THREE WINS ON THE TROT

With three converted tries by the opposition in 22 minutes, the boys had Bears fans in the stands and listening from home pretty worried. We never like to lose, but the thought of losing to the Sea Eagles is even less enticing. The blood was pumping but as Head Coach Pat Weisner said post-game, “I wasn’t worried, the team knew what was needed and we had faith in our game plan to change momentum”. And that was exactly what they did. At the 31st minute, Jayden Yates backed himself and charged his way over the white line to finally get the Bears on the board. Kieran Hayman converted, and the tide was starting to change Bears 6 – Sea Eagles 18. Three minutes later and the Bears were on the attack leaving the sea birds running backwards. Jake Toby breaks the defensive line and offloads to a supporting Ben Stevanovic who nabs the points. Again, Hayman converts and the score closes to 12 – 18 as the teams hit the sheds at half time.

Starting the second half off in style, and only four minutes after the kickoff, the red & black attack with Matt Stimson finding the white line and once again Hayman converted to level the score at 18 all. Some big defensive minutes went by and the Bears continued to hold the opposition out. With twenty minutes still on the clock, the Bears are pressuring the try line when Hayman gets a sweet flick pass off to Dean Ieremia who knows what to do. The kick from the sideline goes unconverted and Bears lead 18 – 22 for the first time in the game. Not done yet, and only five minutes on, big Bronson Garlick manages to twist over the try line to take the points. Hayman converted and the lead extended to 18 – 28. Having kept the Sea Eagles scoreless for 58 minutes and 28 unanswered points by the Bears, the home team snuck in one last unconverted try in the 79th minute which closed the game at 22 – 28 to the mighty red & black.

“A magnificent fightback from 18 nil down after 20mins to be up 28 to 18 with 60 seconds to go in the game.” said Weisner post-game. “Blacktown were superb early on and scored some great tries and deserve credit for that opening 20, but we have a resilient group who know that we have the attack to come from behind if needed.” He went on to comment “Our bench had a huge impact in this one and our attack has been very consistent this year with only the one game where we haven’t scored 20 points being in the rain vs the Roosters”.

And finally looking at the next two rounds, Weisner remarked “We have Penrith at Penrith and then the Jets at Henson so it doesn’t get any easier but if our effort and desire stays at the same level then we will test those two teams.”.