Northern Hawks coach Brad Tighe has praised his team's fighting spirt after they pushed back-to-back premiers the Maitland Pickers going down 20-10 in Magic Round at Newcastle No.2 Sportsground.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"I'm happy with the effort. We turned up to play and that's the best team in country rugby league," Tighe said.
The Hawks outscored the Pickers 10-8 in the second half after Maitland raced to a 12-0 lead within the first 20 minutes with tries to Will Nieuwenhuise and Sam Anderson.
But despite Maitland having the weight of possession for the remainder of the half, the Hawks refused to let them cross their line, drawing praise from premiership coach Matt Lantry who was also Tighe's coach at Western Suburbs.
"We have an enormous amount of respect for the Hawks, they put out a quality roster from one to 17," Lantry said after the tough encounter.
"They made life difficult for us last year at the Bay, they hung in and defended and they did that again today.
"I think you've got to give credit where it's due and that is to the defensive effort of the Hawks, because we have a lot of possession in that first half and couldn't crack it."
Both teams were guilty of failing to complete their sets in the second half in particular.
The Hawks scored first after half-time with Danny Vale crossing and Ethan Ferguson converting for a 12-6 game.
The Pickers rallied and scored the next two tries through Parry before the Hawks showed real spirit to continue to push against the premiers and scored through forward David Dryden, who gave the Hawks a real lift in the second half.
"I think we just shot ourselves in the foot. Our completion rate was well under 60 per cent and at any level if you are completing like that, let alone playing against the best team in country rugby league, you should be slaughtered," Tighe said.
"We were outstanding in defence today, the boy's effort wise, work for each other was excellent. We are building a culture on that sort of stuff and they really did work for each other.
"I think it showed we had a massive preseason. There are a few things we need to tighten up technically, but you can't knock the effort.
"The backs shared their burden of the work in hit ups and gave the forwards vital time to recover from what was a draining affair.
"We challenged the boys to do that today, our back four or five. They stepped up and took a lot of work off our middles.
"We knew it was a hot day, so we challenged the backs to come up with at least 10 carries a half and they more than met it.
"Manu (Alexander), Ethan Ferguson, Danny Vale and Callan Briggs had a heap of involvement.
"There were plenty of great contributions, but none better that Henry Penn who bent the line and force a number of turnovers with his hard-hitting tackles.
"We are evolving and building and we will continue to do that with bringing good people to the club."
The Hawks are away to Macquarie Scorpions next Saturday. The Scorpions were defeated 26-6 by Cessnock on Saturday.
Michael Hartshorn
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
