Round Twelve
South Perth Lions 48 – Joondalup Giants 20
South Perth overcame a sluggish start to reel off five second-half tries to cement their top two spot in the NRLWA Fuel to Go and Play Premiership at George Burnett Park on Saturday afternoon, emerging 48-20 winners over opponents Joondalup.
The Lions led 20-14 at the interval but coach Duane Gwiazdzinski wasn’t happy with his side’s performance.
“We made a lot of errors in the half and we spoke about it in the sheds at the break,” Gwiazdzinski said.
“There’s a lot of new people in the squad so it’s understandable and we adjusted well in the second half.”
Winger Jordan Tuomana starred with four ties – three on the left edge before switching to the right late in the game for his final effort.
“I changed a few things and Jordan played well,” Gwiazdzinski said.
“Gus (Marshall) was a handful with his kicking, so we had to manage that, but Mason (Hiko) had an awesome game, a real tackle machine.”
The Giants opened the scoring after five minutes when Meli Arthur misjudged a high kick and winger Leon White took advantage to score.
With Slade Long suffering an early hamstring injury the Giants couldn’t adjust their defence and Tumoana punished them out wide.
Corban Daniels stepped through poor defence to increase the lead on 17 minutes before Tumoana grabbed his second.
When the Lions made an error in possession 25m out from their own try line the Giants moved the ball quickly from the resulting scrum and fullback Lincoln Williams, who was their best on ground and still only 17, dummied before stepping inside to cross.
Tumoana thought he had scored again out wide but the touch judge called him out of play as the Lions went in search of more points.
It took another three minutes before forward Ben Russell barged across under the posts, but there were more points to come from the visitors as winger Leon White closed the gap again, diving over 30 seconds before the break.
Leon White taking a high ball / Photo – Carmel Potter-Green
Tumoana made it a hat trick three minutes into the second half – again down the left edge – and the see-saw nature of the game continued as a Marshall bomb wasn’t cleared, allowing White to leap, take and score his third.
With 30 minutes to go it was anyone’s game, but the Lions made tactical changes and scored four times to seal the tie – lock Halam Day crossing first, followed by centre Logan Barclay, Tuomana again and finally Daniels four minutes from time.
“We settled down in the second half and played well,” Gwiazdzinski said.
“Soni (Langi) directed us around the field and it was good to have Ethan Gourgaud back.
“We have three big weeks ahead of us with games against Fremantle, Willagee and then North Beach, so there’s a lot of work to be done.
“We’ve not had the same team for weeks so we are need to stay focused ready for finals.”
Joondalup captain Taurean Sheehan was disappointed with the result, especially as they were in the game at halftime.
“We fell away again in the second half,” he said. “It’s definitely something we need to work on.
“Gus kept us in the game with his kicking, but we are struggling to put points on the board.”
Photo – Carmel Potter-Green