The Bull Sharks Premier Men have breathed new life into their finals aspirations with a gutsy victory over ladder leaders Brothers on Ladies Day at The Canal.
Camped on their own tryline for the majority of the second half the Bull Sharks defence stood tall.
Rhys Sheriff was impressive, while the centre pairing of Tyler Campbell and Daniel Boardman were a constant threat.
In the Premier Women’s match, the Bull Sharks ran rampant in a 66–5 result, showcasing sharp execution and new attacking shapes as they fine-tuned their game plan for finals.
Paris Mohr starred, with strong support from Zoe Hanna and field general Zara Colless.
Colts 1 were upset 38–36 in a wake-up call against the bottom-placed Brothers. Despite dominant set piece work and six tries, poor game management and a lack of mental readiness proved costly.
Premier Men
Bull Sharks won 29-26
How it was won
We only got three opportunities in the second half, the rest of the time we were under siege on our own try line. We defended quite well for long periods. So, it was a gutsy win.
How it unfolded
We turned down the opportunity to score a penalty halfway through the second half which almost came back to bite us. They came back from 26-12 to draw level with a few minutes to go and then we scored a penalty right at the end.
Trademark Player
Rhys Sheriff played well. And the centres Tyler Campbell and Daniel Boardman were good.
What made you happy
The defence. We had to defend for a long period of time. We had 37 per cent possession which means it was probably only 10 per cent in the second half. So that was a gutsy effort with a lot of try line defence.
Bull Sharks Footy
Our scrum. When we turned down that penalty we actually conceded a scrum penalty, but overall we won the scrum.
The final word
We identified a three-game block before the bye, and we have won all three of them. We’ve put ourselves in a great position now.
With Mick Heenan
Premier Women
Bull Sharks won 66-5
How it was won
We really prepared well for this game. We were expecting something totally different to what we faced. A lot of their Reds players weren’t available and maybe they had some injuries, but it wasn’t the team we were expecting to turn up to play. We had trained so hard, flogged the girls really to get them really fired up for this game and we just ran all over them.
What made you happy
I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve been making throughout the course of the season. We haven’t been perfect, but each week we get closer to our best as our connections improve and the game plan starts to become second nature to the players. We’ve started introducing a few new things that we have been working on that we want to be able to use in finals.
Bull Sharks Footy
In this game we had a focus on our shape in attack. Some of the things we used on the weekend we haven’t shown in a game before. We’ve been building this in training and the girls executed very well. We got a lot of really good meters off it, and some tries of the back end of that.
Trademark Player
Paris Mohr was the standout, and Zoe Hanna wasn’t far behind. And I think Zara Colless led us around the field really well.
The work to do
It is around consistency. We are still in the habit where we do something really well we lose a bit of focus and take the foot off the pedal and that can invite opposition’s back into the game. Our kick-off receptions are one area of concern we will really focus on getting towards the finals.
With Lawrence Faifua
Colts 1
Bull Sharks lost 38-36
How it was lost
It was a tough loss, there was a lot of complacency in the group during the week and on game day. It was first against last and I think mentally the boys didn't come ready to play. We scored six tries which were really good, but we allowed them to get back in the game through some pretty poor game management decisions and our defence was quite poor. At the same time full credit to Brothers, it's probably the best game they played all year.
Bull Sharks Footy
We were 100% for lineouts and our maul was okay. Our scrum was completely dominant as well. So, from a set piece point of view, we were really happy.
The work to do
We just need to continue to work on good game management decisions rather than thinking that we can chip kick out of our own 22 and then score tries. That is schoolboy mentality, and we have got to get out of that sort of mindset.
Trademark Player
I think Keanu Rasch, our big number eight, was good coming back after having a week off. He was consistently good across the 80 minutes. Fergus Gillan did some really good things too.
The final word
You don't have the right not to play well every game. Last week’s performance doesn't win this week's game.
With Grant Anderson