The last time Dylan Macallister scored an official goal in Australia, the competition was called the NSL and the team he played for was the now defunct Northern Spirit.
Four years down the track and the 26-year-old celebrated his debut appearance for the Central Coast Mariners with a second-half-brace in a 4-2 win over the Queensland Roar at Suncorp Stadium.
Having spent 2004 to 2007 playing overseas in Norway, Macallister said his introduction to the Hyundai A-League had been an eye-opener.
“I don’t even remember the old NSL. This is a 10-fold better competition,” Macallister said.
“Everyone is talking about it, it’s the world game and it’s here to stay I think. It’s only going to improve week to week.”
“The boys were doing the maths in the changerooms and I think there were 20 goals in four games this weekend. You don’t get 20 goals in eight games in some of the leagues in Europe.”
“It’s great for the fans and quite exciting to watch.”
After some excellent pre-season form, including scoring against the Roar, Macallister was disappointed to miss the Mariners’ first two games of the year with a rib injury.
He hopes his Round 3 double – highlighted by a superb curling strike in the 71st minute – will keep him fresh in the mind of manager Lawrie McKinna.
“We’ve got four good quality strikers who offer the team something else,” Macallister said.
“It’s obvious we’ve got the boys to step in if someone is injured or down in form. I think tonight showed we’ve got a few good options up in front and it makes Lawrie’s job hard for the next game in a couple of weeks.”
“We’ve just got to push on from here. We showed tonight we can match any team home and away.”
“We were really disappointed to take only one point from the first two games when I thought we deserved more.”
