With a late venue change, the boys headed up the coast to play the Newcastle Knights on Saturday at Cessnock Sportsground. The ground was lightly speckled with fans, a retro Bears jersey or two spotted, including on big prop forward Fletcher Baker who was looking sharp in a 1992 replica. Shortly after kick off, a one-on-one strip saw the Knights steal an easy try and take the first points of the game. Their lead was to be short lived with Bears retaliating ruthlessly for the remainder of the game starting with Regan Hughes busting the defensive line and offloading to a supporting Jesse Marschke. Kieran Hayman converts and the Bears take the lead 6 – 4. Eleven minutes later, Bears are on the attack, Ben Stevanovic gets off a small chip while being tackled and Junior Pauga secures the bounce to nab his first of two tries of the game. The sideline kick is waived away. Jake Turpin, returning to the red & black, looked very comfortable as hooker and expertly moved the ball to Zach Dockar-Clay with a draw and pass, seeing the captain ground the ball under the posts and Hayman convert. Eight minutes later and the ball sweeps to the wing again taking Pauga in for his double. Just before half time the boys sure up the lead with Reuben Porter making a line break and finding the white line. Hayman converts and the Bears head to the sheds up 26 – 4.
The second half kicks off and within five minutes Turpin is sin-binned for a professional foul, leaving the red & black one man down on the field. Fortunately, it doesn’t slow the teams attack and six minutes later Jesse Marschke charges his way over, Hayman again converts, and the lead extends to 32 – 4. Knights regroup and with a slick sideline play have the Bears on the run, just adding the four points with the kick unsuccesful. Only moments later, the red & blue make another break to score under the posts, convert and they are back in the game at 32 – 14. Seemingly unphased by the late surge by the Knights, our boys suck in the breaths and bring home the win in a tremendous way. With twelve minutes to go Dockar-Clay says thank you to his double off a sweet off-load from a charging Elie El-Zakhem. Dockar-Clay converts his own try with Hayman off injured after a bad tackle. Not done yet, Tui Katoa finds some space and does what he loves to do, burns it down the field to add the four points. Followed swiftly by a brother back up with Jesse and Ben Marschke playing hot potato as they bamboozle the opposition ending with Ben getting the points, and Dockar-Clay converts. To finish off the stream of late points, El-Zakhem sneaks off a grubber across the try line, Toa Mata’afa is there to scoop it up and plant it down. Bears take their sixth win in a row with a resounding 54 – 14 scoreline and retain their top of the table status with 3 regular rounds to go. Go Bears!
Click image below to watch the game highlights >>
ROUND 24: BEARS V ROOSTERS
It’s North vs East, club vs club, mate vs mate for our home game this Sunday 13th August, Foundation Round. Two proud foundation clubs go up against each other at historic North Sydney Oval. We first played the tri-colours at the home of the Bears in 1910 and 1800 spectators attended the game – surely, we can smash that figure this Sunday! Get your footies ready, Fans on the Field will be back in action this Sunday at half time of the main game. There are only three rounds remaining in the regular season and all are at home. Come on down to Bear Park, enjoy some great footy, fun complimentary kids’ activities, settle on the hill with a Bear Park Brew and cheer on the mighty Bears this Sunday.
Check out Head Coach Jason Taylor’s team named to get the job done >>
