Match Report
Newcastle Jesters pulled off a surprise move for today’s clash with the Manly 17 by replacing last week’s training cones with actual people. The move almost paid dividends as Manly struggled with an opposition that moved, and much to the horror of the Manly coaching staff, kicked too. However, the Slapper Brown move fell short as he forgot to use actual players.
There were some notable performances amongst the Manly 17.
Snake showed his years of experience and guile, doing another ironic hammy injury without anybody even noticing. (Mullen could learn well from the master after being found out with a very public hammy display). The legless Snake put in a yet another brilliant performance of organising the defence from the back in the first half before the injury saw him sit out the second.
Tommy Gun was handed a princely chance to fill in at the back, after the Snake’s masterful injury trick. And boy, did he grab it with two legs. Tommy showed how much these recent years of apprenticeship under Snake have paid off by going down with a leg injury mid way through the second. We look forward to more Snakesque magic from the young Tommy Gun in the future.
The Lyon twins turned up again, and it was a fierce battle between Rocky Lyon and Jamie Diamonds. Diamonds put in enough work to hold down the right wing spot for next week, though Rocky may be fortunate to slot in again next week with injuries running amok.
It was a pretty performance today from the playmaker, Vave. He showed a willingness to run at the line, but also silky hands with some deft off-loads. The other playmaker, Myles, was a little quiet today in comparison, but put on a lovely play late in the second to set up a try. After receiving the ball, Myles accelerated at a gap between two defenders, popped out the other side with arms free to hand off a picture perfect offload to the backing up try scoring machine, Jake T. That play alone justified the recruitment team, who brought the controversial playmaker to Brooky to fill the gap left by the departing Foran.
Manly were expectant with the return of their hard-running back rower, DCE. It was well short of his barnstorming form of origins gone by, but he did show a willingness to smash into opposition forwards. It was hard to tell whether his inconsistent kicking game was due to concerns with his leg or simply carrying too much money in his back left pocket, throwing off his balance.
A final mention goes to the performance from Hex Williame on the wing. He deservedly grabbed MOM honours for being in a team that won an NRL game. Well done, young man.