Sport
25 July, 2022
Weekend of losses for league teams
IT was losses all round over the weekend as both the Tableland’s rugby league teams, the Atherton Roosters and Mareeba Gladiators, lost against Cairns Brothers and the Mossman Sharks respectively.
Atherton’s recent form slump continued on Sunday with their 22-14 loss to Brothers at Williams Park, making it their fourth straight loss.
They once again got off to a perfect start to lead 8-0 after 15 minutes of play through tries to Rodney Griffin and Jesse Carleton and were tackling with effort.
At halftime the Roosters led 8-6 and both teams had thrown plenty of attacks at each other and this continued into the second half.
Atherton had plenty of chances but they came up with costly errors which allowed Brothers to reload and stay in the fight with many repeat sets.
The momentum shifted to Brothers at the 70th minute mark when they hit the line for back to- back tries in the space of three minutes and push ahead 22-8.
The Roosters did cross again when Willem Foster went over for their third match try one minute from the final siren.
Roosters U18’s side also suffered their second loss of the season in a 30-8 defeat against Brothers on Sunday as well.
Premiership action returns to Atherton’s Mungalli Creek Dairy Stadium this Sunday afternoon with the Senior Roosters hosting Tully in three grades from 12 noon.
Meanwhile the Mareeba Gladiators had a tall task ahead of them, facing off against ladder leaders Mossman Sharks, going down in a convincing 76-22 loss.
Mossman proved why they sit as the top dog in this year’s season, putting 14 tries against the Gladiators and completing 10 conversions, a far cry from Mareeba’s four tries and three conversions.
This marks yet another loss for an injury riddled and defeated Gladiators side who currently sit second last on the table.
This weekend’s match-up against Edmonton in Mareeba may prove the spark they need to reignite the waning side and push through the remaining games.
Mossman leads the FNQ rugby league first grade points table on 26 followed by Brothers 24, Innisfail 24, Atherton 20, Kangaroos 20, Ivanhoes 18, Suburbs 12, Yarrabah 12, Tully 10, Mareeba 6, Edmonton 2.
