Burdekin Roosters coach Steve Lansley was impressed after his team beat Townsville Brothers in an A Grade trial at Airlie Beach last Saturday night.
“Brothers sent down a pretty strong side with only a couple of players missing and were confident of taking the match,” Lansley said.
In the end, the Roosters came away with a two-point victory 28-26 after conceding a try late in the match when one man down with Dom Augostis in the bin.
The Roosters crossed for five tries with Dylan Doak converting four of them and hitting the upright with his first attempt.
Lansley said Doak and Joel Mason combined very well again in the halves until he changed his team around putting Doak at fullback with Jones Munro moving to the wing replacing Terry Connors who went onto the halves.
The coach added that combination was also successful.
“I thought Cowboy Jeremiah Matuatu and Blackhawk Christian Gale dominated up front with both making plenty of ground given good ball by hooker Nemia Nawave,” Lansley said.
Nemia has been playing on the wing but has played plenty of games as hooker in Fiji.
In this match besides setting up his big forwards Nemia also defended well whilst bamboozling the defence to score two tries.
“I liked the way Nemia combined with lock Kali Nauque and together they are lethal,” Lansley said.
The coach added he was very impressed with the defence from Hayden Lammon who never took a backward step backed up by Tate Brombal who made many metres in attack.
Ethan Hagarty played in the centres and even though he had a good one he much prefers the forwards.
Terry Connors, Ethan Hagarty and Tate Brombal scored a try each with Nemia Nawave scoring two and Dylan Doak kicking four goals.
The club will have their first fixture match in the RLTD on Sunday April 7 when they meet Western Lions in Townsville.
Reserve Grade To Compete For Lona Kaifoto Brown Trophy
The Burdekin Roosters reserve grade team will have a hit out this Friday, March 22 at Rugby Park when they take on the Bowen Seagulls with the winner to receive the Lona Kaifoto Brown trophy.
Lona was a prominent player for the Roosters starring in the 2015 premiership team where the Roosters beat Herbert River in the A grade final.
From there, he went on to play several games for the Townsville Blackhawks before deciding to play for the local Roosters again.
Unfortunately, Lona was involved in a serious road accident which left him fighting for his life in the Townsville Hospital.
He recovered but was told playing football was definitely out of the question, that decision ruling him out of again playing for the Roosters.
Being as tough as he was, Lona helped coach the Bowen Seagulls reserve grade team which had been admitted into the TDRL.
For the past two years he has had that role as well as helping his brother in law Tyson Stocker coach the team.
This Friday night at 7:30 the Roosters will host the Bowen team for the inaugural trophy.
Entry will be by way of a gold coin with doubles on sale, the bar open and the canteen with spaghetti and sausages for sale.
Roosters coach Chris Perry will be giving a number of boys a run with the team captained by John Zaro and Zac Campbell.
Perry said Rhett Williams missed last week’s trial with a bucks party while Riley McCloskey and Riley Horan are back from injury.
He said Jared Thorley is ready after work commitments and he would like to see Dominic Arrate put on the after burners as he did at touch last week scoring five tries.
New player from Sarina Masi Ketchell Mills stood out against Magpies as did Caleb Noah and he wants to see them fire as with Dom Augostis, Beau Crowdey, Sem Tom and Tala Pepa.
Brodie Horan has trained well and Mark Cervoni will be a big help to the younger players.
Steven and Antonio are two of the Fijians who have not gone home and they can be dangerous around the rucks.
Perry said the boys would not only like to take home the first trophy but also cement a spot in the team for the first club match with Western Lions on their ground on Sunday April seven.
Contributed by Brian Carnes
