| The Eels at CommBank Stadium is often a hard game for the Bears and the round 6 clash proved the same. The Eels took the early points with NRL player Maika Sivo charging for the corner. Bears recovered well and Jake Toby, who had a great game on his return from injury, was first to the ball after a Kieran Hayman chip from side of field. Toby grounded and the ball and Keagan Russell-Smith converted. Playing tic tac toe, Eels were next over the line and took the lead back again. Only minutes late, Toby at Fullback made a brilliant line break, offloading to a supporting Riley Meyn who ran the rest of the field to ground below the posts. Hayman converted and the lead swung back to the Bears. The lead didn’t last long with Sivo over again on the wing for the Eels, the kick went unconverted and the Eels were up 14 -12. In the final 40 seconds of the first half Bears make a break with Dean Ieremia down the sideline, off loads to Toby who nabs his second try of the game. Hayman converts and the Bears head to the sheds up 14 – 18.
The second half started off with a bang with Bears running in two good tries first by Hayman and then by Ieremia pushing the score out to 14 – 28 in favour of the red and black. As Head Coach Pat Weisner said post-game “Disappointing to lose after working incredibly hard to get to a 28 to 14 lead with 25 mins left despite only having 7 tackles in the opposition 20m zone at that point.”. From the 55th to the 66th minute, the Eels added three controversial tries to their scoreline that sealed the Bears fate. Continuing Weisner stated “Unfortunately several huge decisions that were out of our control went against us which turned the game on its head. It meant we only touched the ball once for 16 minutes in that period and with players like Sivo and Talagi back in NSW Cup Parramatta were able to take advantage of those decisions and get in front from 14 down”. The game ended with the Eels taking the two points at a devastatingly close 30-28. “The winning goal from the sideline hit the post and went in, we lost Stevanovic at halftime, it was just one of those days where lots of things out of our control didn’t land for us, but the boys tried their guts out.” ended Weisner.
This Sunday we go again and return back to Bear Park to take on the second place Canberra Raiders for our ANZAC Round. Weisner has the team working hard at training this week and commented “We need to improve our defence this weekend and if we can do that, I’m confident we can cause an upset vs the Raiders”. Now it’s time for Bears fans, young and old, to come on out to North Sydney Oval to cheer the boys home to a win. |
Bears BBQ RaffleApril 4 2024 - 11:28 pm
