Cockatoos do it easily in fiery derby

SATURDAY night’s southside derby almost turned into a game of nines after five players were sent to the sin-bin following a first-half melee.

Two Southern Suburbs Cockatoos and three Edmonton Storm players were given 10 minutes to cool down after a big collision sparked a fiery exchange.

Southern Suburbs coach Luke Saunders called the incident “just a bit of a scuffle”.

“There was only one punch thrown, I think from an Edmonton player, and the rest of it was just third, fourth-man in,” he said.

“It was 11 on 10, so we just had to make the most of it. We just had to keep the ball in play and keep going as hard as we could.”

Storm coach Anthony Satrick said he hadn’t seen anything like it before.

“I don’t know where he pulled those decisions from,” said Satrick. “There was big contact on one of the blokes and a couple of the others came in pushing, so he decided to deal with it by putting all involved in the bin.”

As far as the football was concerned, Southern Suburbs jumped out to an early lead, something the club has made a point of doing in 2019, and would not relinquish it for the rest of the match.

The Cockatoos’ 42-22 win, their second in 2019 after seven rounds of competition, was an important one, according to Saunders. “It has been tough,” he said. “A few close games in a row was starting to take its toll on the boys’ confidence, so it was good to win one like that.”

The coach said the club’s Northern Marlins trio – Cephas Chinfat, Steven Tatipata and Patrick Gallen – were “awesome, as always”.

He said Aidan Day was “fantastic” for the Cockatoos after being left off the Pride’s bench.

“He added some muchneeded starch to our team,” said Saunders. “We’re very grateful to have him, but I’m not sure if we’ll have him for too long a period.”