After the first week of Trials were cancelled due to the unprecented heatwave that hit Brisbane last weekend it was great to see the teams finally hit the field for the first official trials of the 2004 season.
I travelled down to Logan to see last year's runners-up Logan Bros take on Easts on what was quite a pleasant evening. Both teams have a number of new faces for the new season, with Easts turning up with a large squad and LB with some key recruits including Trent Iselin and Mase Laulu. Both teams had their chances in the first half but were understandably rusty with only three tries being scored, 2 to LB and 1 to Easts (no goal kicks were taken). The big Logan pack wore down the visitors in the second half and the home team skipped away to record an 8 try to 1 victory (32-4). Most impressive for the visitors was Trent I who has added a "Benji Marshall" sidestep to his armory and he had a hand in 6 of the 8 Logan tries. Sepa made a number of barnstormig runs and Albert Hunt is back bigger and better than ever and was notable for a number of offloads which caused the defence plenty of problems. Whilst Mase was reasonably quiet, it is great to see a player of his quality back on the field and it is hoped his knee troubles are behind him. The Tigers tried hard throughout but just seemed to lack a real impact player although Lachlan at lock was a standout. It is unfortunate that David Tyrrell seems certain to miss the whole season due to a shoulder reconstruction.
Redlands seemed to have overcome their numbers problems and travelled to Runaway Bay also on Friday night to take on their opponents from last year's Foundation Shield Final. Unfortunately the game was marred by floodlight failure, but the score ended approximately(!) 26-26 with Redlands getting away to an early lead before being pegged back by the Bay boys who fielded a large squad. With Jay Aston still out through illness this was a pleaseing result for the Parakeets. Redcliffe also travelled to the coast, this time to the north to take on Nambour, the reigning Sunshine Coast premiers. In what was a hard fought tussle Redcliffe came away 10-4 winners, with the highlight for the Dolphins being their defence, which only cracked once despite heaps of pressure.
On Saturday Norths headed to Bribie and ran away easy 54-0 winners over a Sunshine Coast South selection, iin what was a promising start to their year and a combined Centenary squad proved too good for Wests Mitchelton at Frank Lind Oval approx 32-4.
Arana opened their season with a trial against the Magpies at Brandon Park in a game that was played in 20 min thirds. The opening third was evenly fought with both tries scoring 2 tries and converting 1 for a 10-10 score. A dropped ball proved costly for Souths early in the second third with Geoff swooping on it to score and starting a run of three unanswered tries for the Panthers and a 28-10 lead. To Souths credit they fought hard in the final third, with both teams scoring a try for a final score of Arana 32 Souths 16. Unfortunately it appears Zac may have broken his collarbone (again) in a disastrous start to the season after the Panthers terrible injury problems at the end of last year. With 3 others already unable to play today, this is definitely not required!!
MINUTE BY MINUTE (20 minute thirds):
xxth Souths try; Souths 4-0
xxth Arana try/conv; Arana 6-4
xxth: Arana try; Arana 10-4
xxth: Souths try/conv; 10-10 (1/3T)
xxth: Arana try/conv; Arana 16-10
xxth: Arana try/conv; Arana 22-10
xxth: Arana try/conv; Arana 28-10 (2/3T)
xxth: Arana try; Arana 32-10
xxth: Souths try/conv; Arana 32-16 (FT)
WEBMASTER
29/2/2004
