Pressure builds in lead up to finals

Cities take the win and Magpies still confident despite loss.

PRESSURE: Roma Cities took on the Mitchell Magpies at the weekend and walked away with the win before finals next weekend. Picture: Molly Hancock

Rugby League: For the last game of the season before finals kick off, it was a close game between Roma Cities and Mitchell Magpies, both teams eager for the win.

Cities proved to be the strongest team of the day, beating the Magpies 28-16, a score Cities coach Scott Hilton said should have been bigger.

"Today was a very scrappy kind of match and I was hoping we could have been better. It is frustrating when you have a lot more points in you as a team and they should have won that by a lot more,” Hilton said.

"We will be playing Mitchell next weekend in the elimination final, so I thought it would have been a good opportunity to iron out a few creases and put together a good performance, but we sort of didn't really do that today.”

However, brothers Jack and Tom Kennedy from Mitchell were impressed with the team's effort, despite missing a few key players.

"It was a good loss for us and best case scenario,” Tom said.

"We had three out from our middle forward as well as a few out from outside. However, 28-16 is only 12 points and that is nothing for a side that had B-grade players filling in, instead of a whole A-grade side, we can't really complain about that,” he said.

Hilton said before the elimination final next week Cities have to work on their ball control, as well as their game management.

"We were very flat and we didn't have enough enthusiasm or energy and hopefully we improve a lot before next week,” he said.

On the other hand, the Magpies were feeling confident going into the final, despite the loss.

"We are pretty confident about going into the elimination final,” Tom said.