The regular season has drawn to a close with an interesting final round of fixtures. Two of these games have shown that the semis are going to very tough games in which to pick a winner!!
In the first of the Friday night games, Redcliffe managed to salvage a 24 all draw against Souths by scoring right on fulltime against a 12 man (Souths were a man short due to a professional foul) - the attempted conversion hit the post, meaning Souths had moved one point further clear of Holy Spirit, and Redcliffe had drawn level with Redlands at the top of the table, although Redcliffe had the better for and against record. What was more remarkable about this game was the fact that Redcliffe led 14-0 at halftime, then 20-0 early in the 2nd half, before Souths came storming back to lead 24-20 with a few minutes remaining. Immediately on completion of the game many of the Souths boys rushed over to Holy Spirit to see how they were faring against Aspley - a Holy Spirit win would have seen a mid-week playoff between Spirit and the Magpies for fifth place. The Souths supporters arrival seemed to be just the spur Aspley required and what had been a tight contest turned into a rout with Aspley putting an exclamation mark on Spirit's injury impacted disastrous final six games, burying the Brethren 30-10.
Meanwhile over at Dawson Parade, Arana got away to a slow start against wooden-spooners Wynnum which saw 6 incomplete sets in the first seven and Arana holding only a 6-0 lead after 15 minutes, courtesy of a 60 metre burst by Rob Southwood. Two great backline tries to Paul Hill in the space of two minutes then seemed to switch on Arana and they finished off the half with three more tries - another to Rob Southwood with a powerful burst close to the line, a long distance effort from dummy half Brendan Altadonna and a charging run from the big man, James Phipps. Doug Harden converted 2 of the 6 tries to have Arana leading 28-0 at half-time. The Arana boys had joked before the game about making up the 89 point for and against leeway that Logan Bros had over them, and the 2nd half performance nearly got them there. Arana totally dominated the 2nd half adding a further 9 tries and barely letting Wynnum have any ball. To Wynnum's credit, at no stage did they throw in the towel, and continued to tackle hard right to the end, but they were just outclassed by some slick ball movement, forward charges and the backline speed of the Panthers. The final score of 76-0 was probably as pleasing for coach John in defence ras it was in attack, with the Arana defence being very solid, particularly early in the first half when a number of Arana mistakes saw Wynnum with the ball in strong attacking position.
The final game of the round was an absolute thriller, with Logan needing to win to get into third place, and Redlands needing a win or a draw to win the minor premiership. Redlands started well and jumped away to an early 8-0 lead running with a strong tailwind. The Logan forwards then got into their stride and after a series of break managed to get across the line to trail 8-4. Both teams were breaking the line regularly with only desperate cover defence stopping more tries being scored. Five minutes before half-time, Logan put a kick through that was knocked on by the Redlands fullback, who failed to recover the ball, which was gleefully picked up by the following Logan fullback who scored under the posts. The subsequent conversion saw Logan lead 10-8 with 2 minutes to half-time. Unfortunately for Logan they let the kick-off go dead and a penalty from the subsequent drop-out left Redlands with the choice of a kick for goal to level the scores or one last attacking raid. They took the latter option and managed to score in the corner to lead 12-10 at halftime, although Logan had the prospect of the strong tail-wind in the second half.
Redlands managed to score first in the second half, following a simple erro by Logan in their in-goal area. A Logan player retrieved the ball just inside the deadball line and tried to get it back into the field of play. He was hit hard in a tackle and the ball popped out, still in the in-goal area - a surpised Redlands player just fell on the ball for the simplest of tries - the conversion saw Redlands away to an 18-10 lead. Logan certainly weren't going to throw in the towel, and with their fowards launching a number of attacking raids Redlands defence was soon under more pressure. A good backline move finally saw Logan get across the line, and the conversion saw them back within 2 points. Time was running down and both teams threw everything at each other with Redlands finally cracking again with 7 minutes to go, a try in the corner seeing Logan Bros. snatch the lead 20-18. This time Logan did not make a mistake from the kickoff and a solid set followed by a touchfinding kick had Redlands pinned 10 metres out from their own line. From the scrum however Redlands threw the ball wide and got outside Logan's defence to score a spectacular 90 metre try which was subsequently converted to see Redlands snatch the lead back 24-20. Redlands managed to get one more set at the Redlands line following a dropped ball, but the Redlands defence held to wrap up the minor premiership.
The weekend's results mean that Logan Bros. and Souths will clash in the elimination semi at Pinklands at 10.15 on Sunday morning, and Redcliffe will play Arana at 1.45 on Sunday at Deception Bay in the qualifyimg semi. Redlands have the first week of the finals off.
The two thrillers, plus Arana's form, on the weekend show that it really is anyone's premiership as it seems all the teams have the ability to beat any other on their day.
Enjoy the finals!!!
