32-10 over Norths.
From our man, Fan In The Stand, aka R & S:
Part One:
After a week off for the rep round the majority of the boys spent it having rest, recovering from various niggling injuries and reassessing team goals then today they are back into the 2019 campaign. Fan in The Stand is pumped and ready and jumped on the train to venture out North Sydney Oval to watch the boys take on the Bears which is the reserve grade team for the Sydney Roosters. The train ride was interesting and always a great view going over the Sydney Harbour Bridge but was glad to get off after sitting in front of an old Chinese couple who continued to eat and chew with their mouths open with very high decibels.
Got there nice and early after a short walk from the train station walked in and had a nice wonder around the oval. Great footy ground draped in tradition. If you have lived in a cave for about 50 years you wouldn’t know that the Bears used to run around in the NRL many years ago, they also have had a few Kiwis don the red and black from Sean Hoppe, Clayton Friend and Mark Graham to name a few. I see assistant Coach Ricky Henry setting up for the warm up drills so pop over and say hi and have a brief chat. No late changes for the starting line-up but midweek club signing Josh Curran will be making his debut for the club ironically against the club he played for last week the North Sydney Bears.
I take a seat in the stand on the old wooden seats as they always give you a dead ass. I go through the cheap program to check the team lists and notice straight away that we have an awesome line up that could easily put 100 points on anyone, but that never happens at this level because the defence is too strong, but we are STACKED!
Right away #9 sticks out to me, Bully Luke, why is he in this team?????? He’s played over 260 first grade games and in a shit load of tests for the KIWIs and is thoroughly respected through the league whanau, he’s a first grade player through and through…no disrespect to Kayne or Nate but Bully is a legend of our game. I mean if Coach Kearney is going to keep it real and drop players for bad defence or whatever the reason, then he should look at other players, cough “Adam Blair” cough. Hell Isaac was team mates with Coach Cayless in the Kiwis when they won the World Cup in 08. Heaps of young talent in our team with all the young guns gaining all the experience from the hard reserve grade season, with the likes of Hayze, Lewis, Adam Keirghran and Chanel mixed in with experienced players, Captain Blake, Isaac and big Adam Tuimavave Gerrard (who I’ve rated for years back when he was in the Dragons and 2014 Junior Kiwis), also I’ve noticed we’re running with 4 big forwards on the bench, two props in Clayton and Preston, Mr-Fix-It Tyler, and new mid-week signing Josh Curran. 3 Adams in the team to. This report is going to be tough
Anyways a win today gets us closer to the 8, as the boys are warming up, I spot #22, who is one of Fan in The Stand’s current favs, the executioner Los Latu, who unfortunately is the 18th man and unable to unleash the hits on the Bears, but I’m sure he’ll enjoy the Wiki love after the game
We kick off with a decent crowd of 300-400 people with a couple of hearty Warriors fans around the joint, but we are penalised on tackle 4 for slow play the ball. Bears attack down field, but a Jackson Frei hit and forces an error, and Adam Keighran runs 20, we get great meters, Bully kicks and we get a repeat set. Doesn’t amount to much as tackle 4, Phil Makatoa pops an offload, but the ref calls a knock on, another penalty for offside and we are defending in our half again, but another error from the Bears, a forward pass, gets us off the hook. Penalty to us and again we seem to make easy metres, Hayze on the last puts a bit too much on the kick and it goes dead. Good work rate so far from our props Satae and Frei. Bears get a 7 tackle set and gain some good field possession and chip in the in goal on the last but ever reliable Captain Aysh to force it dead. With a repeat set the Bears put on some plays before swinging left and chip kicking and their #12 Thomas Frebairn, Bears miss the kick, 4-0, 14 gone. One thing I’ve notices in the first 15 minutes, is Chanel has a real spring in his step, looks hungry and confident, might have been from the great test he played last weekend for Toa Samoa or it could be the Jason Mamoa hairstyle.
18 gone, we get a penalty and attack with a full set, 30 meters out. A few plays back and forth sees tackle 4 spun out wide for young Setu to break 3 tackles to go over for a great try from awesome pass from Taane Milne. Adam K converts from the side line, 6-4, 20 gone. Bears kick off and a great hitup by Makatoa on hit up 1, make greats yards but the Bears force an error. Back on defence in our 20, strong D sees them only make 3m and we force a handover after they got tackled on the last.
25 gone and our defence again forces a Bear’s error, this time Adam T-G with the hit. Next hit up Adam T-G runs it straight and knocks out Bear’s hooker, Bradley Deitz. Play stops for 5 minutes while they wake him out and off he goes for an HIA. Meanwhile, Captain Aysh calls a team meeting in the middle of the field. Just while play is stop, I just cant get over how crisp and flush Bully Luke’s passing game is from dummy half, every backline move he is hitting Chanel and Adam K with chest height spiral bullet passes that they are running onto.
Play gets under way and next set the Bear’s winger, Curtis Johnson, runs it up and he gets smashed and he is concussed and leaves for HIA as well. In 2 plays we have knocked out 2 players. The Bears are going into hibernation, left right and centre. A couple of inter-changes, new recruit, Josh Curran is on, big Chris Satae is back on for his second stint, and Mr-Fix-It Tyler Slade has come on for Makatoa who has been busy for the first 30 as we all know with the interchange you can only interchange a player when we are in possession. As Tyler runs on, Bears produce a 1 on 1 strip, 35m out from our line and Tyler’s just running across the field to join the play, ends up chasing the Bear’s player and runs him down 2m out from our line, TRY SAVER!! We have a brick wall on today and we hold out the Bears with great goal line defence.
Satae cuts it up for 12m, Preston follows with 15m and then Curran gets tackled 1m out going for a try. Handover!
Couple of sets later, Bears get a penalty and again we are defending our own line and again they can’t break through our defence out wide is strong and full of communication led by Chanel, Taane, Hayze, and Lewis. Next set Bears kick on the last and it goes dead, we get a 7 tackle set, we make great meters and try our last play, kick and chase, but the ball goes dead as the half time sounds.
HALF TIME THOUGHTS
*Bears whilst creating some opportunities look confused and seem to take the wrong options on last tackle plays and when they have the ball. Id like to think that is caused by our defence.
*Our defence is excellent. Im seeing great line speed from the whole line. Bears cant seem to get past the brick wall. Line speed is attitude. Our attitude is 100%
*Saw Latrell Mitchell walk past, good to see him bring his family down to support his fellow club mates
PLAYERS TO IMPRESS
*Isaacs dummy half service is unreal. He hasn’t over played his hand either. Only a couple of dummy half runs. Just giving Chanel and Adam K good ball
*Our starting props Chris Satae and Jackson Frei have done a shitload of hitups
*Chanel always involved while Adam K providing the communication
