Cutters break drought

Teen kickstarts side on debut

A STARRING debut from an Innisfail 17-year-old has set the tone for a massive win to bring the club’s Premier Men’s season to life.

Jacob Moloney, who had earlier on Sunday scored two goals for the youth team to add to his 22-goal tally for 2018, had another brace inside 16 minutes, but it was only a sign of things to come for the lowly Cutters.

Leading 3-2 at halftime after visitors Mareeba fought back, Innisfail blasted three goals in two minutes and added another for good measure for a 7-2 result – their first win of the season.

Cutters coach Adrian Favero said the players were “happy as” to see some results after a challenging start to 2018.

“They’re the sorts of results we can get if everything clicks,” he said. “We gave them two goals in the first half from our mistakes, but apart from that we controlled the game right from the kick-off and our forward scored some goals.

“We probably could have got a few more goals, to tell you the truth.”

Favero said the players realised there was plenty to do to gain momentum during the second round.

“They’re young and they know they can compete with all the sides in Cairns and to score some goals and a big win like Sunday ... they’ll be pretty confident going into other games, but they know they’ve got a lot to learn,” he said.

“It’s experience that wins you games, not just talent – and they know that – but we’re happy with how they’re progressing.”

Elsewhere in Premier Men action, Edge Hill had a 2-2 draw with Stratford, although a defensive lapse in stoppage time cost them all three points.

Tigers goalkeeper Kevin Ward said the new team were slowly finding their feet.

“I think coming into the second round we’re going to go a lot better,” he said.

“We’ve got to be better mentally, better prepared – and we need to score goals.

“We’re not too far off the pace.”

Southside Comets beat Leichhardt 3-1.