East Maitland Griffins created their own bit of footy folklore smashing Maitand Pickers 76-6 in the local derby at King Edward Park on Saturday.
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Little brother not only turned the tables on big brother, he pinned him under it and wouldn’t let him up.
A junior feeder club to the Pickers, East Maitland relished the opportunity to trade blows in their first C-grade encounter since both teams were regrade by the Newcastle and Hunter Rugby League.
The Pickers, a direct feeder club to Maitland’s grade teams, were depleted with injuries at the senior club, but no one saw the size of the defeat given the Griffins had been initially in D-grade.
There were stars across the field for East Maitland with lock Nathan Pili and halfback Blake Easton both getting hat-tricks and fullback Zac Leonard getting a double as the Griffins ran in 14 tries to the Pickers one.
Griffins win Brendan Salmon finished with 22 points for the day after landing nine goals and crossing for a try.
The comprehensive victory has sent alarm bells across the competition after early dominant teams Dungog Warriors and Kearsley Crushers were both promoted to B-grade.
Morpeth Bulls began their C-grade campaign with a 30-12 win against Wallsend Maryland. Drew Atkins scored a double as the Bulls ran in six tries.
Abermain moved to third on the C-grade ladder with a 30-18 win against Paterson at Paterson Sportsground.
The Hawks backs cashed in on a strong platform by their forwards with wing Timothy Fitzpatrick and five-eighth Jacob Lambert bother crossing twice for tries. Paterson hooker Dean Jones got two tries and lock Rhyan Winkler the other four-pointer.
Hinton started with real enterprise to race to an 18-0 lead against Clarence Town Cobras at Clarence Town on Sunday.
The Cobras hit back and Hinton steadied to take a 22-10 lead into the break.
Cobras coach Peter Maytrom said the second half was a drop-a-thon with both teams piling on errors.
The only score in the second-half came from a kick which looked like it would clear the Clarence Town Oval boundary fence until it hit one of the uprights and bounced back into the hands of Hinton’s five-eighth Billy Clay who ran in for a try next to the posts. It gave him a double to go with four converted goals.
Dungog Warriors exploded out of the blocks in their first game in B-grade since 2012, running in 26 unanswered points in the opening 25 minutes against Maitland United.
As a spectacle that was pretty much as good as it got with the next 55 minutes a slog with the Warriors adding another try and United pegging back two for a 32-12 victory to Dungog.