Group 9: Young down Thunder in high scoring affair

By Peter (Parra) Montgomery

Group 9 competition leaders the Young Cherrypickers posted a strong 38-28 victory over Albury Thunder at Alfred Oval Young on Sunday.

The win by Young kept the Cherrypickers ahead of Temora Dragons in the race for the minor premiership, and at the same time thwarted the Thunder’s hope of moving into the ‘top five’ this weekend – with three rounds of the ‘home and away’ series still to be played.

The Thunder, South CityBulls, Gundagai Tigers and Wagga Kangaroos are all chasing the final two spots in the top five, while Young and Temora quest for the minor premiership may not be resolved until the final round when they meet in what should be a cracker-jack game.

The Thunder team was disrupted before the game with the loss of winger Jade Duroux and hooker Blake Grounds.

Joe Hill was selected on the wing, Jeremy Wiscombe moved from lock to dummy half to replace Grounds, and Zain Mitchell-Dowding came off ‘the pine’ into a starting position in the pack.

Thunder prop Nathan Darby started the match full of vigour and his hard running in the opening exchanges let the much vaunted Young pack know they were not going to get things all their way.

The strength of the Cherrypickers forwards has been the key to the competition leaders success this year.

Coach Tom Giles leads by example, and he has willing workers in the rest of his pack, especially prop Jake Walker and edge forward Che Hyslop, and when the three are taking hit-ups, they can bend any defence in the competition.

The Thunder, however, was the first team to score with Zain Mitchell-Dowding over next to the sticks, running a good angle to take a clever pass from Paul Karaitana and give Keanau Wighton an easy conversion. Thunder led 6-0 after eight minutes.

Jackins Olam was proving to be a handful for the Young defence, and every time he ran the ball, he took three and four defenders to wrap him up.

The Cherrypickers started to get a leg-up with possession flowing with a string of penalties against the visitors.

The amount of ball enabled the homeside to put the Thunder under pressure with tries coming in the 16th and 19th minutes.

Che Hyslop was the first to score, plunging over near the posts after a determined run, and this was followed by a try to hooker Jesse Corcoran who was ‘Johnny on the spot’ to grab a pass on the tryline and dive over without a hand laid upon him.

Fullback Nic Hall had taken play close to the Thunder line, but was cut down by a scything tackle by Lachie Munro as he was about to cross.

The tries enabled Young to take a 10-6 lead.

Thunder hit back straight away with Young winger Jack Bush dropping the ball from the kick-off.

Strong running by Michell-Dowding, Ben Lee and Clayton Couley had the Young defence under pressure and quick passing from Karaitiana to Wiscombe saw the hooker throw a long ‘cut out pass’ to an unmarked Joe Hill who strolled over for his first try in the top grade.

Wighton added to extras from touch and Thunder led 12-10.

The Thunder scored again with Darby, Wiscombe and Kariatiana featuring heavily before fullback Munro, at his elusive best, slipped behind the defensive line to score for his team. The conversion attempt was astray but Thunder led 16-10.

The try gave the Thunder a lift in confidence, and the team should have scored again.

Munro put the team in a handy attacking position with a 40/20 kick, and Isaac Carpenter was held up over the line, and Olam went within a finger tip of scoring when he just failed to land a smart kick from Karaitiana on the line.

Albury went into the break comfortably in the lead 16-10.

It was a different Young team which emerged from the sheds after the break.

Coach Giles, who has done such a good job with the Cherrypickers in his first year must have given his charges a decent old ‘rev up’.

The penalties continued to go Young’s way, and the competition leaders took advantage.

Within two minutes of the start of the half, classy half back Tom Demeio scored a converted try to lock the scores at 16 all.

With Giles leading the way, the Young forwards started to take control.

In a set of six, Walker, Hyslop, Jones and Hogan made strong bullocking ‘kamikaze’ runs into the Albury defence, before Giles crashed his way over for what seemed to be an inevitable try.

The Thunder knew it was coming, but were so pounded they could do nothing to prevent it.

Not long after Young really took control of the scoring.

Winger Jack Bush was given a neat pass from five-eight Jacob Lucas to cross and take the lead to 24-16…

Sixteen minutes into the half, Nic Hall, the Young fullback, produced a magical piece of play, scooping on a well placed kick into the open in general play from a Thunder player, to split the following defence, run past a bevy of players to score one of the best individual tries of the season.

He displayed speed and strength and determination in his effort.

Although Young led 30-16, the Thunder refused to give up. It was this kind of determination that would have made injured coach Justin Carney pleased.

Wiscombe had switched back to lock with versatile Chris Manley coming into dummy half.

Wiscombe was playing very well and troubled the defence every time he had possession.

He combined with Munro to put Olam over for a well deserved try, and not long after Manley was over from dummy half and the Thunder were back in business, trailing by two points 30-28, and with eight minutes to go, the game was still there to be won.

Young replacement hooker Charlie Corcoran took advantage of a tiring Thunder pack and scored a fine individual try scooting over from twenty metres out.

Within the shadows of fulltime Hall wrapped the game up for his team, leaping high to catch a Lucas bomb and score the try to wrap up the win.

BEST FOR YOUNG – Nic Hall, Tom Demeio, Jake Walker, Tom Giles

BEST FOR THUNDER – Jeremy Wiscombe, Nathan Darby, Paul Karaitiana, Lachie Munro, Jake Olam.

YOUNG CHERRYPICKERS 38 (Nic Hall 2, Che Hyslop, Tom Giles, Jack Bush, Tom Demeio, Jesse Corcoran, Charlie Corcoran tries Tom Demeio 3 goals) defeated ALBURY THUNDER 28 (Zain Mitchell-Dowding, Lachlan Munro, Joe Hill, Chris Manley, Jackins Olam tries Keanau Wighton 4 goals) at Alfred Park Young