QCUP Round 1: Tweed Heads Seagulls vs Redcliffe Dolphins

[DIEHARD]

Tweed Heads Seagulls vs Redcliffe Dolphins
Sun, Mar 14 3:00 PM Ned Byrne Field

[DIEHARD]

TWEED HEADS

1. Shannon Walker
2. Cameron White
3. Kingi Akauola
4. James Wood
5. Dominique Peyroux
6. Brad Davis (c)
7. Tim Maccan
8. Brock Hunter
9. Arron Pawley
10. Jake Leary
11. Tom Kingston
12. Selasi Birdie
13. Ryan Simpkins
14. Richie Barrett
15. Matt O’Reilly
16. Ryan Milligan
17. Yulu McGrady

REDCLIFFE

1. RYAN CULLEN
2. MARTY HATFIELD
3. PAUL IVAN
4. MITCH RIVETT
5. LIAM GEORGETOWN
6. CHRIS FOX
7. MICK WILSON
8. CHRIS FARRELL
9. MICHAEL ROBERTS
10. MATT HAND****
11. MICHAEL SPENCE
12. KRIS KAHLER
13. BEN JONES
14. TOM BUTTERFIELD
15. DERRICK WATKINS
16. GREG BYRNES
17. WILLIAM RASTON

[DIEHARD]

Gulls plan to erect fortress

COACH Ben Anderson couldn’t think of a better way for the Tweed Heads Seagulls to kick off their Queensland Cup campaign than with a home game at Ned Byrne Field tomorrow afternoon.

The pre-season is complete, the stage is set and the team is amped to tackle the Redcliffe Dolphins.

The Seagulls are ready to ruffle some feathers.

“What a fantastic way to kick off the year,” Anderson said.

“The boys are jumping out of their skins to get out there.

“They’ve worked hard and come a long way during the (four-month) pre-season.

“Now they’re just looking forward to putting some points on the board.”

New to the club in 2010, Anderson has plans in place to restore Seagulls to their former glory.

At Wednesday’s season launch in Brisbane, an ABC commentator made the statement “it’s never an easy game against Seagulls”. His words struck a chord with Anderson.

“I took what he said back to training and told the boys how I felt about it,” he said.

“I took pride in his words because he’s right, these boys will never lie down.

“They always give 100 per cent and that’s what you want as a coach.

“We want Tweed Heads to be known as a tough and feared road trip.”

They open the season against perennial powerhouse Redcliffe, who, after slipping from regular finalists to one off the wooden spoon in 2009, will be looking to launch 2010 with a bang.

However, Anderson believes the boys in the butcher’s stripes are prepared for whatever they may throw at them.

“Redcliffe is always a strong club and I’m sure they’ll be tough,” he said.

“But we’re ready for them.

“We’re very fit and physical this year and have several experienced game breakers in Brad Davis and the likes to lead the boys around.

“We haven’t quite gelled in attack yet, but they’ll struggle to crack our defence.

“It’s a matter of getting out there and putting it all together.”

Gold Coast Titans squad members Selasi Berdie, Shannon Walker and Will Matthews will be on deck for the Seagulls when the action gets under way at 4pm (Colts 12.45pm and FOGS 2.15pm – all DST).

SEAGULLS

1. Shannon Walker

2. Cameron White

3. Kingi Akauola

4. James Wood

5. Dominique Peyroux

6. Brad Davis

7. Tim Maccan

8. Brock Hunter

9. Aaron Pawley

10. Jake Leary

11. Tom Kingston

12. Selasi Birdie

13. Ryan Simpkins

Interchange

14. Richie Barrett

15. Matt O’Reilly

16. Ryan Milligan

17. Yulu McGrady

18. Will Mathews (*One to be omitted)

Source: http://www.tweednews.com.au

[TITAN PETE]

Walker deadly in opening loss
Luke Turgeon | March 15th, 2010


Tweed Heads Seagulls fullback Shannon Walker splits the Redcliffe defence at Kingscliff on Sunday
ELECTRIC fullback Shannon Walker showed glimpses of his deadly best but it was not enough to get a limping Tweed Heads Seagulls side home against the Redcliffe Dolphins at Kingscliff yesterday.

It was a horror start to the new Queensland Cup season for the Seagulls, who lost props Selasi Berdie (shin) and Jake Leary (shoulder) to injury inside the first 20 minutes to condemn the Tweed to just 15 men for the remainder of the match.

But to their credit, they refused to lie down against an imposing Dolphins forward pack, hanging on until the dying minutes before falling 32-30.

"We were probably a bit light on forwards going into the game anyway, so the boys did well to hang in there," said new coach Ben Anderson. "Every time Redcliffe seemed to kick ahead, they came out firing and got back at them.

"It would have been nice to pull it out of the first but there is plenty there to work with."

Titans-contracted flyer Walker, whose 2009 season was derailed by injury, scored two tries and threw the last pass on two others in a man-of-the-match performance.

