Tigers tackle tough tests
The Tully Tigers have arguably had the toughest run so far this season but coach Colin Wilkie said he has been happy with how his team has performed so far this campaign.
The Tigers sit 1-3 after the first four rounds, having faced off against the top three teams, including last years premiers and grand finalists in the opening two weeks.
Wilkie said he wasn’t too displeased with how the first four rounds have gone.
“Both Brothers and Innsifail are really good sides and we played really good footy against them,” Wilkie said. “We took it to them and we learnt a lot from those games.
“You can look at the weekend’s loss to Edmonton and think we got it handed to us and the score does look that way.
“This is my 21st season and I haven’t seen us start that poorly before. We just didn’t have anything go right for us.”
From the opening kick off, the Tigers made some errors, including dropping the first kick.
The Storm ran over the Tigers, finishing with a massive 54-16 victory at Petersen Park.
“The confidence was pretty high heading into the match against Atherton in round three and that got our season underway with that win,” Wilkie said.
“But the weekend, we didn’t quite see that coming.
“We had a really good week, prepared really well but top effort by Edmonton, they came out and turned one on.
“They scored from the first touch of the ball and then our first kick went out on the full and then they scored again on the back of that penalty kick.
“So it was 12-0 in the space of the first three or four tackles.”
It was a dominant display by the Storm, who were full of run and carry throughout the day.
Edmonton sits undefeated with three wins from three games while Brothers and Innisfail both remain undefeated with four wins from four games.
Tully will now look to this Saturday’s clash against Southern Suburbs who are still eyeing off their first win of the season.
“Suburbs have turned a corner as well. They’ve got Eddie Sailor who has come across and put his hand up to coach that side,” Wilkie said.
“And being well led off the field by Danny Maher who is very well respected in the North. He has done a really good job from the administration side.
“There is no real easy games and based on the game from the weekend we are back to square one. We won’t be taking Suburbs lightly, that is for sure. If we turn up with our attitude and how we played in the first three rounds then it might have been a different story on the weekend. But Edmonton proved to be a different story for us.”
Kick off is at 6pm on Saturday April 20 at Tully Showgrounds.