Magpies first grade team will be led by a new mentor in their quest to go one better than last year’s Grand Final appearance after the appointment of Zac O’Neill as coach for the 2026 season.

After leading the Reserve Grade side to their own big dance last season, O’Neill takes the reins of a Magpies team determined to break the club’s 31-year first grade premiership drought and win a maiden Group 20 title.

In an exclusive interview with The Riverine Grazier, O’Neill said that following last season’s success, the departures of stars Ben Arandt and Will Barnes have left a hole that so far the club has struggled to fill.

“As everyone here knows, we’ve lost a few players and we haven’t recruited well at all,” he said.

“We’ve lost Harley Hey too, he’s retired.

“[It’s] just where we live, a lot of people are interested, but as soon as you tell them where we’re at, we just can’t get them here.

“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and put in a good pre-season.

“I’ve been brought up to train hard and keep things pretty simple, so we’ll put in a good pre-season, I’ll get them fit as a fiddle, and we’ll let the fitness do the work hopefully.”

However despite the setbacks on the recruitment front, O’Neill did deliver some good news surrounding some of the club’s locally-based stars, with the majority committing, and others hopeful they will be able to pull on the black and white in season 2026.

“Kynan [Headon]’s on board, the Crighton boys, they’ll be there, but Hugh may go travelling, so I don’t know whether I’ve got him for the full season or not yet,” he said.

“I’ve spoken to Poey [Brad Pocock], I’m hoping he might be able to play, he’s got a little bit going on with work.”

O’Neill was also quick to silence the rumours surrounding a potential move to arch-rivals Darlington-Point Coleambally for star centre Rex Rokosusu.

“I’m pretty sure Rexy and the boys will be here again next year.”

“I’ve spoken to them fellas, and a couple of them, once I told them I was going to have a go at the gig, they were pretty happy to stay on board.”

Due to the town’s isolation, the Hay club has had some well-publicised struggles with attracting new recruits in recent years, most notably last season, where the club failed to find a halfback despite advertising the role heavily.

In hindsight, this proved to be a blessing, with Ben Taylor playing arguably his best year of football, starting every game and steering the team to an 8-1-7 record and a Grand Final.

However, O’Neill said that rumour has started to circulate around town that the Magpies’ luck may have changed, with a potential new halves prospect to complement Taylor and Toby Whitehead unearthed through local touch football.

“There is a young Fijian kid in town who’s played a bit of SG Ball I think, I haven’t seen anything of him, but I’ve heard he’s been playing a bit of touch in town and he’s pretty nippy,” he said.

“He’s a running five-eighth [or] centre, [so] he’ll slot into five-eighth or centre, depending how we go elsewhere.

In addition to this mysterious young talent, the club also has a few more irons in the fire as the season creeps closer.

“Other than that, we’ve got a couple of Papua New Guineans we are speaking to, they were working on visas, and if they show up, their football on video looks pretty handy too.”

In an outstanding year for Hay sport, the Magpies were at the forefront, with three Grand Final appearances across three grades culminating in the club’s women’s team joining the Hay Lions in bringing trophies back to the plains.

Central to the success at a first grade level last season was rookie coach Chris Stewart, who led the team through a difficult and at times dramatic season to a positive regular season record, a playoff position, and a subsequent run through the finals.

However, Stewart made the call to step aside over the off-season, paving the way for club stalwart and fellow Grand Finalist coach O’Neill to take the reins.

Now, as he prepares for the start of the season, O’Neill said that the experience players gained last year will be a big advantage when crunch time arrives in important games this year,

“The boys would have got a lot out of that, the whole club got a lot out of that last year,” he said.

“The girls have been so well for years, and then the two senior men’s sides both made Grand Finals in a small bush town, [which] is a pretty big thing.

“A lot of people said that the culture at Hay there for a while, they didn’t know how to win, and I think they know how to win now, and like Benny Arandt said most of the year, you don’t have to start winning until mid-August, as long as we put a few on the board, that’s when you’ve got to start playing your better football, and that’s what they did.

“It might have been a bit before mid-August, but you know what I mean, you don’t have to win them all early, you’ve just got to stay there and be competitive.”

As for whether the success of last year will put a bigger target on the Magpies’ backs this season, O’Neill is under no illusions about what to expect around the Group this year, but he remains confident of a finals finish should things go to plan.

“You always know what you’ll get when you go to Lake Cargelligo in both grades,” he said.

“I’ve got high hopes for the top five, especially if they can knuckle down to a bit of old school fitness.”

The Magpies will open their Group 20 campaign against Tullibigeal-Lakes United at Group 20’s season opener Magic Round in Leeton on April 12.