Tallon Smith
The Albion Park-Oak Flats Eagles have maintained pace with the Kiama Knights in equal third on the Group 7 First Grade ladder after a 36-12 home victory over the Shellharbour Sharks at Centenary Field on Sunday.
The home side burst out of the blocks early on, with centre Jye Ellis finishing off a left side raid to open the scoring, before collecting a Jack Walsh grubber to double that advantage.
Sharks halfback Braxton Wallace hit back for the visitors in his 50th game, but it was cancelled out soon after by a try to Eagles winger Cooper Barnes, before a penalty goal saw Albion Park take an 18-6 lead into the break.
Eagles halfback Kane Ball started the second half in sublime fashion, collecting a ricochet from a grubber kick to score a remarkable try, before his opposite number Wallace scored a second to again close the gap to 12.
Not to be outdone, Ball raced over for a second soon after, before Dallas Harrison added the cherry on top with a final minute four pointer to seal the 24-point victory.
Albion Park-Oak Flats coach Josh White said that the win was a sweet one for the Eagles, who were well beaten by the Sharks in their first meeting of the season, and last season’s Preliminary Final.
“They beat us in the first round pretty convincingly as well because we had injuries, and they had injuries today,” he said.
“Last week’s game against Kiama we had a draw, and I think that set the precedent for today because we knew we could do it.
“The boys were outstanding, both halves were good.”
Out wide, centre Jye Ellis proved too much to handle for the Sharks’ defence in the first half, picking up a quick-fire double to help the Eagles skip out to a 12-6 lead.
Speaking on his centre’s strong opening to the game, White said that it came down to Park’s middles holding the strong Shellharbour forward pack and establishing dominance early in the match.
“I say it all the time, if we hold the middle, we’ve got the strike power out wide to score tries and we did that today,” he said.
“Again, we’ve still got five games to go, so there’s a lot of footy to go.
“I just hope that we can build on this and run into the finals.”
Another key player for the Eagles in securing the victory was hooker Viliame Mahe, who tormented the Sharks around the ruck with well timed runs and clean ball service.
White said that Mahe, a Griffith product recruited from the Corrimal Cougars over the off-season, has been central to Albion Park’s strong campaign so far.
“He’s been outstanding, he’s voted very highly in the players’ player every week,” he said.
“He’s, yeah, he’s been outstanding for us and we said to him all week, if it’s on, go, run.
“He [did] it today and he showed what he’s good at.”
As for where the Eagles could finish the season, the strong performance reinforced White’s view that their best football could trouble anyone in the competition.
“I spoke about that in the sheds, we’ve set a standard now, we just don’t go below that,” he said.
“So, you believe, you dream, and you just never know what will happen on Grand Final Day.”
Moving to other games, centre Tim Lafai had a field day for Stingrays on their way to a 60-16 win over the Nowra-Bomaderry Jets at Flinders Field.
The former NRL star scored a hat-trick for the ‘Rays on their way to a comprehensive win that sees them leapfrog their cross-town rivals Sharks to assume top spot on the table.
Kiama also had a comfortable victory in their home outing against Berry-Shoalhaven Heads to the tune of 32 points to 4.
Fullback Tom Atkins bagged a double on the way to the six tries to one victory at the Kiama Showground, one that sees the Knights remain level with Albion Park-Oak Flats and a point behind the Sharks in the race for second place.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Gerringong got out of jail at Bill Andriske Oval with a 20-18 win over the Milton-Ulladulla Bulldogs.
In a four tries to three nail-biter, it was goalkicking that saw the match decided by just two points, with last week’s hero Jake Taylor kicking two from four for the Lions as they scraped home to collect a crucial two competition points.
Battlers For Bush Footy 