"Shannon is very exciting and the longer the game went on the better he got I reckon," said Tweed skipper Brad Davis.

"He was very impressive.

"Hopefully he takes a bit of confidence out of it."

Winger Cameron White, centre James Wood and halfback Tim Maccan were the other try-scorers for Tweed, while forwards Brock Hunter and Ryan Simpkins were the best of the engine room.

"We defended well in patches but the consistency just wasn't there," said Davis, who landed five conversions from five attempts.

"We probably let them get a roll on towards the end there and they have got some big boys.

"We are not the biggest pack, so we have got to really defend well and be committed to our defence."

On Saturday, Wynnum Manly and Burleigh have played out a 0-0 draw in an amazing start to the 2010 Intrust Super Cup season

Historians and commentators went searching through their record books as soon as the full-time siren brought to a close one of the most bizarre matches in Queensland Cup history.

The previous lowest scoring game in Cup history was in 1996 when Redcliffe muscled their way to a dour 6-0 victory over Toowoomba.

There have, however, been three previous 0-0 draws in Brisbane top grade history (1918 Wests v Valleys; 1925 Brothers v University and 1947 Wests v Souths).

Although the scoreboard attendants had an easy afternoon in Saturday's clash at Kougari Oval, the match had no shortage of drama.

Wynnum was denied a try in the dying seconds of the first half after the referee ruled the Seagulls had stripped the ball illegally on the Burleigh line.

A number of penalty and field goal attempts also sailed wide in a frantic finish that had supporters on the edge of their seats.

While a little heavy under foot, the conditions werent exactly bad for rugby league.

The swarming defence of both sides forced more and more mistakes as the match wore on.

Burleigh coach Mark Gee pulled a surprise at the kick off when he elected to start Kurt Sorensen at hooker instead of Scott Smith arguably the competitions premier No. 9.

Smith only had to wait 19 minutes until he was injected into the game but not even his brilliance from dummy half could get the Bears over the line.

Meanwhile out at Ipswich, Titans flyer William Zillman was outstanding for the Jets against Easts after missing selection for the Gold Coast's first game of the season against the Warriors.

Zillman scored tries either side of half-time and sparked two others as the Jets converted a 22-6 at half-time into a commanding 32-16 victory.

[DIEHARD]

Walker's double just not enough

SHANNON Walker marked his return to Ned Byrne Oval with a devastating double yesterday, but it wasn’t enough to get the Tweed Heads Seagulls over the line against a beefed-up Redcliffe Dolphins.

The highly-anticipated Queensland Cup season-opener lived up to all expectations, with only two points separating the sides at both the half and full-time sirens.

But unfortunately for the hosts, it was Redcliffe who got up 32-30.

“It was a good game to watch,” Seagulls coach Ben Anderson said.

“I don’t like losing but I’m as happy as I can be with our performance considering.

“I can’t fault the efforts of the boys and if they keep putting in like that, they’ll win plenty of games.

“We’re not too far off and we can take plenty out of the way we played.”

Walker opened the scoring after just 10 minutes, latching on to a Brad Davis bullet and carving up the defence with an overwhelming turn of pace.

However, Tweed were soon reduced to just 15 men midway through the first half with injuries to key forwards Selasi Berdie and Jake Leary.

Redcliffe then answered back and took the lead with two tries and a penalty kick in quick succession turning the tables in their favour 14-6.

Backs against the wall, the Seagulls needed to create something before the break, and it was that combination again, Davis to Walker, that made it happen, with Tim Maccan reaping the spoils.

Davis made it two from two off the boot and closed the gap to just two points by the break.

“We were definitely in it at the break,” Anderson said.

“But as the game wore on, our depleted bench started to come into effect.”

The second half continued to be a see-sawing affair, with both sides creating plenty of opportunities.

Redcliffe opened their account first, extending the gap to eight points, but that was as far ahead as they got, with the Seagulls answering back each and every time the Dolphins crossed.

Cameron White polished off another strong break up the left hand side with a trademark winger’s finish for the Seagulls’ third, with Walker first to react to a well-weighted Aaron Pauley grubber for the side’s fourth.

When powerful centre James Wood crossed for Tweed’s fifth, the game was in the balance with just five minutes remaining.

The Seagulls had the best of the closing opportunities and perhaps should have done better with a late penalty awarded two minutes before time.

But Davis failed to find touch with his kick.

“We were in with a chance to steal the game and had them struggling, but didn’t capitalise,” Anderson said.

“Our fifth tackle and kicking options let us down really. There were many poorly executed and we let them off the hook.”

Enforcer Brock Hunter was named the game’s player’s player.

Fears for the Seagulls FOGS were recognised in the earlier game, annihilated 48-0, but things are looking much brighter for the Colts who impressed in their 44-14 triumph.

http://www.tweednews.com.au