After a season of ups and downs, these two sides have finished at the top of their respective divisions. Whilst East Coast secured their minor premiership with an epic victory over Tamworth City in round twenty five, the underdog Devils did it the hard way with a last round victory over Wagga. Heading in to today's game, fresh from a week off, one of these sides would take a big step towards Division Two favouritism.
East Coast Tigers The Tassie Devils
1 Chris Hicks 1 Cameron Way
2 Chris Walker 2 Clyde Rathbone
3 Sid Domic 3 David Fifi'iaha
4 Shane Rodney 4 Yaccine Dekkiche
5 Gareth Raynor 5 Jeremy Tickle
6 Matthew Bowen © 6 Brett Seymour
7 Andrew Dunemann 7 Varasiko Tokarei
8 Steele Retchless 8 Richard Moore
9 Nathan Wood 9 Simon Woolford ©
10 Chris Joynt 10 Mark Shipway
11 Brad Thorn 11 Shannon Hegarty
12 Danny Galea 12 Paul Mellor
13 Dallas Johnson 13 Marty Holah
++Interchange
14 Tony Martin 14 Kieran Whatuira
15 Tonie Carroll 15 Brad Baker
16 Rudi Vedelago 16 Tristan Law
17 Mark Gerrard 17 Todd Bates
It was a big crowd on hand at Aussie Stadium as Queensland's finest in Division Two prepared to do battle with the sole hope of Tasmanian rugby league. The boot of Brett Seymour got affairs started, and from the outset, it was the Devils who looked fired up and ready to claim their place in Division Two history. It was all Tassie as the game began, the Devils making good metres and restricting East Coast to their own half with committed defence. Cameron Way was denied a try in the 9th minute through some stellar defence from Dallas Johnson, who managed to hold up the Capetown bound young gun over the line.
There was no denying Richard Moore only a minute later, the Devils gifted with a second chance after Shane Rodney produced a sloppy play the ball inside his own half. The Devils took only two tackles to make them pay, making good metres through the pack before Richard Moore stormed onto a Marty Holah short ball to go in under the sticks. Cameron Way converted the try, and the Devils were unlikely 6-0 leaders.
The Devils continued to share the lion's share of possession and field position, thanks largely to uncharacteristically weak defence from the Tigers. If people had expected the Wally Lewis Division winners to dominate the Devils, they were sadly mistaken, with the Tigers lucky not to go further behind. Indeed, all that prevented the Devils from racing away to a potentially dangerous first half lead was their own inexperience, with over-enthusiasm preventing them from scoring on more than one occasion. The Tigers had their first real opportunity in the 23rd minute, when Mark Gerrard failed to ground an erraticalyl bouncing Andrew Dunemann grubber. The video referee got plenty of work as the first half wound towards its conclusion, being called on again in the 33rd minute when Richard Moore offloaded close to the line to a trailing Cameron Way. Way was again denied, ruled to have knocked the ball on in attempting to pick up Moore's lazy pass.
The first half remained heavily in Tassie's failure, but, perhaps fatally for them, the Devils couldn't find a way to put more points on the board. When halftime sounded with them only 6-0 ahead despite a 57% share of possession, Devils fans worried that a Tigers' fightback was inevitable.
HALFTIME: East Coast 0 trail Tassie 6
Tigers' coach Josh Hussey must have given his side a real spray in the sheds, because the East Coast outfit taking the field in the second half looked nothing like the unenthusiastic and lazy side that had barely held on in the second half. If Tassie doubted the Tigers' credentials, a sixty metre Shane Rodney bust after Gerrard chose to run it on the last emphasised that. Only a desperate Cameron Way tackle prevented Rodney from scoring a runaway try. The Tigers continued to look threatening, and their first points came in the 44th minute - Chris Hicks punishing the Devils for some ill discipline with a penalty goal to make it 6-2.
