By BIG-STEVE
BIG STEVE'S RED AND BLACK SITE - 6/4/2004
It was the day many die-hard Bears and Manly supporters had been waiting for - Manly V Norths at Brookie. For the Jersey Flegg team it was a win that moved them in to the top eight and an exciting game to boot.
Despite an early try by Manly, Norths dominated in attack, not only keeping the Sea Eagles to their half for the majority of the 35 minutes but hitting back with 3 trys to lead 16-6.
Early in the second
half a questionable decision of racking the ball left Norths forward
Tane Tutaki inexplicably sin binned for 10 minutes. Strong defence from
the Bears however quickly returned
the ball to Norths. But another questionable penalty led to
a try by Manly. Another try
from Manly followed before Norths hit back with 2 spectacular trys
including a magnificent run of the field by half Bryce Poisel.
Jersey Flegg Coach
Josh White named forward Cheyne Tickle, centre Mitch Finnigan and
winger Sema "The Black
Porsche" Mataora as standouts and centre Mitch Finnigan as having his
best game so far.
Despite their success
on the day Norths CEO Greg Florimo and Coach Josh White both believe
the boys can still improve.Coach Josh White said "We'd like to
return to our form in the trials".
Final score 24-16
to Norths.
For the Premier League
team it was a test of concentration in defence and attack and a
consolidation of their potential. Greg Florimo felt that "they have
done
enough to indicate they are more than capable. They just need to
commit to the full 80 minutes".
Despite spending most
of their time in their own half the Bears managed to hold manly at bay
till the last few minutes of the first half giving Manly a 10-0 lead.
Two quick trys by
Manly in the third quarter put the game beyond the Bears as Norths'
characteristic second half comeback did not materialise. However the
Bears showed great defence to hold off 3 successive attempts at scoring
until the Sea Eagles finally broke through and came close to scoring a
number of trys losing the ball in the last movement.
With less than 10
minutes left a scuffle occurred
after a Manly player held back and sledged half and captain Ben Black.
Sledging
by the manly player continued as both players headed up the tunnel for
the sin bin. However it is not expected that there will be any
repercussions following the incident.
At any rate it made no
difference to the final score 30-0 to the Sea Eagles.
At TG
MIllner Field the SG Ball and Harold Matthews teams also came up
against Manly. The SG Ball lost 42-8 to Manly while the Harold Matthews
lost 34-6 to Manly.
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