Sport
7 July, 2025
Gladiators go down
THE Mareeba Gladiators suffered an unfortunate loss at their home ground at the weekend after going down to the Cairns Kangaroos in a physical contest.
It was a tough game for the Gladiators in front of their home crowd when they took on a physical Kangaroos side and came out second best, losing 16-28.
There were high tensions and heavy contacts throughout the entire game which eventually led to two players getting sent to the sin bin in the back end of the second half.
The Kangaroos got an early jump on Mareeba after going over just two minutes into play. They soon went over again in the 15th minute and got out to a comfortable 12-0 lead.
However, the Gladiators buckled up for the contest and after 10 minutes of back-and-forth play, they found their first points of the night through winger Bronson Ryan.
A physical contest ensued for the remaining 15 minutes of the first half and both teams were unable to put any more points on the board. The score was 12-4 in favour of the Kangaroos at the break.
The Gladiators got an early jump on their opponents in the second half, with centre Trezman Banjo going over for a four pointer just three minutes into play.
Following this, the Kangaroos proved too strong for the Mareeba side and went on to score three tries during the next 20 minutes.
Just minutes before the Kangaroos’ third try, however, tensions boiled over and one player from each team was sent to the sin bin. For Mareeba, it was five-eighth Cain Hastie.
The Kangaroos held a comfortable lead at 28-10 with just 10 minutes to play. The home side tried their luck and found a few opportunities to score, but they came up short on each occasion.
It wasn’t until the final seconds that halfback Izaak Toby went over for Mareeba’s third try of the game. A successful conversion from Toby brought the final score to 28-16.
The Gladiators have now dropped to seventh place on the ladder after being overtaken by the Kangaroos.
This weekend, the Gladiators will have a bye and will return the following week to take on the Southern Suburbs in Gordonvale.
