A courageous and under-strength Tingha Tigers outfit turned up to Mead Park to face the third-placed Glen Innes Magpies side for round 14 of the Group 19 competition.
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Fresh off a bye, the Magpies entered the game looking for a comfortable win to strengthen their points differential heading into the finals. The visitors struggled to field a full team and called on a host of the club’s youngsters to fill the void in the top grade.
A handful of injuries to Tingha saw the game called off early with the Magpies claiming a huge, 74-4 win.
Glen Innes captain-coach Nick Say praised the efforts of his opponents for taking the field despite being low on numbers.
“It is always good to put on a performance but we have to give a bit of credit to Tingha for turning up with limited numbers, I think they only 13 to start off with including a few juniors and then they got a few injuries,” he said.
While their opponents struggled, Say lauded his team’s ability to remain focused and their defence.
“We spoke about that [defence] early on and we said at half-time that our goal was to keep them to zero,” he said.
“We were unlucky we couldn't but it was a pleasing game. When it opened up at the start, we didn't want to force our hand too often, we just wanted to play our normal game and work on a few things.
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“We just worked on a few of our set plays and everything came together which was good.”
Winger Joel Jackson posted four tries while lock Jamie Watts bagged a hat-trick.
Adam Morris and Sam Schiffman both claimed a brace while Guy Mepham and Daniel Cheers picked up one each in the rout.
The Group 19 A grade top four is settled but a question mark remains around where the four sides – Moree Boomerangs, Boars, Glen Innes and Inverell Hawks – will finish.
The Magpies are locked in a battle with Inverell for their position within the top four and Sunday’s game helped give them the upper hand with two games remaining.
It was good to rack some points up, help our for and against out which could decide where you finish really.
We knew what we had to do at the start of the game, how much Inverell were in front of us by and how many points we needed to do to clear them.
This Sunday the Magpies head to Armidale to face a Narwan team coming off a 64-nil drubbing by the Boomerangs.
While their opponents for the coming clash have only collected two wins for the season, Say is wary of facing the Eels team on their home turf.
“They will be tough down there, we haven't played them down there yet and I think they will be looking to finish the season off strong and try and put a dent in the top four if they could,” he said.
“Hopefully we can get down there and get the job done.”
Earlier on Sunday, the Glen Innes Magpies league tag side were aiming to bounce back after three straight losses when they faced a Tingha side coming off a 14-nil win over the Boomerangs.
Danielle Mepham, Kate Fakes, Maddy Peterson, Abby Miller and Ebony Gallagher all crossed as the Magpies racked up 24 points to Tingha’s four to claim the win.
Amelia Tunamena picked up three Group best and fairest points while Molly Campbell finished with one.
The under 18s clash was a battle between the top-of-the-table Tingha and third-placed Glen Innes.
The Magpies were already without a handful of forwards before Lachlan Chard departed in the early stages of the match with a head injury.
They battled on with 15 players but went down 32-12.
“We are down a couple of troops at the moment,” Glen Innes coach Gavin Peterson said.
“We lost Chardy after about 10 minutes and we are still waiting for Bayden [Grob] to come back.
“We still have another front rower to come back so our forward rotation was a bit light and fatigue set in a bit and they were just struggling to move off their line and put any pressure on them [Tingha].”
With Narwan not fielding an under 18s in 2018, the Glen Innes side have a bye this weekend before a big clash with the second-placed Boomerangs for their final game of the season on July 29.
“We have the bye this week and by the time the next game comes around Bayden will be back and I think Lachlan will be right so a week this week will probably work out well for us,” Peterson said.
“We have a few things to work on in the next couple of weeks. We really want to make a case in that game leading into the finals.
“It is important for us to even try and sneak in that top two so you get the second bite if you can but we are relying on other things to happen for that to be able to happen. We just have to concentrate on what we are doing and come out firing against the Boomerangs.”