RUNAWAY WITH IT
BAY CLAIM LEAGUE TITLE
RUNAWAY Bay are determined to create a dynasty after powering to the Rugby League Gold Coast premiership.
Tweed Heads were first to score in front of the 2000strong Pizzey Park crowd yesterday afternoon but from there it was one-way traffic as Bay’s Jimmy Poland engineered a fairytale 36-10 win.
Bay believed they could have won the 2017 premiership if Poland had been available for that finals series. Instead, he was in jail for a breach of parole and it was Burleigh who went on to win the title.
The five-eighth has since committed to becoming a positive influence with his role with the Australian Anti Ice Campaign. He made amends for his absence 12 months ago with a man-ofthe-match performance highlighted by a show-and-go try.
“Unbelievable. It’s special, especially seeing all of the old boys and the massive crowd here,” Poland said post-game.
Two-try hero Jack Mackin – who went close to scoring on two further occasions – was another standout and credited his side’s flurry of points to the hard work done by forwards such as Tane Rapira, Javarn Nofoagatotoa and Siuatonga Likiliki.
A fearsome Likiliki charge flattened Ethan Price, with the Tweed prop left asking teammates what game he was playing in.
“We just knew that we are bigger and more aggressive in the middle,” said 22-year-old Bay fullback Mackin.
“We knew we could get them in the forwards just by running hard; that’s how we got them the last two times.”
First-year A-grade coach Nick Gleeson said they wanted to prolong their success, as the likes of Tugun have done in the past.
“Us as a group, I think we have underachieved for the best part of five years,” Gleeson said. “We are starting to get some good people around the club on the staff and committee and we are starting to attract some juniors back.
“Hopefully for us it means semi-final footy every year.
“Grand finals, they don’t come that often and not necessarily the best side gets there, sometimes it comes down to a bit of luck. For us it is moving forward and being here every year in the finals.”
For Tweed, the loss was a disappointing end to a resurgent finals run.
Earlier in the day, Mudgeeraba defeated Currumbin 20-10 to win the reserve grade Doug Lipp Cup after the Eagles had accounted for Southport 34-20 in the under-19 decider.