Round Sixteen
Joondalup Giants 18 – North Beach Sea Eagles 38
By PETER ROWE
North Beach ended the regular season with a solid 38-18 victory in the mud at Admiral Park on Saturday evening and will now hope to have key players returning for their Fuel to Go and Play Premiership semi-final against minor premiers South Perth in two weeks.
On a quagmire of a pitch and in windy conditions, the Sea Eagles opened the scoring after two minutes through centre Jaylen Grey, but then had come from behind as a Joel Irvine try was converted by Gus Marshall.
They withstood early Joondalup pressure, defended their line well and emerged comfortably 20-6 in front at the break, thanks to further scores from Grey, lock Kallum Gulliver Brown, winger Riley Bradley and halfback Jeremy Wallace two minutes from the siren.
“Joondalup pushed us in that opening half early on,” coach Phil Douché said.
“But we kept our shape and extended the lead into the second half. Conditions were not good for either team. Muddy and windy and we kicked well given those conditions.
“When we had to defend we did just that. No injuries, so I’m happy and we can prepare for South Perth in two weeks.”
The Giants, who were saying farewell to captain and halfback Gus Marshall, never gave up and scored two late tries through Irvine and Phil Saunderson to end their disappointing season bottom of the ladder, on a poorer points differential to Rockingham.
“It’s been a tough season and we would have liked to have given Gus (Marshall) a good send off with a win, but it wasn’t to be,” co-captain Taurean Sheehan said.
“The field was really heavy, like playing in concrete.
“We got off to a good start and then fell away in the second half. Our young players will have learnt a lot from this season and we will be back stronger next year.”
For coach Darren Smith it has been a disappointing season on the field but a positive one off it.
“Despite the ladder the future of the club looks good,” he said.
“Planning for next year started yesterday. In most of our games this season we competed for 50-60 minutes and then fell away. We know what we have to fix.
“Against Beach it was a real dog fight in the mud up the middle and both teams tried to find some dry ground around the edges, but too many errors let us down.”
