Bizarre moment a rugby league player is repeatedly swooped by his team’s own mascot during a game: ‘It’s magpie on magpie violence!’
- A rugby league player’s run-in with a magpie in Parkes was caught on camera
- Bird can we seen swooping Forbes winger Connor Greenhalgh repeatedly
- The Forbes rugby league club mascot is ironically a magpie
Video footage has captured the bizarre moment a Forbes Magpies player was attacked by his own club’s mascot during a game.
The Presidents Cup match between the Maitland Pickers and the Forbes Magpies took place at Pioneer Oval in the central western NSW town of Parkes last weekend.
Maitland had put 16 points on their opponents when one of the notoriously territorial birds started swooping Forbes winger Connor Greenhalgh.
Forbes Magpies player Connor Greenhalgh is terrorised by a swooping magpie at Pioneer Oval in Parkes last weekend
Greenhalgh doesn’t seem overly concerned about the aggressive bird, which locals say has been attacking players on the ground for years
In the clip, Greenhalgh doesn’t seem overly concerned about being attacked, hardly taking his eye away from the play as the bird dive-bombs him from above.
According to locals, the same bird has been terrorising players at Pioneer Oval for a couple of years and especially scaring the junior footballers who play there.
The video was uploaded to the NSW Rugby League’s Twitter page with the caption: ‘WARNING the following video contains Magpie on Magpie violence’.
And the joke wasn’t lost on footy fans who commented on the post.
‘Forbes had 14 players?’ joked one user.
‘We shall name him “Tommy”,’ added another – in reference to Western Suburbs Magpies legend Tommy Raudonikis.
The video comes the same week as news that competitors at the Cycling World Championships in Wollongong on the NSW south coast have been attacked by swooping magpies.
The birds have left some of the sport’s biggest names badly shaken and looking over their shoulders every time they get on their bikes.
Although most swooping incidents aren’t serious, in 2019 a cyclist in Wollongong died after being attacked by a magpie.
More than 1,776 magpie attacks have been recorded in Australia by concerned members of the public on a self-reporting website this year – 224 of which have resulted in injury
The 76-year-old crashed into a fence post as he tried to escape the bird and died after being airlifted to hospital in a critical condition.
More than 1,776 magpie attacks have been recorded in Australia on a self-reporting website this year – 224 of which have resulted in injury.
Magpies commonly swoop from above during mating season, which usually lasts for five weeks from the start of September.
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