Gladiators take silver lining from CDRL draw
MAREEBA has missed a golden opportunity to sit in pole position in the CDRL minor premiership race, but it could be the best thing for Tye Ingebrigtsen’s side.
The Gladiators faced their greatest challenge at home from a fired-up Tully side, who blew a late field goal opportunity to leave scores locked 22- all at full-time. It was another lackadaisical return for Mareeba after a bye and Ingebrigtsen suggested avoiding a finals bye first up might be preferred.
“After the other night, with our track record of coming back from a week off being pretty poor, it’s probably good if we don’t get the minor premiership,” he said.
“We were leading just about the whole game and we definitely missed an opportunity.
“I was a little disappointed. We just made a lot of errors.
“I thought Tully was really good. Their new Italian front rower was outstanding and they just showed up to play.
“They played as if their season was on the line.”
Once again the Gladiators suffered an injury blow to fiveeighth George House, who might not play again until finals due to a broken thumb.
It was a handy point for the Tigers, who have put themselves two points behind fifth-placed Ivanhoes, who had a shock loss to cellar-dwellers Edmonton.
A bye next week could put them level, although facing the challenge of a deplorable points difference.
Tully half Jack Campagnolo said that might not have been a worry had he had an opportunity to strike a field goal in the final 10 seconds.
“We could have won it if we wanted to. I was set up for a field goal with 10 seconds to go, 10m out, but our centre was in at dummy half and didn’t pass it to me.”
Campagnolo said that had to be the standard for his side to take advantage of any further Ivanhoes slip-ups.
“We’ll go into the bye this weekend so we’ll get two points this week, and we have to hope Ivanhoes lose one and we win every game,” he said.