‘COACH-KILLER’ HOGS SCRAPE IN
IT’S time for Helensvale to stop “killing” coach Taione Vea, captain Hayden McCaa says, after they scraped through another match against a lower-ranked opponent.
A week after imploding in the second half to lose 29-24 to the Gold Coast Eagles, the Hogs snuck home to beat Nerang 27-24 on Saturday.
McCaa was relieved to be back in the winners’ circle but knows they need to strive to be more relentless.
“We’re killing Tai. I think the operation this week is try GCDRU ROUND 13 LADDER
Colleges Surfers Helensvale Nerang Eagles Pirates
P W 13 12 12 10 12 8 13 4 13 2 13 2
L 1 2 4 9 11 11
D 0 0 0 0 0 0
B 0 1 1 0 0 0
Pts 351 56 66 46 167 42 -100 21 -196 11 -288 11
to make him happy because we’re sort of letting him down a bit,” he said.
“We potentially should be putting these results away but we haven’t been able to do it yet – is that us playing poorly or the other teams playing good? You never really know, it’s just all on the day.”
Nerang have earnt respect for the heart they play with and again refused to lie down at Helensvale. Ultimately Hogs prop Whitney Sitiene’s two-try effort was a key difference.
Helensvale’s last two games of the regular season will come against the competition’s best teams, Surfers Paradise and Griffith University Colleges, in a timely test of where they’re at heading into finals.
“We have got two big weeks ahead,” McCaa said.
“Obviously if we get pumped the next two weeks it’s not looking good for us so we definitely want to try to get things right these next two weeks.
“Our fate is still in our hands. You have just got to make the finals and then play two or three great games.”
The Eagles were unable to back up their last-start upset, falling 34-17 to Surfers Paradise in a result that makes their chances of finals footy all the more difficult.
Colleges meanwhile thrashed Bond Pirates 55-12 down at Miami.