here is my report from the raiders website.
VB Premier League by Steven Fattore
August 7, 2006
William Zillman showed he is ready for a first grade call-up, scoring five tries in the Canberra Raiders 78-6 demolition of the Cronulla Sharks at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.
The Raiders scored 14 tries, seven in each half, to blow the Sharks off the park, in a club record score for the green machine.
Zillman was unstoppable with the ball in hand, terrorising the Sharks’ defensive line all game, scoring his five and having a hand in three other tries.
“He is an awesome talent; there is no doubt about that,” said Coach Andrew McFadden. “He’ll make the step up.”
“He’ll take a little while to develop but I know he’s a top class first grader and with guys like him, and a few others in the team, this club has got a good future,” he said.
One of those future stars in Bronx Goodwin also had a brilliant game, notching a personal tally of 30 points through two tries and 11 goals.
McFadden was impressed with the ruthlessness of the team.
“No I didn’t expect that at all. I knew that we prepared well and I knew that we were coming up against a team that probably wasn’t in the greatest form.
“So I expected us to win and win comfortably with the team we had and the way we prepared.
“Obviously that sort of score line is a bit flattering, but they earned it and they really gelled well together and things come of when you are playing like that,” he said.
Goodwin got the scoring underway in just the second minute, going over after some quick hands from his team mates.
Zillman scored his first five minutes later, slicing through and pinning his ears back to cross next to the posts.
The nippy half then finished off a 90 metre special for the Green Machine. Goodwin took a bomb on his ten-metre line and headed off down field before passing to Chad Grintell who found Zillman who finished off the movement showing great pace. Goodwin missed the difficult conversion for a 14-0 lead after 16 minutes.
Three minutes later Joe Picker picked up a pass from Ryan Hinchcliffe to crash over and when Terry Campese hurdled his way over Sharks fullback Toshio Laiseni to score under the posts, the Raiders were up 26-0.
With only minute to half time, Zillman scored the best try of the game. Inside his own 30-metre area he scorched through a gap in the defence and ran around Laiseni, before outpacing three covering defenders to score under the posts.
On the stroke of half time Goodwin produced a chip and chase for himself, before getting the ball to Campese who gave it back to Goodwin who pulled out a no look flick pass for Ale to go over in the corner.
That made the score 38-0 at the break, with the Sharks having no answer to the big Raiders forwards and the razzle-dazzle of the backs.
Nathan Smith found the try line after 46 minutes, backing up some more Zillman magic, and when Dane Tilse broke through a tackler to score the Raiders were in sight for another half century.
It didn’t take long for that mark to be eclipsed when Ale capitalised on a Sharks mistake to run 70 metres, pushing off speedster Leon Bott, to score.
When the Sharks final for some possession and field position, Zillman still managed to find a way to score, plucking a pass out of the air and streaking away to score his fourth try for a 60-0 lead.
A brilliant run from second rower Jack Pearson set Goodwin up or his second, and when prop Brenton Lawrence collected the kick off and ran 70 metres, Zillman was on the spot to collect his fifth try of the day.
The Sharks finally managed to get on the board with 12 minutes to go, new Raiders signing Brett Kelly scoring against his future club.
The Raiders weren’t finished their scoring though, with Smith nabbing his second try after the Sharks fumbled the ball in their own in goal. Goodwin landed his 11th conversion for the day and the score remained 78-6 until fulltime.
While the backs got all the accolades for the win, it was the forwards who laid the foundation.
“These sort of days it gets a bit frustrating for the front rowers because the backs like touching the ball in these sort of circumstances.
“But they did a great job. BJ (Lawrence), Jace Williams and big Tilsey, he took the disappointment of getting dropped this week really well.
“They say you always win the games through your forwards and the backs finish it off, well that’s exactly how the game went today,” said McFadden.
McFadden said that while a win of that magnitude it good, it isn’t the type of game he is looking for a month of from the finals.
“It is really good to get that sort of win – it is really good for our points for and against.
“But I can take that one, but I don’t want a whole lot of those. I don’t think it is good for us, because you get a little complacent and when you come up against adversity you might tend to struggle,” he said.
“I don’t want too many of those games, but we are not playing any teams that are that high up on the ladder, so, in all honesty we probably should chalk up a few points in the next month.
The win boosts Canberra to fifth position, hot on the heels on the top four, and with a superior for and against to most of those above them, McFadden has his eyes on one of those positions.
“If we can get top four that will set is nicely for the finals. We will still be that little underdog where we just sneak up on teams, but I’m sure we will have some teams worried about us,” he said.
CANBERRA 78 (William Zillman 5, Bronx Goodwin 2, Jermaine Ale 2, Nathan Smith 2, Joe Picker, Terry Campese, Dane Tilse tries; Goodwin 11 goals) defeated CRONULLA 6.
