Neil Cadigan
Lively hooker Liam Hampson has been cleared to take his place on the bench in the Campbell Construction Co. team to take on Brisbane Tigers at Piggabeen Sports Complex on Sunday after recovering from a head knock suffered late in the match against Northern Pride last Saturday.
His tag-team combination with Brent Woolf at dummy half has been one of the real strengths of the Seagulls’ performances this season that has them in third position going into the round eight clash against the Tigers who have gathered confidence and momentum in recent weeks.
Coach Ben Woolf is also hopeful of having Titans squad members Jayden Campbell, who has been in hot form at fullback, and chief organiser Toby Sexton (halfback) available although he is resigned to consistent prop Jai Whitbread missing the game.
Campbell and Sexton were named in the Titans’ 21-man squad for Saturday’s game against Canterbury but are expected to drop off the list being the final 19 is declared this afternoon. If this happens, Luke Jurd will drop out of the side, Talor Walters will go back to the wing and Ryland Jacobs back to the bench.
Lock Braden Robson, who has missed the last three games with a knee injury, has also been cleared to take his place. The skillful former Wests Tigers/Magpies forward was in solid form before suffering the injury.
The Tigers, a Melbourne Storm feeder team, had a poor start to the season with a 40-10 loss to Norths Devils and30-0 drubbing by Townsville Blackhawks but have since found form with their only other losses a 22-14 defeat by unbeaten leaders Wynnum Manly and last Sunday’s 14-12 deficit against Redcliffe Dolphins.
They have this season fielded Storm players in Brenko Lee, Ryles Jacks, Aaron Pene, Aaron Booth and Isaac Lumelume.
“They have suffered a bit through injuries and suspensions and fullback Gerard Beale has just been picked up by the Dragons,” said Tweed coach Ben Woolf. “But they have a few decent Storm players and a lot of experience in halves Brayden Torpy and Darren Nicholls, hooker Aaron Booth and (prop) Jordan Grant.
“They’ll be tough. They put 50 points on Burleigh which shows what they’re capable of and have plenty of depth and good players.
“We just have to remain consistent during the game. We know we’ve been behind in plenty of games this season and had to fight back; with the way the game is being refereed these days with the six-again rule and sin-binning, you expect the momentum to ebb and flow.
“If you drop behind you have to show some toughness and composure and claw back into it and fortunately were have been able to do that consistently this season.”
The telling stat in 2020 is that Tweed have been behind at half-time or within 10 minutes after the break-in all but one of their eight games. That was when they led 18-4 at the break against the Dolphins in Redcliffe and went on to win 28-16 in the Seagulls’ best performance of the season.
Likely teams – Seagulls v Tigers, 3pm Sunday at Piggabeen Sports Complex:
Tweed Seagulls: Jayden Campbell, Talor Walters, Treymain Spry, Lee Turner, Brayden McGrady, Lindon McGrady, Toby Sexton/Luke Jurd, Darius Farmer, Brent Woolf, JJ Collins, Lamar Liolevave (capt), Joe Vuna, Braden Robson. INTERCHANGE (from): Liam Hampson, Rylan Jacobs, Kirk Murphy, Harrison Muller, Luke Burton.
Brisbane Tigers: Tyson Purcell, Isaac Lumelume, Solomona Faataape, Kea Pere, Ronald Phillitoga, Brayden Torpy, Darren Nicholls (capt), Jack Svendsen, Aaron Booth, Jordan Grant, Mitch Frei, Ioane Seiuli, Bennett Leslie. INTERCHANGE: Hugh Pratt, Jack Peoples, Tagiolupe Tivalu, Brett Greinke.
