Brothers flex their muscles
BROTHERS have stormed into their third-straight TDRL decider with a 40-10 victory over traditional rivals Herbert River in yesterday’s major semi-final at Townsville Sports Reserve.
The Crushers will now take on Western Lions in the preliminary final after the Lions survived a 29-28 thriller against the resurgent Burdekin Roosters in yesterday’s knockout semi-final.
Herbert River started strongly as backrower Thomas Hanson scored after just 10 minutes before tries to Daniel Pickering, George Moananu, and Nathaniel Bowman gave Brothers a 16-6 halftime lead.
Brothers winger Dylan White crossed the stripe in the first minute after halftime and from there the floodgates opened.
Meanwhile, Western Lions had to fight hard for the club’s first A-grade finals win after the Roosters scored a try inside the last few minutes to ensure a grandstand finish.
Burdekin jumped out to a 16-6 lead in the first half before three quick tries put the Lions in front 24-16 at the break.
The Roosters scored first after halftime as the two sides went back and forth before a field goal to the Lions proved enough for them to hold on and keep their premiership hopes alive.
Lions coach Ricky Bourke said his heart was still racing after the game, but he described the win as a proud moment for the club as they’ve focused on playing local juniors this season. “We are historically a slow-starting team, which I wish I knew how to fix, but we’ve always got points in us and we’ve always got the belief,” Bourke said.
“We put a plan together at the start of the year just to play with our Western Lions players so all our juniors. We haven’t gone and recruited and we’ve debuted 15 players this year.
“I’m feeling great just to get it (the first finals win) out of the way. There’s plenty to work on, but our confidence is pretty sky high at the moment.” Burdekin co-captain Ryan Davenport said fatigue had played a part following their fourth-place playoff against Centrals on Wednesday night, but he said the Roosters were still proud of their success this season after failing to win a game last year.
“I think we really felt the heat today, but I couldn’t be prouder of where we’ve come from and what the future holds,” Davenport said.
“We were just aiming to get the club back on track.”