Lousi’s out for battle of Burleigh
AUSTRALIA’S men’s water polo team have lost to Serbia 15- 5 in the quarter- finals of the world championships in Hungary.
The Sharks were outsiders for Tuesday’s clash in Budapest and struggled early to be three goals down at quarter- time.
Things didn’t improve in the second and the Aussies team found themselves trailing 8- 3 at the main break.
Australia had no answer to world No. 1 Serbia, who extended their lead in every quarter to be seven goals up by the final change.
The Sharks, ranked ninth in the world, will face Italy on Thursday in their bid to finish as high as fifth.
Australia won’t have a team in the tournament’s semi- finals after their women’s team were beaten by the United States. TOWNSVILLE Bl a c khawks prop Sione Lousi will miss Saturday’s Queensland Cup game against Burleigh after taking an early guilty plea to a shoulder charge.
Lousi accepted the one game penalty in the wake of last weekend’s loss to the Ipswich Jets in Winton, and winger Jonathon Reuben will be free to play after also pleading guilty to his grade one dangerous throw.
Lousi risked missing games if he fronted Queensland Cup judiciary.
“We go in and look at everything case by case,” Blackhawks operations manager Adrian Thomson said.
“We definitely want to fight for our players, but if we’ve got nothing to really fight with we probably have to accept it.
“In this case it was probably more beneficial for us to take our medicine and move on.”
Lousi made 80m in the Blackhawks’ 22- 20 loss to Ipswich and was hard to contain, with the former New Zealand Warriors prop scoring a try and coming close to getting another.
There will be enough depth to cover his forced omission, with Ingham junior Kierran Quabba or Mackay’s Ross Bella a chance of being named on the Blackhawks’ bench. two the
“Obviously Sione’s a big loss because he’s been pretty solid,” Thomson said.
“But at the end of the day that’s where things are at.
“We’ll have to make a change but we still have a bit of time to look at a few things, so we’ll make a decision by the end of the week.”
The Blackhawks lost to Burleigh in Round 7 but have enjoyed success against the Bears in the recent past, including their club record 78- 6 win in 2015.
Burleigh have overcome a recent form slump to win their past two games, including last weekend’s 32- 26 win against the Sunshine Coast Falcons, while the Blackhawks had a six- game winning streak broken by their loss in Winton.
Blackhawks coach Kristian Woolf is keen to see his team make quick amends, especially after experiencing a mid- season form that included the club’s record 42- 4 loss to PNG.
“We had to talk about progress and what we weren’t doing well,” Woolf said.
“We had to change our attitude towards a few things, but the positive thing is we not only did we do that but we did it really well.
“We just have to make sure we’re better this weekend.
“We need to make sure we’re really good in the last four games and have a genuine crack at the finals.”
Burleigh will host the Blackhawks at Pizzey Park on Saturday, with kick- off at 5.45pm.