North Beach Sea Eagles 24 – Ellenbrook Rabbitohs 30
By PETER ROWE
A great start and an equally good finish earned the points for Ellenbrook in their Fuel to Go & Play Premiership clash against the Sea Eagles at Blueforce Park on Saturday afternoon.
Prop Raipo Jones, known affectionately as ‘Nasty’ to his teammates, got the Bunnies off to a great start before centre Toby Carr and winger Jarrah Clarke-Hooper extended the lead.
Beach then fought back with four scores of their own thanks to tries from centre Tane Dodunski in the 20th minute, five-eighth Kurtis Everett (27) and winger Riley Bradley (35) as the home side went into the break leading 18-14.
In a see-saw game with both teams wanting the win, the Rabbitohs saw hooker Zion Wetter and halfback Unawin Clarke cross, but the Sea Eagles jumped to a two-point lead late in the game thanks to another four-pointer from the excellent Everett.
The stage was then set for a grandstand finish as Elias Tsakalos gave the Rabbitohs a slender lead before skipper Chase Rye kicked a penalty on the siren to secure the win.
Consistency was coach Dan Manning’s key word after the game, praising his side for their performance.
“At the start of the season we set out to be competitive and I think we are getting there,” he said.
“Zion (Wetere) was superb at hooker for us, steering the ship in the middle with some great line speed.
“Beach came back at us so I knew we were in for a battle, so it was superb to go there and get a win.”
For Beach coach Marty Collis the result was a disappointment after their win at Kalamunda in Round 7.
We just made far too many errors,” Collis said. “Our completion rate was poor and we gave away too many penalties in the second half.
“We have to work on the fundamentals to get it right. It was disappointing after last week a d we are better than that. We need to find some consistency in our game.”