Sport
2 June, 2025
Gladiators lose to in-form Brothers
THE Mareeba Gladiators took a hard loss to Cairns Brothers over the weekend after being kept to nil at halftime.
The Gladiators faced up against one of the in-form, Top 4 teams at Davies Park in a physical game on Saturday night that saw a second half hattrick be the only points scored for the home side.
The first half was all Brothers after they managed to put 22 points on the board and keep the home team scoreless in the first half.
Down by a four-try deficit, the Gladiators struck early just one minute into the second half through halfback Izaak Toby, and a missed conversion brought the score to 22-4.
Brothers soon answered back however, putting another six points on the board just 10 minutes later.
Just minutes later, Toby burrowed his way over for another try for the home team. Another missed conversion brought the score to 28-8.
The visitors wouldn’t back down though, they went over again and added six more points to their already comfortable lead.
The little Mareeba halfback wasn’t finished just yet however, after Brothers lost the ball, Toby gathered possession and ran just over half the length of the field to claim a hattrick.
Brothers fired back with another try just minutes later and brought the final score to 38-14.
A Grade co-coach Trent Barnard thought his side were a bit “flat” and “didn’t play the kind of footy” they knew they had to play.
“I think we were just really flat tonight. We missed the jump against Brothers and they’re obviously one of the benchmark sides in the comp,” he said.
“We just made too many little errors, missed the one-percenters and gave away penalties. It was pretty frustrating to be honest.
“We knew what footy we needed to play to get the two points, but we just didn’t do it.
“We’ll just have to have a review and try and turn it around, which I think we can, given that we were down a few troops.
“It’s great that we’re there abouts in the Top 4, but obviously if we want to go further in this comp, we’ve got to beat the better sides.”
The Gladiators still hold fourth place on the ladder, tied on points with the Mossman Sharks.
The Gladiators Reserve Grade also went down in similar fashion, losing 30-14 in another physical game.
However, the Under 19s found a good win, thrashing the Brothers side 50-16.
This Sunday, Mareeba will travel to take on the Yarrabah Seahawks. The Under 19s will kick things off from 12pm, followed by Reserve Grade at 1.30pm, and A Grade at 3pm.
