Cover Photo: Kate Johnson
Tallon Smith
The Southcity Bulls celebrated veteran hooker Kyle McCarthy’s 300th game in style by securing the Group 9 Challenge Cup with a 42-24 victory over the Tumut Blues at Wagga’s Harris Park on Sunday afternoon.
The Bulls piled on five first half tries to open up a 24-point half time lead, with halfback Josh Siegwalt playing a key role in six of the home side’s seven four-pointers on the way to a fifth victory of the campaign.
Southcity coach Luke McBeath said it was great to return to the winners’ circle following the team’s last start loss to Cootamundra.
“I was pretty pleased with how the game went for us to be honest, I thought our first half was great,” he said.
“There has been a few things over the last few weeks that we have been working on and I think it came together in that first half which was really pleasing to see.
“[We] probably let in a few more points than I would have liked, but [by] the same token I think you can’t be disappointed with the result, it’s still 18 points.
“In this competition, I think you have got to take the wins anywhere you can get them.”
It was McBeath himself who opened the scoring for the Bulls in the third minute off a Siegwalt grubber, before another of the halfback’s kicks set up a second try to Cody Hodge nine minutes later.
The onslaught continued when Jumarne Little-Kearnes went over on a short side raid, before Angus Williams briefly halted the momentum with a four pointer for the Blues.
However, that did little to the Bulls’ confidence, with Travis Smith going over on the play after a linebreak from Siegwalt, followed by another runaway try five minutes later to Siegwalt himself to reach the half time scoreline of 30-6.
The Blues hit back on the other side, scoring the first two tries of the second half through Malik Aitken and Michael Fenn, but the Bulls returned serve with two of their own to Mitchell Bennett and Maleke Morris, with Williams’ second a late consolation for Tumut in the 18-point defeat.
When asked about Siegwalt’s sublime performance, McBeath said the halfback has been a key contributor right across the opening half of the campaign, and combined well with his teammates on the right edge.
“Josh has been great, he is a guy that I have played a lot of footy with for a while now, I went away for a bit and came back to play with him and he has been very important for me,” he said.
“On the weekend I think he was great for us with just getting the ball in hand and opening up some space for our outside men as well there on that edge.
“He has got Cody Hodge there outside him, so they combined well and he had a great game [and] I think Mitchy Bennett on that edge went well, so I think they all worked together there nicely.”
Meanwhile, in terms of the impact ‘Doc’ McCarthy’s milestone had on the strong performance, McBeath said the occasion certainly served as a motivator for the Bulls.
“Doc playing 300 was massive, and Doc for Southcity is massive,” he said.
“We spoke about it pretty early on in the week, we had Hursty [Tim Hurst] the week before and Doc this week, so we did speak about it, and Doc is someone [who] doesn’t say a whole lot, but he leads with his actions week in week out, and he has been doing that for 300 games.
“We wanted to go out and play well for him, and it was nice to start that way.
“If you watch the game back you can probably see how influential Doc was in that game as well, he got our players’ player and he was massive for us.
“I think the boys, everyone personally would have wanted to go out and do a job for him, because he has been doing a job for Southcity for so long.”
Next up for the Bulls is a clash with Albury at Greenfield Park on Sunday, with the Thunder being awarded a +9.5 start in the Challenge Cup, while Tumut’s next assignment is against Temora at home on Saturday.
SOUTHCITY 42 (L. McBeath, C. Hodge, J. Little-Kearnes, T. Smith, J. Siegwalt, M. Bennett, M. Morris tries; J. Siegwalt 7 goals) DEFEATED TUMUT 24 (A. Williams 2, M. Aitken, M. Fenn tries; E. Williams 4 goals).
