It was a celebration at The Canal on Saturday and the Bull Sharks were in fine voice as they sang the song following victories to the Premier Men and Colts 1 and an 82 point mauling by the Premier Women .
It was perfect timing for the festival of footy as club legend Justin Bernstein played his 200th game milestone in a win for the Third Grade.
Bull Sharks v South at The Canal
Premier Men
Bull Sharks won 29-21
How it was won
We dominated possession and territory, and the win was built off that. We went into half time 24-14 which was good, and then we had a bunch of opportunity in the first 20 minutes in the second half couldn't quite nail them. They scored a try to make 24 – 21 with about seven or eight minutes to go but we responded and scored so that was good.
What made you happy
Our depth and character. It was good because we have got a five-man leadership group and four of them are injured, so there was some character shown. Tyler Campbell, Jordy Lenac, Coby Walters and Liam Daniela were all sidelined.
Bull Sharks footy
It was an improved performance. The first half was very good. Our forwards stepped up and we scored two maul tries which is more than we have scored all year.
Trademark Player
Dion Samuela was good. He scored two tries and kicked well. Matt Englebrecht was strongagain and Rhys Sheriff was captain for the first time and he also had a very good game.
The work to do
The tries they scored were pretty easy, so the defence is the work on. It is a bit about effort and a bit about structure. We didn’t do a lot of defending in the game because of all the possession we had.
We've just got to be a bit clinical and make the opposition work a bit harder.
The final word
We have played Easts, who are second, we have played Souths who were on top and now we’ve got Brothers. So we have had a tough draw and have been in positions to win each game. The season is alive, and it gives us confidence we are on the right track.
Colts 1
Bull Sharks won 45-17
How it was won
We had a dominant set piece. Fergus Gillan led the forwards around the field really well. It was really won up forward which allowed the backs to play some football.
What made you happy
Jonah Rangiwai got through 35 mins in his first game for the club and did very well. He’s a TSS kid who has been with the Reds. He broke his thumb in the pre-season and hasn’t been able to play until now.
Bull Sharks footy
We had a real plan to dominate the set piece, the scrum and lineout. When your scrum is going well and the maul is going well it lifts the whole team and is demoralising to the opposition forward pack.
Trademark Players
I think Fergus Gillan was very good. So was Will Carter in his first game back from injury, those two really laid the platform for us.
The work to do
We really need to improve on our breakdown work. We want our support players chasing in and blasting guys at the breakdown. And some of the decision making in general play needs to improve, we need to focus on going forward before we go wide. We want to be too flashy at times and we have to earn the right to do that by going forward first.
With Grant Anderson
Premier Women
Bull Sharks won 82-0
How it was won
We have been focussed on eliminating errors, things like the pass catch and around the ruck area and we managed to do that. And from that we were able to use the ball very well to create a lot of scoring opportunities.
What made you happy
It was the defence. Last week we got beaten through the middle by UQ, so we had to focus on the basics. We applied a lot of effort to one-on-ones, two v ones and turnover balls.
Trademark players
Zoe Hanna, Lucy Thorpe and Lucy Dinnen set the example of how we want to play.
Get excited by
Matilda Vial, one of the young players we are developing was very good, she scored three tries.
The final word
We have made the most of the Challenge Cup to prepare ourselves for the start of the Premier Rugby. And we feel we have definitely found some players who are ready to take the next step. We are building nicely into the start of Premier Rugby.
With Lawrence Faifua