In Division Two’s first game of elimination football for the round, the Canberra Chargers would play host to the Newcastle Fear. With both sides struggling in the second half of the season after promising beginnings, today’s game would see a return to form for one side, whilst another would go home to rue opportunities missed.
Canberra Chargers Newcastle Fear
1 Matt Hilder 1 Stuart Reardon
2 Scott Donald 2 Craig Hall
3 Christophe Lamaison 3 Marc Barctholomeusz
4 Paul Whatuira 4 Shontayne Hape
5 Nathan Smith 5 Matthew Petersen
6 Matthew Gafa 6 Paul Cooke
7 Sean Towers 7 Brett Firman
8 Isaac Ah Mau 8 Richard Villasanti
9 Michael Monaghan 9 Matthew Diskin ©
10 Antonio Kaufusi 10 Josh Perry
11 Michael Smith © 11 Gareth Ellis
12 Gareth Carvell 12 Rob Parker
13 Ryan Hudson 13 Verity Gunnarsson
++Interchange
14 Brandon Costin 14 Thomas Leullai
15 Casey Macguire 15 Malcolm Alker
16 Chris McKenna 16 Ryan O'Hara
17 Matt Henjak 17 Mark Hughes
Whilst the ACT crowd may have been behind Canberra in the early going, it was all Newcastle from the outset, with the experienced unit looking ominous in their early offensive raids. Conversely, the Chargers looked like a side low on confidence, with a penalty for offside in the 3rd minute giving the Fear an ideal chance to open their scoring. Paul Cooke’s attempt was waved away, but from the return of possession, the Fear went one better – Rob Parker muscling his way through some lazy and lacklustre Canberra defence to score a soft try. Cooke made no mistake with the routine conversion, and the Fear were looking dangerous early, up 6-0.
Six became ten only three minutes later, and once again it was the Fear’s experienced forward pack that was doing the damage – Verity Gunnarsson capping off a memorable forward blitz when he was the unlikely recipient of a well weighted Brett Firman chip kick. Gunnarsson still had work to do, casting off a weak Scott Donald attempted tackle to plant it out wide. Cooke continued to struggle with the more difficult conversions, but the Fear were more than matching the clock, up 10-0 after eight minutes. The Fear continued to dominate the early going, denied in the fifteenth and again in the sixteenth through good defence and the aid of the video referee. The Chargers’ halves pairing of Matt Gafa, Brandon Costin, and Sean Towers – all contenders for this year’s Division Two player of the year award, just couldn’t seem to gel, and their own ineptitude in defence meant that the Fear were practically camped on their line. The Fear had two further tries denied by the video referee in the 20th and 21st minute, a strong indication of how powerful their offence had been.
By the time the Fear scored their third try, the Chargers were out on their feet, enjoying a meagre share of possession and constantly coming off their own line thanks to the Fear’s astute kicking game. It was one such kick that lead to Shontayne Hape scoring a memorable try in the 30th minute, with Brett Firman weaving a grubber through the legs of Canberra defenders, and Hape picking it up with his fingertips to slide over out wide. Cooke managed to land the hardest conversion of the day, and it looked as good as over for Canberra, with Newcastle leading 16-0 heading into the break.
It was all Fear in the final ten minutes of the half, much as it had been for the entirety of the first half – with Canberra’s highlight reel limited to a few heavy tackles from their pack, and one promising backline raid in the 37th minute. When halftime sounded, an exhausted Chargers’ outfit tramped into the sheds, whilst the Fear looked confident of a semi final berth.
HALFTIME: Canberra 0 trail Newcastle 16
A change of attitude was the most noticeable difference in Canberra’s second half play, and in a mirror of the first half, the Chargers were the side that looked like they were ready to play semi finals football. Some powerhouse runs from Paul Whatuira and Scott Donald set the game aflame, and with the Fear not used to doing the hard yards in defence, it didn’t take long for Canberra to get themselves on the board. The polar reversal of the first half continued, and when Brandon Costin ran onto a brilliant short ball from Michael Monaghan, the Fear were no chance of running him down. Sean Towers was unable to convert, but the try had breathed new life into a game that had looked dead at halftime.
The Chargers’ adopted a far more strict defensive pattern after the try, and it showed, with the Fear unable to break the line nearly as casually as they had in a fairly one sided first half. Whilst the video referee continued to haunt Newcastle, denying them again in the 61st minute, the Can-ber-a chants were ringing loud and clear through Bruce Stadium. But as the game wound towards its inevitable conclusion, it became clear the solid defence was not all the Chargers would need, trailing by twelve and in a race against time if they wanted to stay alive in the 2004/2005 finals race. To their credit, the Fear’s scrambling defence was a thorn in the side of Canberra, who began to show signs of frustration when every promising movement was brought to an end by the desperation defence of the Fear’s back three. Playing with a potentially match winning lead, the Fear were able to play a more safe and attractive brand of football- and found themselves on the Chargers’ line on several occasions. When fulltime sounded, the Fear had done what was needed, and whilst it wasn’t pretty, the 16-4 victory would see them stay alive for another week, whilst Canberra would bow out of the finals after two consecutive losses.
FULLTIME
Canberra Chargers 4
Brandon Costin
Towers 0/1
Lost to
Newcastle Fear 16
Shontayne Hape
Verity Gunnarsson
Rob Parker
Cooke 2/4
PoM Points
Paul Cooke…………..3
Josh Perry……………2
Brett Firman………….1
