The Maitland Pickers celebrated their return to the Maitland Sportsground with an emphatic 36-0 win against the Cessnock Goannas in front of a huge home crowd.
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Maitland was unrelenting in its defence against the highly touted Goannas and won the battle of the forwards hands down.
Set after set the Pickers forwards pushed their rivals back setting the launching pad for the talented Maitland playmakers to unleash a back five with attacking punch.
But it was the defensive effort which drew captain-coach Luke Dorn’s praise to his team in the packed change rooms after the game.
“We spoke about how poor we were defensively last year as a group and it was a real focus in our pre-season,” Dorn said. “To keep them to nil was extremely pleasing.
“It is only round one and we’ve got to get better every training session and every game.
We’ve got a really good forward pack, who are hard working and unassuming but get the job done.
“Our outside backs were just hungry for work. I though the outside backs did a tremendous job today.
“That’s the sort of start every club looks for because you work hard through the pre-season, you put game plans in place to set up a way you can win a game. To go out and execute it like that was very pleasing.”
The Pickers kick-chase was a highlight, with the Goannas backs repeatedly sent back to their in-goal with penetrating kicks by halves combination Hayden Grainger and Ryan Walsh.
The backs did their job arriving in numbers to lock the Goannas in their own 20 and chew up tackles as the tiring forwards made their way back.
The outside backs led by centre Geordie Connelly gave the forwards a valuable break taking the first two to three hit-ups of the sets and creating havoc in the process.
Connelly was only shaded by hooker Adam Clydsdale, who was sensational on debut in attack and defence and looked even more dangerous working with Jarrod Smith when he was injected into the game.
“Geordie Connelly is tireless, but the back five as a whole really worked hard
“They particularly shared the load in the early hit ups coming out of defence.
“We’ve worked really hard on our fitness because we knew how important it was going to be as eight subs is not many. The backs need to give the forwards as much relief as they can.
“I think we did a really good job of it today.”
The Pickers scored within three-minutes after the first kick-off of the game was knocked on by Cessnock.
The opening try was a gem with a clever run and quick pass by Grainger setting up a hole for Tylar Carter to run into and cross the line.
Walsh, who had a great game with the boot and in general play, converted the try and landed six goals as Maitland ran in six tries, four in the first half.
The Pickers forwards stood their ground in defence against the much-vaunted Cessnock pack and continually made inroads in attack to set a great platform for play makers Grainger, Walsh, Clydsdale, who started at hooker, and Smith who was injected into play with devastating effect off the bench.
Front-rower Rob Mason went down with a knee injury in the first half after making a strong start to the game.
It could have been a major setback but the entire forward rotation met the challenger and bettered their opponents. Font-rower Dane Tilse again led the way and back-rowers Carter and Luke Mercer had great games.
Tempers flared in the second half as the Goannas frustration grew. Goannas star recruit Paul Carter and Maitland’s Walsh were both sin-binned for 10 minutes late in the second half after an altercation.
