Round 2 is now completed and in contrast to last week this was a weekend of lopsided scorelines, with many tired players running around after Met North and Met Easts trials of Thursday.
Arana opened the weekend defending their excellent home ground record against a deplted Tigers outfit reduced to twelve players through injury and unavailability making a difficult task to hold the fleet-footed Panthers near impossible. Despite this Easts started well and, through a combination of good ball control and scurrying defence forcing Arana into errors, were only down 6-0 after 15 minutes. The effort told however, and once Arana hedl onto the ball they were unstoppable, racking up another 28 points at halftime, with Josey scoring a treble. The second half started disastrously for the defending premiers with winger Rodger falling awkwardly in a tackle, prompting an ambulance to be called and an extended delay, resulting in the game being shortened by 10 minutes. Fortunately the injury was later found to not be serious. After the resumption, Arana continued to score at a point a minute with Josey adding another try to total 4, as did Alex T who got a double in both halves, resulting in the final score of 54-0. Brent and Josh put the disappointment of missing the Met North team behind them with outstandinf performances - Brent topped the tackle count in the absence of injured props Zac and Phippsy, whilst the highlight of the night was a kick return from Josh which was one of the best the team has ever seen. Nash, despite a sore neck, was his usual busy self, whilst Matt and Rohan worked hard in the forwards.
By the minute:
5th min: Josey try/Luke conv; Arana 6-0
15th min: Alex T try/Luke conv; Arana 12-0
18th min: Geoff try/Luke conv; Arana 18-0
23rd min: Alex T try/Luke conv; Arana 24-0
26th min: Josey try; Arana 28-0
29th min: Josey try/Luke conv; Arana 34-0 (HT)
37th min: Alex T try/Luke conv; Arana 40-0
40th min: Brendan try; Arana 44-0
45th min: Josey try; Arana 48-0
48th min: Alex T try/Luke conv; Arana 54-0 (FT - 10 mins early)
In the other Friday night match, Norths took an early lead against Centenary at Bishop Park but the Panthers hit back with a couple of tries t o take the lead. The entire first stanza was a nip-and-tuck affair with the visitors eventually taking a 20-14 lead to the break and it appeared to be anyone's match. However the second half was a different affair with Centenary dominating to score 26 unanswered points for a 46-14 victory against a Norths side that had the majority of players backing up from Met North trials the previous day.
The midday Sunday match saw Redcliffe face the same trek as Arana last week to a humid Civic Park to take on Logan Brothers. The first half was a tight battle with defence dominating and neither side able to score in the first 25 minutes. Eventually it was Redcliffe who opened the scoring from a bomb to lead 4-0 but disatrously failed to field the kickoff and 2 tackles later the Brethren were over themselves, the conversion giving them a 2 point lead which they were able to extend with a converted try right on halftime from another Dolphin error in their own quarter. The second half saw the big Logan pack run riot backed up by a 5-star performance from centre Junior and they ran away to win 32-4.
Mustangs visited Brandon Park to take on the Magpies and it was not to be their day. Souths with a combination of slick passing and solid defence gave the fledgling A-Graders no chance scoring at better than a point a minute to eventually win 72-0. Mustangs day was summed up with even a late shot at penalty goal from in front of the posts going astray. There was no shortage of effort from the beaten side but they are clearly finding the step up in quality difficult.
The final match of the round saw Holy Spirit travel to Pinklands with high hopes of repeating their U13 win at that ground. Redlands had other ideas however, and continued their good form of last week racking up 30 points in the first half to a lone try by the visitors. The second half was almost a repeat of the first leaving the final score 56-10 in an ominous display from last year's runners-up.
The weekend's results see Souths, Redlands and Logan Brothers remain undefeated on 4 points. Arana, Redcliffe, Centenary and Easts have a win and a loss apiece, while newcomers Norths, Holy Spirit and Mustangs are yet to open their account.
Brad T
23/3/2003
