BURLEIGH’S finals hopes were well and truly gone before they tackled Surfers Paradise in their Gold Coast derby at Sir Bruce Small Park on Saturday.
By Terry Wilson
And that’s the way the Bombers played as they were given an embarrassing hiding by the Demons on a surprisingly good playing surface.
Surfers completely outplayed the visitors to win by 18.14 (122) to 4.9 (33) and maintained their late-season charge at a finals berth.
“The dream is still alive – that’s three out of three now and we’ve still got a heartbeat,” said winning coach Beau Zorko.
Surfers now have two matches to play – they have the round 16 bye – as they chase fifth spot for the finals.
“I was pleased the way we continued to grind the game out and stick to what we wanted to do,” said Zorko.
The writing was on the wall early for the Bombers, who were flat to begin and remained flat throughout.
Surfers led 5.3 to 0.4 at quarter-time and by 10.6 to 3.4 at half-time.
One more goal for the match sealed a very disappointing afternoon for the Bombers and coach Zane Doubleday said his side had no answers for the domination of Ryan and Dan Green around the contests.
It was pretty impressive for the Dees to kick 18 goals in greasy and slippery conditions and heading the way was rover Ryan, who finished with five goals in a starring performance.
“It was a bit like that,” said Doubleday when asked for his thoughts on whether the Bombers can’t wait for a frustrating season to end.
“They were just too good.”
But things are not all rosy for Surfers, who had key-position utility Troy Armstrong (one match) and ruckman Mick Cunningham (two matches) accepting set suspensions after being reported after a late-fourth term all-in brawl.
Burleigh pair Josh O’Connell and Trent Vonarx were also reported in the melee.
Away from Ryan and Green, the Demons were well served by wingmen James Nancarrow and Sam Folan and captain Jacob Clark in the middle.
Burleigh had few winners, but Jacob Howell, Tim McKay and Luke Rowe did their best for a side hurt by the late withdrawal of ruckman Mick Van Rossum because of knee soreness.
