Surfers Paradise caused a big upset when came from behind to beat Noosa on their home turf. Other winners for the round were, PBC, Sandgate, Wilston Grange and the Western Magpies
SURFERS Paradise took on Noosa at their own game and emerged triumphant with a morale-boosting win over defending champions Noosa on the Sunshine Coast on Saturday.
The Demons became only the second team in two years to down the Tigers on their Weyba Road waterhole conditions were extremely heavy up there after a fourth-quarter comeback that produced 6.1 to 3.0 and carried them to victory by 10.5 (65) to 8.7 (55).
The Demons were 21 points down at the 10-minute mark of the final term, yet dug deep for their first win of the season.
“Our players showed some great belief in the way we go about our football,” coach Beau Zorko said.
“I thought we won it in the middle. Our willingness to compete and win the hard ball was first rate and that has been Noosa’s forte for quite some time now.”
While the Rolfe brothers Aaron and Tayler and former Gold Coast Suns rookie Jesse Haberfield were first class on the ball, Zorko said the momentum was built around the performance at centre half-back of West Australian recruit Rhys O’Brien.
“It was a great way to break the season duck but, in reality, we’re only one and two and we have a game (against Springwood) to catch up,” Zorko said.
Noosa coach Wayne Fletcher had no excuses, praising the Demons for their attitude which enabled them to run the game right out.
“They did that far better than we did,” Fletcher said.
“We have no excuses and we’ll wear it that they were desperate to get a win on board. Because if they’d lost it would have put them on the back foot big time.
“It is disappointing to lose when you’re 21 points up in the last quarter. You shouldn’t really lose from there, but there were no excuses, Surfers were too good for us in the end.”
Fletcher could not explain the final-term fadeout, suggesting it was perhaps a mental thing, or over-confidence, or a mixture of both.
“Maybe we thought we had it in the bag, but we fell down in a few areas that were unlike us and they took full advantage.”
Half-back flankers Owen Bailey and Adam Bovalino won Fletcher’s nod as best for Noosa, who also had full-back Jason Boydle doing well on Korey Fulton until the latter kicked two telling late goals.
At Salk Oval, Palm Beach-Currumbin produced some scintillating, free-flowing passages on the way to a 23.21 (159) to 7.9 (51) thumping of Marochydore.
After a promising first-quarter effort, the visiting Roos fell apart, hurting their chances with turnover after turnover as the Lions roared to life.
But they will only get better, warned coach Daryn Cresswell. On Saturday PBC had 10 players new to the club this year.
“There were a lot of good signs there today,” Cresswell said. “Our ball movement is improving, but that is going to take time to adjust to, me being a new coach.
“Obviously with a lot of new players we’re still evolving as a team, but we’re starting to play some attractive footy.”
Blake Schneider, Matt Carroll, and recent signings Jake Smart (Darwin) and Sam Bourke (Geelong) also stood out.
Up front, big Bryce Perry-Bolt and small key forward Beau Runnalls each kicked five goals.
But a lack of finish in the fourth quarter disappointed Cresswell.
“We went inside the 50 meters 16 times for two goals eight, which means we didn’t finish the game off the way we wanted to.”
Maroochy coach Roger Delaney was bitterly disappointed after his Roos put in a big effort to start with and were clearly matching it with the Lions.
“I thought it was the poorest we’ve played this year,” Delaney said bluntly.
“We’ve been working really hard, but there are just too many players out of form and we gave up the ball too easily.
“Palm Beach is a very good team. We gave the ball up and they ran it beautifully.”
“We had a couple of good defenders (he singled out Sam Panoho), one or two good midfielders (Kame Tyson and Josh McPherson) and up forward we struggled.
“In the first quarter I thought we were going really well, and then we just had a shocking second quarter.
“When you’re six or seven goals down, and they (PBC) just get momentum.”
Delaney refused to use the “newness” of his team, with a host of newcomers this season, as an excuse.
“We’re young. Of the 22 today there were probably a dozen aged 21 or less,” he said.
“That’s a great thing for the future but I can’t keep harping back on that.
“They have to stand up and the blokes aged more than 21 just have to do better.”
For three quarters the game between Mayne and Sandgate was a nip and tuck affair, the final break saw the Tigers holding a 5 point lead with the game hanging in the balance. Whatever Hawks coach Ben Long said to his players in the final huddle certainly had the desired effect, they ran away with the game kicking 7 goals to 2 in the final term.
“Mayne’s conversion rate was far better than ours in the first half of the game, we missed a number of easy goals” said Hawks coach Ben Long. “We started using the ball better in the last term and it paid dividends.”
A disappointed Tigers coach Mitch Ferguson said “Sandgate had by far the best of the centre clearances in the final term. Brendan Forbes dominated the ruck all day, he killed us. This is the second game we have lost after leading at ¾ time we just need to play the full 100 minutes.”
Best for the Hawks were Brendan Forbes, Aden Rutledge and Sean Cornish, while for the Tigers Spencer Greville, Adam Stevenson and Stuart Vimpany all played well, the final score Sandgate 18.11.119 to Mayne 15.5.95.
The Gorillas ran all over an under strength Puma combination winning 23.11.149 to 3.12.30
Even with the size of the victory Gorillas coach David Martin wasn’t happy with the performance of his team, “We had the perfect opportunity to work on the processes we are trying to put in place but we played like a team of individuals,” he said.
Pumas Football Manager Adrian Wallin said, “We can make no excuses, we had 3 of our best players sidelined with injury but they were a class above us.”
Gorillas Captain Lee Smith suffered a broken leg that will keep him out of the game for at least 8 weeks which was a major blow for the victors.
Best for Wilston Grange were, Matthew Trewhella, Scott Wood and Matthew Stevens while for the Pumas, Mitchell Vasterink, Dylan Witney and Brayden Eddy gave their best
Coolangatta might have been wearing pink but the had the “blues” following their crushing defeat at the hands of the rampaging Western Magpies on Sunday at Peak Oval. The Blues had no answer to the skill and teamwork of the Magpies losing 33.26.224 to 5.5.35.
Following the main break Coolangatta threw everything they had at the Magpies showing that they could be competitive but they fell away after 3 quarter time and the Magpies banged on 13 unanswered goals.
“There is a big gap between the top teams and sides like us, we had 3 of our better players out before the game started and injuries to 4 others during the game reduced us to no bench in the last quarter,” said Blues coach Neil McKay.
Magpies coach Peter McLennan was happy with the a number of player who have been down on form got into the game he said,” Val Pope, Ed McDonald, Alex Dickfos and Greg Lavery all turned in good performances and the training drills that we work on all came off to perfection. We relaxed a bit in the 3rd quarter and they came back at us but our guys answered the challenge and shifted into top gear in the last term.”
Best for the Magpies were Conrad Hudghton, Will Fozard and Dominic Beer, for the Blues Stanis Susuve, Daniel Carey and Blake Ebsworth a big loss for the blues was Collins Slim, who was taken to hospital with a suspected broke leg,
