Cover Photo: Thirroul Butchers Facebook
Tallon Smith
A new-look Thirroul Butchers side has started the new Illawarra Rugby League season with an impressive 30-16 round one victory over the Sutherland-Loftus Pirates at Sutherland Oval on Sunday afternoon.
Fielding a side featuring eight players making their club first grade debuts, including former NRL stars Brent Naden and Corey Allan, the Butchers ran in five tries to three against the Pirates in the latter side’s inaugural game in the Illawarra competition and first senior fixture since 2017.
After a disappointing last-placed finish in 2025, Thirroul coach Jarrod Costello said it was pleasing to get on the board early this season with a strong effort on the road.
“It was pleasing, we hadn’t won a round one game for the last few years, so we wanted to get off to a good start and try and get two points early,” he said.
“Really proud of the boys’ efforts, some really good signs, a lot of things we need to improve on, but some really positive signs for us for round one.”
One of the players on club debut opened the scoring for the Butchers, with former Ipswich and Wynnum Manly centre Luke Maddaford crossing for the club’s first four-pointer of the campaign.
When asked about the performance of Thirroul’s three big name signings in Maddaford, Naden and Allan, Costello said the trio performed well in the victory, along with all of the other signings in an impressive showing for the side first-up.
“All of our new players performed well, Luke actually got our players’ player award, I thought he was great both sides of the ball,” he said.
“Corey was really good, he actually came off with a knee injury with about 20 to go so he didn’t finish the game, but he was great, took a lot of short sides and organised our defence really well and Nado was really good as well.
“Really pleased with how those three guys went, actually all of our new players to the club all had good performances, which was great.”
Perhaps the greatest source of intrigue heading into Sunday’s showdown was how the Pirates would fare in their first outing in the competition, with teams around the Illawarra keen to get a glimpse of the side’s structure and game plan.
When asked about what impressed him most about the Pirates, Costello said the high completion rates from both sides was the standout feature of a quality contest, before adding that he believes they will be a competitive outfit in the competition this season.
“We completed 80 percent in the first half, 79 percent in the second half, I think they were around 75 percent completions in both halves as well,” he said.
“It’s hard to read too much into one performance, but if they keep that or a side similar to that on the field throughout the year, they’re going to be really competitive.”
Next up for the Butchers is a showdown against another new-look team in the Corrimal Cougars, boasting a forward pack featuring plenty of NRL experience in Ben Murdoch-Masila, Raymond Faitala-Mariner and Reuben Porter.
With the Cougars coming off a first-up loss to Dapto, Costello said the Butchers are looking forward to the local derby at Ziems Park on Saturday, where a big crowd is expected to be in attendance.
“We always look forward to the Thirroul-Corrimal games, as you said that’s a local derby for us,” he said.
“There will be a good crowd there obviously being Corrimal’s first home game of the year, and all the people they’ve recruited, their supporters will want to get out and watch that game so we’re expecting a big crowd.
“They’ve recruited really well, a lot of NRL experience in their forward pack and that’s sort of where we expect them to come at us this week.
“We’ll welcome a couple of middles back that missed out last week through injury and illness and things, so we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Looking around the league following the opening round, Collegians opened the new season with a 14-4 victory over defending premiers Wests Devils in the grand final rematch at Collegians Sports Complex on Friday night.
The Collie Dogs turned a 6-4 half time advantage into a 10-point victory that demonstrated the side’s growth since last year’s epic extra time decider at WIN Stadium and gives the side plenty of momentum heading into another home game against Sutherland-Loftus on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Dapto Canaries opened their campaign with a 20-18 home victory over Corrimal at Dapto Showground on Saturday.
In their first game with new recruit and former Shellharbour Sharks star Braxton Wallace at halfback, the Canaries secured a valuable two competition points ahead of their next start showdown with Wests.
