North Beach Sea Eagles 18 – Joondalup Giants 20
By PETER ROWE
Tiger Williams was the hero of hour at Blueforce Park on Saturday afternoon as the Joondalup Giants made it back-to-back wins with a superb come from behind Round 10 Fuel to Go & Play Premiership victory over Northern suburbs rival North Beach Sea Eagles.
The young centre leapt to take a cross-field kick from debutant Scott O’Brien as the clock counted down the final seconds of a pulsating game that had seen the home side lead at the break 18-0.
“Even 18-0 down at the break I felt we were still in the game, and with a few minutes left I threw Joel Irvine and Payden Porter back on with the message ‘go and win it’ – and we did,” jubilant coach coach Matt Gowland said.
For Beach coach Marty Collis it was the opposite.
“We had the wind behind us in that half and played well,” he said.
“Connor Morris, who was due to start in the halves, played hooker as we had lost Tommy Welsh, and had a superb game, scoring twice.
“But we didn’t have much possession in the second half and let them back into the game with two early tries and then that 79th minute disappointment.”
Morris had opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a clever show and go from dummy half to race through a gap to cross before prop Jason Dorreen added a second after 14 minutes of play.
The Giants found it hard going with the wind against them and couldn’t control Morris who on last tackle of a set spun out of the despairing arms of a defender to dive over.
Riley Bradley kicked his third conversion of the afternoon and the home side went to the sheds in control.
But that control barely lasted a minute of the second half as Isaiah Rapana beat a late tackle and broke up the left edge to cross.
“We didn’t play that bad in the first half, I was unhappy with two of the tries and told them so, but I always thought we could score,” Gowland said.
Down to 12 men after George Hough had been sinbinned, the Sea Eagles were fighting to stay in front and when Payden Porter crashed over one the left edge from a Lincoln Williams pass it was game on.
Porter found the whitewash again with four minutes to go to reduce the margin to two points and then it happened.
With less than 100 seconds on the clock Joondalup were given their chance after a poor play the ball from the home side.
Englishman O’Brien kicked to the left hand corner and Tiger Williams was there to win the game.
“It was disappointing of course,” Collis said. “But we are a young side still learning. Our spine ages are 17, 17 and 19. Wyatt Rogers, younger brother of Darius, at fullback, is a quality youngster.
“The players were dejected after the game, but it’s still only halfway through the season, so we have plenty of work to do as we have the bye next week.”
For Gowland it was pleasing for his players – who he said have been working very hard in recent weeks.
“Davie Martin was playing his 100th game and Brody Dunn at lock was outstanding, He was the perfect ball playing forward, knowing when to shift to either role. The mix off play he showed was superb. And Taurean Sheehan – eight out of ten – another solid show.”
