Ethan Parry scored a second-half double on debut for the Maitland Pickers as they had to dig deep for a 20-10 win against the Northern Hawks in Magic Round at Newcastle Sportsground No.2 on Saturday, April 13.
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Parry's second try when he jumped high above his opponent to catch the ball and put it down in the in-goal was one of the highlights of a tough encounter when both defences were on top and both sides struggled to complete their sets.
The Pickers led 12-0 within the first 20 minutes, with converted tries to Will Nieuwenhuise and Sam Anderson, and it looked like how far Maitland, but the Hawks defence held tight after the initial onslaught and it was still 12-0 at the break.
The Hawks scored first after half-time with Danny Vale crossing and Ethan Ferguson converting for a 12-6 game.
The Pickers rallied and scored the next two tries through Parry before the Hawks showed real spirit to continue to push against the premiers and scored through forward David Dryden, who gave the Hawks a real lift in the second half.
Pickers coach Matt Lantry said it was an ugly win, but they would take that in round one.
"You take an ugly win in round one any day of the week," Lantry said.
"I thought our first half was okay. Sometimes those games are hard to win when there is an expectation that you do win and win well," he said.
"We have an enormous amount of respect for the Hawks, they put out a quality roster from one to 17.
"They made life difficult for us last year at the Bay, they hung in and defended and they did that again today.
"I think you've got to give credit where it's due and that is to the defensive effort of the Hawks, because we have a lot of possession in that first half and couldn't crack it.
"We wanted to drag more fatigue into the game in the second half by completing high and taking our opportunities, but we just let the Hawks off the hook.
"We made four back-to-back errors, compounded by two penalties in a period of the game and put ourselves under pressure.
"We will look to build on that performance and be better again next week."
The Pickers are at home on Saturday in a Coalfields derby against Kurri Kurri, who were dreadfully unlucky not to get the win against Wyong. losing 25-24 to a field goal with just seconds on the clock after leading 24-20 with four minutes left.
Michael Hartshorn
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
