Sport
19 August, 2024
Young Gladiators boosts finals hope
IN a game that went try for try, saw injuries and an ambulance, the U19 Gladiators dug deep in a hard-fought win over the Tully Tigers in Smithfield on Saturday.
Played in the midday heat at Smithfield’s Sporting Complex over the weekend, the U19 Gladiators beat the Tully Tigers 36-22 in a game that went back and forth until the final minutes.
After a try within the first two minutes of the game from Tyrone Williams, the Gladiators led 12-10 at halftime.
Coming back in the second half, the Tully Tigers took the lead with just over 10 minutes to go, making the score 22-18.
With injuries putting a strain on the Mareeba team and the end of their season in sight, they had to produce something special.
With seven minutes to go, Mareeba’s Tyrone Williams went in again for his second try of the game, kicked his conversion and brought the score to 24-22.
Three minutes later Ilikena Nalawakana scored his second try of the game followed by Gabriel Tunimakubu scoring in the final minute of the game to add the final blow and keep their grand final chances alive.
U19 Gladiator’s coach Bronson Ryan was proud of his young men and the effort they put in and hopes they can reproduce the same result this Saturday when they take on the Innisfail Leprechauns.
“I think we did really well, our forwards stood up and our backs finished off the opportunities,” Bronson said.
“Tully and us always have a tight battle, lot of old rivalry there. It was a bit of a coach’s nightmare, one second you’re winning then the next second you’re down again.
“But our forwards stood up in the end after some crucial errors from Tully, the game went right down to the wire and could have gone either way I reckon,” Bronson said.
“It’s going to be a real good game this Saturday. Innisfail have some good players we need to make sure we stay on top of. Their forward pack is pretty mobile and they’re backline is pretty switched on too.
“We just got to look at it as a new job and focus on getting over the mark again, muscle up and try to get over our injuries from the weekend.”
The game’s man of the match went to Mareeba’s Tyrone Williams, who scored two tries and kicked six from six conversions.
“His leadership was really good on the weekend, he just led the boys and got us to that win,” Bronson said.
The Mareeba U19’s now advance to the major semi-finals where they will take on the Innisfail Leprechauns this Saturday, 11am at Barlow Park.
