Bears in mix, Tweed on rise
BEN Woolf has declared derby rivals Burleigh will be Intrust Super Cup finals contenders while predicting improvement for his Tweed Heads side.
The Bears, Seagulls and Norths Devils played in a triseries of 40-minute matches at Pizzey Park on Saturday night.
Burleigh walloped Tweed 20-0 before losing 12-8 to the Devils. Tweed then delivered a far better performance to draw 12-all with Norths.
Woolf admitted Burleigh were “a little bit strong for us” in the opening encounter and expects the Jimmy Lenihancoached outfit to bounce back from a difficult 2017.
“They have got a squad in there,” he said.
“They have got good halves obviously with Jamal Fogarty in there and their forward pack is strong. They are going to be up there.”
Injuries to Tweed’s own players – Cheyne Whitelaw will miss the first month with a dislocated wrist – plus the unavailability of Titans affiliates such as Keegan Hipgrave (suspended for Round 1) means they may be stretched early.
Reigning player of the year good Lamar Liolevave is racing the clock to overcome a shoulder injury.
Woolf said his side may feature “six or seven” players under the age of 21 but believes the mistakes made against the Bears on Saturday are all fixable.
“The things we are doing wrong, we can solve,” he said.
“We can get our completion rate better, we can do a better job defensively in the ruck. I think that improved from last week but it needs to go better again and then a bit of our edge defence stuff, we can fix that.”
Tweed face Norths in Round 1 at Bishop Park on March 11.