Incident adds to woes for ‘Hawks
A “SCARY” incident for Kalifa Faifai Loa has headlined the string of concerns to come out of the Blackhawks’ loss to the Northern Pride, as the club’s casualty ward continues to grow at an alarming rate.
The two-time New Zealand representative collapsed in the second half of his side’s 30-26 defeat, the nature of which perplexed coach Aaron Payne.
Having been seemingly taken from the field for a head assessment, Payne said his star winger appeared to be doing well, however he was unsure as to whether contact was involved or if something else caused the 31-year-old to fall to the turf.
“He seems all right, it was a pretty scary one considering I don’t know whether there was contact involved or not, so for him to go down like that was pretty scary,” Payne said.
“Our doctor says at the moment he’s OK so we’ll look more into that.”
Faifai Loa was not the only one to not finish Saturday night’s clash, with Tom Hancock suffering a suspected syndesmosis injury and Kieran Quabba damaging the medial ligament in his knee.
Already the Blackhawks have Joe Boyce, Patrick Kaufusi, Jaelen Feeney, Moses Meninga, Cameron King and Bacho Salam on the sidelines, and the stack of injuries forced the likes of Josh Chudleigh and Tom Gilbert to churn out more work than expected heading into the game.
It took a gutsy call from the Pride to steal the result at the death, with the visitors opting against taking a penalty goal with two minutes on the clock.
The gamble paid off as Bernard Lewis crossed in the corner, with Jake Clifford — who starred for the Pride with a dominant kicking game — soaking up all but the final second to take his conversion.
While Payne attributed the loss to lacking confidence in their defensive systems, he admitted he would be seeking clarification from the Queensland Rugby League on a number of issues.
The first was the regulations regarding the match clock when Clifford was taking his final conversion, which continued for nearly two minutes after the try was scored.
The other involved prematch protocols, which he said had left him frustrated in the team’s preparations.
Payne said teams were required to have their line-ups locked in an hour prior to kickoff, however at that time Javid Bowen was not named.
The Cowboys-contracted centre would go on to score in first half for the Pride.
Pride officials said it was Bernard Lewis who was not listed. Lewis was originally named at centre, the position taken by Javid Bowen, but took the field on the wing after Matthew Musumeci was ruled out.
The Pride said the error was corrected quickly.
The Blackhawks mentor said it did affect preparation, however ultimately what cost his side was a series of poor defensive efforts.