Round 14 began with the clash of the Panthers at Ipswich Rd. Centenary got off to the better start and were rewarded with a try in the 7th minute, which was converted. They went further ahead ten minutes later after some sustained attack, and the visitors were in trouble down 10-0. Arana desperately needed a try and after failing on a number of occasions to crack the tough Centenary defence, Scott Mills found a chink on the 5th tackle and dived over from dummy half, with Luke's conversion bringing the score back to 10-6. Centenary could have been further ahead at half-time, but had a try disallowed due to interference around the play-the-ball, much to Arana's relief (and the credit of the Centenary touch judge who reported it). Right on half-time, Josey was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle, in the course of which he badly broke his wrist, meaning he may be out of action for the rest of the season. The Arana boys actually managed to score a try with a man down to level the score, this time going over the Centenary defence with a fine cross field kick by Nash, being brilliantly fielded by Alex F who touched down. Unfortunately a dubious forward pass call inside their own half in the following set proved costly for Arana, with Lauchlan Witt scoring a fine individual try before Arana could get back to full strength. Seven minutes later the Centenary hooker duplicated Scott's feat of diving over from dummy-half on the 5th tackle in almost exactly the same spot to take Centenary out to a 20-10 lead, and they looked like they had the match in hand. To Arana's credit they continued to try hard, and were rewarded with a try with five minutes remaining when Josh caught a neat cross kick from Alex T to touch-down (thanks to the Centenary Touch Judge, as the referee was going to rule the kick a forward pass!!). Arana had some chances in the closing few minutes, but the Centenary defence, which was superb all night, held, with the final score 20-14 to the home team. For Arana, Brent turned in a superb performance, racking up 29 tackles, well supported by Matt Handcock in defence with 25. Alex Fresta was great in attack with 13 hitups, including one memorable run from a tap restart, which bamboozled everyone on the field!! Luke Corley also had a fine game at the back, very safe under the high ball, pulling off a number of crucial tackles, and making ground every time he ran.
By the minute:
7th: Cent try/goal Cent 6-0
18th: Cent try Cent 10-0
25th: Scott try/Luke conv Cent 10-6 (HT)
36th: Fresta try 10-10
39th: Cent try Cent 14-10
46th: Cent try/goal Cent 20-10
55th: Bruce try Cent 20-14 (F/T)
In the other Tuesday night game, Logan Bros got a jump on Easts, leading 16-0 at half-time and 20-0 early in the second half. The Tigers at home, started growling from this point forward and took it right to the visitors, eventually clawing back to within 8 points, to be defeated 24-16.
In the early game on Wednesday night, Redlands proved too strong for Slacks Ck (who were not assisted by haveing a player sent off) defeating the home side 60-14 after leading 24-6 at the break. The other match was a "game of two halves" with Souths storming out of the blocks to lead the Dolphins 24-4 at the break. After haf-time it was a different story with the fired up home side really taking it to the Magpies and bring the score back to 24-18 with 15 miutes to go. A try to the Magpies then steadied there ship a little, and looked as though it might be enough to secure them a win, but Redcliffe were having nothing of this, and scored 3 more tries in the closing 7 minutes to secure a 30 all draw, the third draw in the last four meetings between these two teams. In the end Redcliffe scored 7 tries to five, with only one converted, although all were from nearthe sideline.
Brad T
10/7/2002
