All the games on Friday night this weekend, with Logan Bros picking up the 2 points for the bye.
The early game on Friday night saw Easts host Holy Spirit at the Tigers Den, Scott Park in wet conditions. The game was extremely tight in the first half with both teams' defence on top. The home team were the first to break the deadlock just before halftime to go to "oranges" 4-0 up. Easts began the better in the second half and extended their lead to 14-0 before the Hornets staged a mini-revival getting back within 2 points with ten minutes to go, however the Tigers steadied and with two late tries kicked away to record a 26-12 victory, their second win of the season.
At Dawson Pde, Arana, playing their first game in 3 weeks, hosted Souths, whose previous visits to the ground have been less than pleasant. The Panthers leapt out of the starting gates scoring 3 tries in the first 9 minutes and the game was as good as over. The Magpie defence steadied a little to hold Arana to a halftime 22-0 lead, but another 12 points in the first 5 minutes of the second half saw Arana leading 34-0 with 25 minutes to go. Probably the highlight of the remainder of the match was the Arana defence when Souths received a succession of penalties on the Panthers line but were unable to score. For the third time in as many games this season at Dawson Pde the Arana team did not have a point scored against them eventually running out 44-0 winners. There were some great tries scored with Mitchell bagging a hat-trick and Jozey scoring a double, in the process setting a new hit-up record for the team with 20 in the game. It was good to see Zac back on the paddock for his first run since breaking his hand against Logan Bros and he made some damaging runs. Brent, Bredan and Matt did a power of work in defence as did Geoff in the backs and Alex T was his usual dangerous self in attack. Luke was also heavily involved from fullback with 9 tackles and 9 hit-ups and he brought up his 50 points for the season with a try and 4 goals in the game. Unfortunately the 26 penalties in the game in the continuing "safe-play" crackdown disrupted some of the continuity, particularly in the seond half when 17 penalties were awarded.
By the minute:
4th min: Jozey try; Arana 4-0
7th min: Mitchell try/Luke conv; Arana 10-0
9th min: Alex T try; Arana 14-0
16th min: Mitchell try; Arana 18-0
25th min: Jozey try; Arana 22-0 (ht)
32nd min: Matt try/Luke conv; Arana 28-0
35th min: Nash try/Luke conv; Arana 34-0
45th min: Luke try/conv; Arana 40-0
57th min: Mitchell try; Arana 44-0 (ft)
At Bishop Park, Norths hosted the equal competition leaders Redlands in what turned out to be a scrappy match in wet conditions. The first half was well contested with the home side taking it up to the Parakeets however Redlands were able to withstand the onslaught and went into the halftime break leading 12-0. Redlands held onto the ball a little better in the second stanza, and whilst the Devils did not give up the fight, they were eventually outclassed 36-6.
The final game of the evening saw Centenary host Redcliffe at Ipswich Rd boosted by the return from injury of a number of their key players with only Matt Marshall still on the sideline. Redcliffe started the better however, and aided by a number of Panther mistakes kicked away to a a 16-0 lead. Centenary managed to put on a try just before halftime however and went into the break only two converted tries in arrears. Centenary looked to be right back in the match when they scored the opening two tries of the second half, however mistakes crept back into their game, and the Dolphins steadied to eventually win comfortably 24-12 in a welcome continuation of the form they found in the second half of their previous game against Redlands.
The weekend's results sees Redlands and Logan Bros remain unbeaten on 12 points, with Arana moving into clear 3rd place on 10 points. Souths are in 4th place on 8, with a further 2 points back to Redcliffe on 6. Centenary have been joined by Easts on 4 points with Norths and Holy Spirit still on 2 points.
Hope you are all enjoying yet another long weekend, with some great games coming up again next week, including 1st against 3rd and 2nd against 4th!!
Brad T
25/4/2003
