Cockatoos don’t put foot wrong in victory

A FLAWLESS Southern Suburbs has stepped up to the challenge to claim the Ryan Deemal Memorial Shield, setting a standard that could help them match the top teams in 2017.

In front of a massive crowd at Alley Park on Saturday night, the Cockatoos players could not put a foot wrong in a 26-0 shutout of Edmonton, even in the dying stages when the game was well won.

Suburbs coach Jono Zangrande said his side rose to each individual challenge he set in the pre-game, sensing a golden opportunity to get their first win on the board.

Northern Pride allocations Brad Lupi and Aidan Day were asked to prove their worth and dominate through the middle and did so in destructive fashion, but the coach was thrilled with the efforts of everyone in the 17.

“I set the boys a bit of a standard to meet. We did a lot of good training during the week so I had a bit of a goal I wanted them to achieve in each of their positions and they met those goals,” Zangrande said.

“The boys, they were all really good.

“They worked hard for each other. They just kept turning up.”

He said the efforts in the final five minutes were particularly impressive as Suburbs showed desperation across the board to hold out the Storm over four consecutive sets on their own line.

“A lot of times in a situation like that you let a try in and it sort of taints the win a bit but they kept turning up and the boys were just clinical,” Zangrande said.

Once again ball control cost the Storm, who showed some improvement on their season opener last weekend against Tully.

The Tigers too went to another level on Saturday night, celebrating a 30-18 win at home over Kangaroos. Tensions boiled over in the last 16 minutes with two Kangaroos players and one Tully player spending time in the sin bin.

In Mossman, Innisfail Brothers bounced back from a Round 2 loss, overcoming a slow start to beat Mossman/ Port Douglas 40-6.