By John Bartley
THE Northern Pride has defeated the STM Mackay Cutters 22-16 in the north Queensland derby, played in front of a bumper crowd at the Mackay JRL Grounds. In what was supposed to be a day of celebration for Mackay halfback Todd Seymour in his 50th appearance for the club, was abruptly ended by a determined Pride outfit that outgunned the home side by a margin of 6 points in an intense affair.
Pride got off to the perfect start, as second rower Nick Slyney dummied to his outside men, before slicing through the Cutters goal line defence to draw first blood for the visitors. Pride five eighth Ryan Stig converted to give the Pride an early 6-0 advantage.
The bad blood between the two teams was evident, with the next quarter of an hour punctuated by a barrage of heavy hits. Ryan Stig pushed a little too hard in one of his tackles, getting himself reported after a dangerous lifting tackle.
The Pride seemingly dominated for the majority of the first half, poking holes in the Mackay defensive line and coming up with multiple line breaks. But the Cutters held firm, keeping the Pride unrewarded for their efforts.
In his 50th appearance for the club, it was only fitting that Cutters halfback Todd Seymour provided the spark that opened the home side’s scoring, placing a pinpoint cross field kick to winger Chris Giumelli to score near the right sideline just after the 30 minute mark. Justin Hunt converted the try, and the game was level at 6 all.
The Northern Pride scored a momentum shifting try a mere 90 seconds from halftime, with on again, off again North Queensland Cowboy Ty Williams throwing a perfectly timed pass to Chey Bird to score just right of the posts. Stig again converted, and the Pride took their 12-6 lead into halftime.
The halftime pep talk provided to the Cutters must have worked, as a short ball found its way onto a charging Luke Fatnowna to score under the posts just three minutes into the second half. Justin Hunt again slotted the conversion, and again the score was locked at 12-12.
Mackay lost hard charging second rower Jardine Bobongie to a dislocated shoulder with 25 minutes remaining, and Pride added insult to injury ten minutes later, as Kaine Manihera weaved through lacklustre defence to put Pride back out in front 16 points to 12.
The Pride then proceeded to put the game to bed as five eighth Ryan Stig again showed his skills in beating multiple Mackay defenders to score, then converting his own try to extend Pride’s lead to 22-12. The Cutters never say die attitude was on display as fullback Justin Hunt crossed in the left corner with two minutes remaining, but his sideline conversion attempt hooked wide of the mark, leaving the margin at a bare 6 points, 22-18.
The Cutters desperately moved the ball in the dying stages, but they pushed the pass one too many times, a knock on with 30 seconds remaining sealed their fate as the Pride’s solid record against the Cutters continued.
Mackay coach Paul Bramley questioned his teams defence after letting the Pride score two “soft” tries at crucial moments in the game. “We let in a few soft tries near the end there, and really just let ourselves down. No excuses, we were in the game for a good part of it, but we just didn’t take our chances. We made mistakes that we haven’t made in a while, and they were good enough to take advantage of them and they won the game.”
The Cutters now travel south to face the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls before returning home to the Mackay JRL Grounds on the 1st of August to take on the Souths Logan Magpies.
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