Another entertaioning round of football, which has only further served to indicate how close the competition is, resulting in 3 competition points separating the top 6 teams.
The round opened on Friday night at Dolphin Oval, where in dismal conditions, Redcliffe put on an impressive wet weather performance against Easts to run out 36-4 winners after leading 16-4 at halftime. The Tigers performed well in patches but could not put it together for the full 60 minutes.
The first Sunday game was at Brandon Park, where a timing mix-up saw the Souths team unprepared for the scheduled 12.15pm kick-off. The Centenary team stayed around however and the game eventually got under away just after 2. It was an entertaining match with the Panthers having just a little too much class for the home side, winning 34-14 after leading 22-8 at the break.
The other Sunday game turned out to be an absolute ripper with the undefeated competition leaders Norths travelling to Civic Park to take on 6th place Logan Bros. The home side started best and jumped away to a 12-0 lead, but the Devils fought back to draw level 12-12 at half-time. The second half was an enthralling affair with the teams trading tries twice, to leave the score at 22 all with only a few minutes remaining. A long distance field goal from Jacob seemed to have wrapped up the match for the visitors but Logan were not to be denied, a last minute try in the corner sealing a remarkable 26-23 win.
Arana hosted the final game of the round, transferred to Wednesday night due to player unavailability in both the Arana and Springwood sides on the originally scheduled Friday night. Arana were still missing seven players, and with the support of three U15s (thanks boys!) fought desperately to defend their great home record. The first half saw heaps of bad handling unfortunately and the game never reached any great heights due to this. Springwood scored in the 4th minute from an Arana dropped ball, but the next 17 minutes was scoreless with both teams struggling with the slippery pill. The Panthers finally started to put some attack together and two quick tries from backline moves saw them go to the break with an 8-4 lead. Springwood came out firing in the second half and jumped away to lead 20-8 before the home side started to fire again. Two tries in the last 10 minutes narrowed the gap to 2 points 20-18 but that was as close as Arana would get, despite a desparate after the hooter raid. Congratulations to Matt Handcock who set a new team hitup record (21) and Brendan who topped the tackle count with 20. It was also great to see Alex Fresta back on the field in Arana colours. Vaughan had a great game for Springwood, his sideline conversion of one try ultimately proving the difference,
4th min: Springwood try; Springwood 4-0 (rebound from kick through on 5th tackle, then spun wide)
21st min: Matt try; 4-4 (Backline move, after scrum win against feed)
28th min: Rodger try; Arana 8-4 (Long ball to right hand side from Nash)
FIRST HALF STATS: Penalties: Arana 3-2; Completions: Arana 10/18 (55.6%); Springwood 6/12 (50.0%)
32nd min: Springwood try/conv; Springwood 10-8 (Backline move after Arana error in quarter)
38th min: Springwood try; Springwood 14-8 (Ball movement wide to right)
44th min: Springwood try/conv 20-8 (Several players backing up down middle)
50th min: Geoff try/conv; Springwiood 20-14 (Individual line break from 40 out)
59th min: Cameron Starkey try: Springwood 20-18 (Ball spun right across field after raid down left)
SECOND HALF STATS: Penalties: 1-1; Completions: Arana 9/13 (69.2%); Springwood 8/13 (61.5%)
TOTAL STATS: Penalties: Arana 4-3; Completions: Arana 19/31 (61.2%); Springwood 14/25 (56.0%)
What a great round which has left Norths outright competition leaders on 8 points. Centenary have sneaked into second on 7 with Arana, Redcliffe and Springwood on 6 making up the top 5. Logan Bros on 5 are breathing down their necks with Easts on 2 and Souths on 0, 7th and 8th respectively.
Brad T
21/4/2004
