The Maitland Blacks’ winning start to the 2018 season has ended with a 19-44 loss at the hands of a red-hot Hamilton Hawks.
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Passmore Oval was not the place to be for any visiting team on Saturday with the Hawks smarting from a one-point loss the week before against Merewether Carlton.
The Blacks started slowly and the Hawks were on fire and were on the board within minutes and established a 24-5 lead at half-time, with James Johnston getting a first-half try for Maitland.
Hamilton scored first after the break, but Maitland rallied and got themselves back in the game with tries to Dale Clacherty and Chris Logan bridging the gap to within two converted tries
“To their credit the boys didn’t give up trying to the very end and it wasn’t until the second of two late tries by Hamilton that they conceded the game was lost,” co-coach Ryan McCormack said.
“Chris Logan was outstanding and was crucial in getting up back within striking distance. John Birrell was also very good and did a power of work in defence.”
The Blacks, who are second on the table with nine points, have a bye this weekend for the representative round and then are away to Merewether Carlton, followed by the bye built into the regular season.
Blacks co-coach Mick Hickling said the timing was good as there were a number of players nursing some niggles and pretty sore after a punishing opening three rounds.
It will also give key players co-captain Michael Howell and Travis Brooke additional time to recover from injuries which have sidelined Brooke from playing this year and Howell for all but the first-half of the opening round win against Southern Beaches.
“The guys who have come in have done a terrific job, so we are not going to rush either of them back,” Hickling said.
“It’s nice to have that depth, but of course we want to have players of Mick and Travis’ calibre back in the team and firing.”
Hickling said Saturday’s result was more about Hamilton’s performance than any major drop-off in performance by the Blacks.
“They played pretty urgent and high-energy football in the first 10 minutes or so and they got the jump on us.
From there we played good footy in patches but struggled to get close enough to put scoreboard pressure on them.
There were parts of our game which were pleasing but the set piece let us down at times, particularly in the second half.
We seemed to be always chasing the game. They played some good footy and it’s hard to chase down a quality team.”
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