FINALS RIVALS IN DACK CUP
RUNAWAY Bay’s injury plague continues to stifle its title defence but coach Nick Gleeson still has faith in his next-man-up philosophy.
Already without a host of key A-Graders due to injury and Intrust Super Cup duties, the reigning premiers have been forced to make a further five changes for Sunday’s annual Dack Cup encounter with ladderleaders Tugun.
The Seagulls lost prop Andrew Vela five minutes into last weekend’s 38-28 loss to Southport, followed shortly after by Doryaan Hape-Apiata (broken hand) and Craig Garvey (ACL).
“We’re in a bit of a hole at the moment,” Gleeson said.
“We’re without both frontrowers, a hooker and our new signing Craig Garvey … his first game for the club and he does his ACL, which was disappointing.”
Featuring just one established middle forward against the Tigers, Gleeson said it was his more experienced edges that let the side down defensively. That does not bode well for the reigning premiers, who next face a Tugun side featuring competition leading tryscorer Zac Beecher at right-centre.
But Gleeson is adamant the Southport performance was an aberration and has backed his men to return to form at home on Sunday.
“I’m still confident we can win,” he said.
“One thing that we’ve been good at is we have a lot of depth and quality at our club.
“It just means the guys normally on the bench or in reserve grade are now starting.
“It’s not like it’s doom and gloom at training. We showed enough last week that even without some of our big names, we can still be competitive.
“We need to tidy up a couple of areas but I’m more than confident we can beat Tugun on Sunday.”
They’re good games to play in
Tugun coach Clint Barends
The Seagulls and Seahawks have a recent history of nailbiting encounters.
It’s telling of the incredibly close nature of their rivalry that Tugun’s 32-24 win in round 3 was one of the larger margins in recent memory.
“They’re good games to play in. We love it at the moment, against Runaway Bay,” Tugun coach Clint Barends said.
“That last game stretched out a bit to eight points but last year or the year before, every time we played them it would be something like two points (difference) with either team winning on the bell.
“We enjoy playing Bay and know we’re in for a tough game.”
Sunday’s clash doubles as the annual Dack Cup memorial match, in honour of former Seahawks and Seagulls player Reece Clark, who passed away in a house fire in 2017.
“It’s a pretty special day for us and Tugun,” Gleeson said. “Reece featured pretty heavily for them for a while and played two seasons with us. We won the shield last year, which was good, and we’re hoping to retain it this year.”