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Another Cliffhanger for the Harold Matthews Cup Bears

Tyrese Walker breaks away from the Roosters pack - NSW Rugby League Junior Representative Competition - Harold Matthews Cup Competition [U16] Round 3 - Central Coast Roosters Vs North Sydney - Morie Breen Reserve - 25/02/2017 Photos by - Steve Little - www.redandblackzone.com

The young Bears Harold Matthews Cup side has again fought out a close contest in Round 3 of competition with the Central Coast winning out.

The Harold Matthews have their first home match next Saturday at 10:00 am 4th March at TG Milner Field in Marsfield.

Facing the newly monikered Central Coast Roosters, with two tries a piece it could not get any closer, a conversion kick the only difference after sixty minutes of footy.

“It was certainly a game that was there for the taking” claimed under sixteens Coach Pete Palmer.

“We had plenty of opportunities to score points but just couldn’t execute our good ball sets.”

Norths took control early with tries to Adien Brophy and Flynn Issacs, Nick Russell converted the first try, however, the Bears scoring was done for the day.

An early scuffle between the side resulted in a sin-binning to Norths hooker Isaac Papadatos.

This combined with an early injury to second-rower Jayden Tamala to force a forward pack reshuffle with the inevitable disruption that resulted.

With a 10-6 lead at half time, it really was an opportunity for the semi-battle worn Bears.

“We spoke about having to play up-tempo footy for the next 30 minutes because we knew central coast would commit for the full 30 minutes,” said Coach Pete.

The Coasts’ converted try came in the fifty-seventh minute.

The Bears had a number of opportunities to score, but errors and poor options at the line meant no more points for Norths.

“To Central Coasts’ credit, they hung in there and were able to snatch a late victory,” said Coach Pete Palmer.

“At the end of the day, we need to be a lot better than that if we want to play finals footy in this competition.”

Brad Michael was man of the match, and Coach Pete once again claimed captain Callan Burgess was a standout.

“Spiro Sprikous positional play at fullback was also outstanding,” claimed the Coach.

The Bears Harold Matthews Team will now face the Illawarra Steelers at the Bears home away from home, TG Milner Field and so Pete now looks to their next opportunity.

“There is nothing we can do about the result now we have to regroup and focus on Illawarra next weekend. ”

The Illawarra clash will be played on Saturday at 10:00 am.

 

CENTRAL COAST ROOSTERS 12 (tries: Ryan Jones 2, conversions: Corey Fenning 2),
defeated NORTH SYDNEY BEARS 10 (tries: Adien Brophy, Flynn Issacs, conversion: Nick Russell).

FINAL TEAM
1 Spiro Psiroukis
2 Kane Mirabile-Kumar
19 Tevita Faupula
4 Nick Russell
5 Adien Brophy
6 Flynn Isaacs
7 Jake Preston
8 Kelivn Euta
9 Isaac Papadatos
10 Lochlan Trimboli
11 Callan Burgess (C)
12 Jayden Tamala
13 Brad Michael

Interchange
14 Tyrese Walker
15 Steven Galatoula
18 Jamin Miller
20 Saupo Aigamaua

Coach: Peter Palmer

The HAROLD MATTHEWS CUP is a 16-team under-16s Australian rugby league competition staged by the New South Wales Rugby League.

The competition is made up of New South Wales based clubs and includes both junior representative teams of the National Rugby League and clubs and academies that do not field teams in the National Rugby League competition.

The competition is named after Harold Matthews, a Balmain Tigers secretary who later was appointed as manager of the Australian Test squad and later went on to become secretary of the New South Wales Rugby League and Australian rugby league.