Bears bury Seagulls to take out fourth title
THE class of Kurtis Rowe and some Jamal Fogarty magic proved enough to sink Wynnum Manly’s premiership dream as Burleigh recorded their fourth Intrust Super Cup title win in emphatic fashion.
The Bears led from start to finish in a 28-10 triumph at Dolphin Stadium with Rowe replicating his two-try heroics from their 2016 victory and Fogarty pulling the strings from halfback. This year’s effort was even sweeter for inspirational skipper Luke Page, who was at the heart and soul of Burleigh’s entire campaign.
“We’ve had our ups and our downs, we’ve had injuries but we’ve overcome everything so we’re going to celebrate this,” Page said.
Eager to emulate their early shutout of Sunshine Coast, Burleigh were fire and brimstone from the get-go and put Wynnum-Manly on the back foot with a swirling Fogarty kick-off that went dead.
The Bears should have scored 30 seconds later when Pat Politoni secured a short goal line dropout.
A 14th minute penalty gave the Bears a 2-0 lead before Tyrone Roberts-Davies lit up Dolphin Stadium with a 70m burst that laid the platform for his side’s opening try, which he scored in the 21st minute.
Wynnum-Manly emerged a different beast in the second half with only a near-perfect defensive game from Rowe keeping them at bay.
Burleigh coach Jim Lenihan said it was a special win.
“It was a tough, close match and we always knew it was going to be like that,” he said.
BURLEIGH 28 (Rowe 2, Fogarty, Politoni, RobertsDavis tries; Fogarty 2, RobertsDavis goals) d WYNNUMMANLY 10 (Scarlett, Burns tries; Scarlett goal).