Roosters tame plucky Tigers
HOW SWEET IT IS ... the Burdekin Roosters soak up the winning atmosphere.
THE sugar towns of Ayr and Home Hill are again crowing with sweet success after the Burdekin Roosters captured their third Townsville and Districts and Rugby League premiership in four years at the sports reserve yesterday.
Having returned for a one-season-only co-coaching stint with Mal Barnes, Chris Perry can again leave the game a winner after steering the Roosters to their 2000 and 2001 titles.
Yesterday's 30-16 final scoreline belied a gripping match where -- having controlled play for most of the first half -- Centrals found themselves trailing 14-10 at the break.
Perry credited halfback Noel Goldthorpe's "great kicking game" with keeping the Roosters going forward in the second half, while man-of-the-match in hooker Cameron McPherson made plenty of yards through the centre of the ruck from dummy-half.
Perry also admitted that Centrals had the better of the first half in all facets of the game bar on the scoreboard, but didn't panic in his halftime address.
"I told them they could certainly play better, but to start with we actually sat around and said nothing," he said. "They burned a lot of energy out there and we really needed every bit in that second half."
The Roosters looked sluggish early, with Centrals winger Tim Norton pivoting his way over for the first try of the match in the fifth minute.
Burdekin hit back 12 minutes later, centre Steven Sheppard darting over for a close-range intercept try as the Tigers were trying to get out of their own territory.
Norton then bagged his double after a clever grubber kick, regather and offload from halfback Cameron Joyce and the score was 10-6 the Tigers' way.
But against the run of play, Sheppard again plucked an intercept, this time from a Dave Ackers cut-out as the Tigers were pressing their opposition's line.
Sheppard had to run about 80 metres, with the resulting conversion and a penalty soon after making it 14-10 to the Roosters.
Centrals took the lead early in the second as veteran fullback Glenn Butler speared over after timing a run to perfection.
That was to be the Tigers' last joy of the match though, as Tarin Bradford -- courtesy of a neat in-and-away -- Simon Phillips and Damien Quinn all posted tries, Phillips celebrating his effort with an impromptu chicken dance.
Centrals coach Grant Bell -- who himself hinted that he may step down -- praised his team's performance against a Roosters team that didn't seem to have a weakness in any position.
"I thought we played pretty well," Bell said.
"They got tries from a couple of our errors but that doesn't detract from their performance -- I thought it was a great grand final."
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