Only three minutes later, the Queenslanders' seized the lead for the first time in the match, riding a penalty down field before Dallas Johnson muscled his way across the line to score the Tigers' first try of the finals' series. Hicks converted from just in front, and the game's complexion had been changed - the Tigers now 8-6 leaders with just over half an hour of play remaining. The kick-off proved disastrous for the Devils, who failed to adequately mark up, allowing Chris Hicks to canter through a yawning gap on the wing. Shannon Hegarty was able to stop Hicks from racing away, but only two players later, Shane Rodney got across when he ran onto a perfectly timed ball from Matt Bowen. Hicks converted, and in the space of a few moments, East Coast had stamped their authority on the game to lead 14-6.
The few Tassie fans who had made the journey north threatened a riot as the game continued, with referee Mogsheen Jadwhat a little liberal with his use of the whistle- particularly in favour of the resurgent Tigers. Despite the booing he was copping, Jadwhat didn't change his tune, and it was no surprise when East Coast scored their third try of the match on the back of another penalty. Indeed, the Tigers had enjoyed a good share of the ball purely on the back of penalties. Sid Domic snared the third (and possibly match winning) try in the 56th, able to stroll over after a tired Tassie side didn't move quickly enough to end a backline movement. Hicks again converted, and the Devils looked set to lose after an early 6-0 lead. Whilst the flow of penalties gradually receded, the dominance of East Coast did not, with Tassie barely hanging on after the heavy defensive workload they'd been forced to shoulder so far in the second half.
The 64th minute may well go down as one of Tassie's defining moments in 2004/2005, when an eighty two metre set became the sole offensive highlight of the second half. The Devils looked switched on, thanks largely to the form of Cameron Way, but the video referee continued to haunt them- denying Yaccine Dekkiche a try for double movement. Fans were outraged, and doubly so when the referee blew another penalty not long after to further enhance East Coast's field position. East Coast were denied a try of their own not long after, but with only ten minutes of play remaining, a Tassie fightback seemed unlikely. A 73rd minute Marty Holah try added some respectability to the scoreline, but when fulltime sounded, the Devils had been outplayed, not only by East Coast, but by some dubious refereeing and their inability to score first half points.
FULLTIME
East Coast Tigers 20
Sid Domic
Shane Rodney
Dallas Johnson
Hicks 4/4
defeated
The Tassie Devils 10
Marty Holah
Richard Moore
Way 1/2
PoM Points
Shane Rodney..............3
Mark Gerrard...............2
Cameron Way..............1
Tassie Coach Big Mick was rightly furious after the match proclaiming the match "A Joke of massive proportions". He had this to say in the post match conference:
Q - Mick are you disappointed?
A - What a stupid question. Fark oath I disappointed. Not in my boys effort, in the fact that Hussey probably gave the referee a nice lunch in a brown paper bag at halftime.
Q - DO you blame the referee for today's loss?
Look at their tries and tell me if they would have scored them if not on the back of dubious penalties. THe first one was for holding the player down and he wasn't even on the guy!. This is a disgrace. Cameron did a great job and got us good field position on every kick, only to be null and void by a dodgy penalty off a dodgy ref who shouldn't be allowed to ref an under 7's game netherlone the big time.
Q - Who was your best tonight?
Richard Moore played really well in the first half, but overall...Cameron played brilliant yet again.
Q - Are u worried with the prospect of possibly playing Wagga in the next phase?
Not at all. We'll go out and do what is expected of us. If we lose next week, which could very well happen, then we'll be very proud of our achievements this season and the players can be proud they did great things for Tassie.
Q - Any final comments?
That referee should be shot.
Ooh.... in the NRL, you'd be fined for those comments
Thank God this isn't the NRL. $12,500 to Tassie
Heh heh. Dr. Krockett has contacts at Interpol. Maybe he could get him shot for you.
HAHAH i was gonna add a question like Are you worried about being fined and I was gonna reply like I'll get paid hansomly for these comments.. LMAO
