Neil Cadigan
The Romano Group Seagulls have incredibly conquered the toughest road trip in the Intrust Super Cup, returning from Port Moresby with the spoils after a 14-10 victory over competition leaders PNG Hunters.
The Hunters had won seven games straight and had been beaten at home only once since 2015 in the premierships rounds – against Norths Devils in round 4 (they also lost to Sunshine Coast in last year’s finals) – yet were behind 14-0 at half-time against the determined Seagulls who were without regular members Eddy Pettybourne, Sam Saville, John Olive, Brayden McGrady and Shane Gillham plus Titans NRL players Agnatius Paasi, Morgan Boyle, Max King either through injury or NRL call-ups.
Energetic prop Ben Nakabuwai was the only Titans player in the heroic 17 as Aaron Zimmerle’s semi-professionals took on the full-time Hunters at the National Football Stadium and took the game to them from the opening whistle and never relented.
Halfback Michael Burgess scored a try just three minutes into the game, giving his side a great start after stepping inside from 20 metres and darting through the line.
It was 35 minutes before the next try was scored (a Lindon McGrady penalty goal had made it 8-0 after eight minutes) when prop Damian Sironen, the co-captain who came off the bench in his first game back from a knee injury, scored under the posts after a good tip-on pass from Dane Clarke.
As expected, the Hunters fought back hard in the second half with their aggressive, up tempo style.
They scored through and converted try to centre Adex Wera four minutes into the second session but the score remained 14-6 for the next 28 minutes before the home side were over again through bench forward Willie Minoga.
Yet the Seagulls defence withstood onslaught after onslaught, as the local crowd roared their team on in the final minutes, to secure one of the club’s greatest wins in the competition rounds in the club’s 15 seasons considering the teams’ positions on the ladder and PNG’s rich run of form.
Zimmerle admits he had flashbacks of last season when the Gulls led 18-14 with five minutes remining only for the Hunters to score a converted match and seal victory.
Twice the Hunters almost scored longe-range tries in the final only for desperate Tweed defence to deny them.
The first effort came from McGrady who, after being bumped off by Winoga, recovered and chased the runaway Hunters player for 60 metres and put him into touch a metre short of the try-line.
With just seconds remaining, fullback Pheonix Hunapo was confronted with a two-on-one with the PNG winger unmarked and set to score only to get himself in between the pair and forced the pass to be off-target and the winged dropped the ball under his pressure.
“It was just a tremendous effort, heart-wrenching stuff right to the very end,” Zimmerle said.
“The boys played really played well as a group; that’s only the third time the Hunters have been beaten at their stadium. That’s the magnitude of the boys’ effort.
“We decided to kick for touch and a scrum to slow them down and give us some rest in defence because they are such a dynamic team and the two halves really executed that really well.
“We were aggressive defensively from the first set of the game and we forced as many out of them as well as any team this season. They completed at only 50 per cent in the first half but that was as much from out physical contact as much as anything else.
“The Hunters often put four players in a tackle and we executed well attacking their short side and trying to isolate retreating defenders. We tried to stand in the tackle and not go to ground and have the dummy halves race out after a quick play-the-ball and go down the short side and it worked well.
“Will Johnstone started for the first time and set the tone really well and then Sam Meskell came on and continued it.
“We had a lot of very good players. Everyone contributed but Jackson Clarke was outstanding in his return to Intrust Super Cup and won the players’ player award. He was everywhere defensively and was dynamic down the short side.”
Burgess was dominant with his man management, as he was in the upset win against Redcliffe, and stood up defensively to the barrage of big forward who constantly targeted him.
Lamare Liolevave, Nick Harrold and Carne Doyle-Magna led the defensive aggression, while Ben Nakabuwai was constant bent the PNG defensisve line with his powerful runs, and all the pack followed, but right across the field there was not a player who wasn’t on-song in this massive upset, the team’s fourth win of 2017 with two now against the top three sides on the ladder.
Tweed Heads 14 (Burgess, Sironen tries; McGrady 3 goals) beat PNG Hunters 10 (Wera, Minoga tries; Eliab goal) at National Football Stadium, Port Moresby.
Click here for full match details and team lists
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