PHOTO: Lamar Liolevave on the attack against Easts Tigers. Pic courtesy Vanessa Hafner, QRL media.
Neil Cadigan
The Ben Campbell Building Group Seagulls are all-but out of the running to play finals football in 2018 after falling short 30-22 against a slick fifth-placed Easts Tigers 30-22 at Langlands Park on Saturday.
While the effort of the Seagulls was good for the entire 80 minutes, lack of finesse with the ball at crucial times saw them unable to take advantage of the Tigers being left with a man down for 52 minutes.
Tigers interchange forward David Tyrell, a veteran of 158 NRL appearances and a premiership with the Rabbitohs, was sent off for stomping on Gulls lock Kirk Murphy when the Tigers led 10-4.
Soon after, in a puzzling decision that had a big bearing on the game’s momentum, five-eighth Eli Levido was denied a try through an obstruction ruling against Bryce Cartwright.
Levido dummied to Cartwright on the outside and ran himself, making it to the line to the tryline. Although there was contact between Cartwright and Tigers halfback Brodie Croft, Cartwright appeared to have just held his line and Levido remained well on his inside.
Easts received the penalty and Croft’s fellow Storm clubmate Patrick Kaufusi scored, making the score 16-4 to the Tigers rather than 10-all to the Seagulls.
“It was definitely a turning point and, after watching it on video, I still can’t see any obstruction that affected the play,” said Seagulls coach Ben Woolf.
“But we have to live with it and, in the end, they were too good in their execution compared to us. We created few scoring opportunities but couldn’t finish them off and missed a few one-on-one tackles at crucial times but generally the effort was pretty good.
“They’re a good side Easts and I reckon they can really challenge for the premiership.”
Murphy, who played 70 minutes in the middle, was Tweed’s best player and it was appropriate he set up one of his side’s four tries early in the second half when he split the defence off a Sam Meskell dummy-half dart and put fullback Ali Grant away.
However, with Croft brilliantly controlling much of Easts’ play, the Seagulls couldn’t go on with it from Grant’s try which brought the score to 18-10.
The Tigers scored the next two tries – in the 56th and 58th minutes – to extend their lead to 28-10.
Kia Cooper scored a double for the Gulls, but both tries came in the last 16 minutes.
His first came off a long pass from Kane Elgey which put him on the outside of his man in a shift to the left and his second came in the final minute after Levido kicked to the right and winger Tevita Folau gained possession, then from the next tackle Levido kicked to the left to the other winger Cooper who had a clear line to the ball, then the tryline.
The first Gulls’ try opened the scoring in the fourth minute when Kody Parsons brilliantly snapped up a Cartwright grubber and offloaded from near the ground to Ryland Jacob just short of the line.
The Seagulls competed well considering they were without regular top performers during their mid-season winning run in the shape of skipper Cheyne Whitelaw, Brayden and Lindon McGrady, Ryan Simpkins, Talor Walters and Leilani Latu who was called into the Titans’ squad as 18th man.
EASTS TIGERS 30 (Brodie Croft 2, Jarrod McInally, Patrick Kaufusi, Linc Port tries; Brodie Croft 5 goals) def TWEED HEADS SEAGULLS 22 (Kiah Cooper 2, Ryland Jacobs, Alex Grant tries; Kane Elgey 3 goals) at Suzuki Stadium, Langlands Park.
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