It was a mixed bag of results for the Bull Sharks against Easts, but each game revealed something important about the group.
The Premier Women showed true grit to hold off a fierce Tigers outfit in the grand final rematch, and stay in touch with the ladder leaders.
Colts 1 continued their rise with a thrilling, well-executed win.
For the Premier Men, the game was there to be won — and for 65 minutes, they were right in it — but a late fadeout proved costly against a more physical Easts side.
In the weekly wrap up the coaches reveal the areas that still need polish and praise the character of the squad and the consistency of key players like Dianne Waight, Fergus Gillan, Matty Engelbrecht and Tyler Campbell.
Bull Sharks v Easts at Easts
Premier Men
Bull Sharks lost 45-29
How it was lost
We were we were right in the game until about 15 minutes to go. With 25 minutes to go it was 29-26 to us. And that was the last try we scored. We didn’t get the impact from the bench we hoped for. And we committed a couple of poor turnovers at the breakdown.
The brutal truth
I think Easts were more physical than us, which is hard to admit because that is something we want to pride ourselves on. They turned over a bit of ball at breakdown where we were a little bit late and not aggressive enough.
The work to do
Cleaning up our breakdown is probably the main issue. That would allow us to get our attack into a flow.
What made you happy
There is a lot of positives. We went toe to toe with the ladder leaders. They have only lost one game and are clearly out in front.
Bull Sharks Football
Easts don’t make it easy for you and they aren’t going to hand you opportunities. I thought we actually converted our opportunities reasonably well. There were a couple more that had we converted would have made it a bit interesting but it wasn’t to be. But there's a lot of good stuff in there.
The challenge
Getting continuity in selection has been a challenge over the last couple of weeks. We lost a few guys against Wests and they weren’t able to make it back on the park in time. I think Tyler Campbell was the only player in the backline who started both games.
Trademark Player
Matt Engelbrecht and Tyler Campbell were good for us. Rocco Gollings came in and played really well. He has got infectious energy.
With Mick Heenan
Colts 1
Bull Sharks won 42-36
How it was won
East have been a good team for the last two years. They beat us last year and they beat us earlier this year. It's always been one for one against them. I think our game management, game plan, trusting in that and sticking to it was good for us.
What made you happy
We're still not fully there yet and the boys can drift off occasionally and do their own thing. But when we stick to what we want to go into the game with we do really well. And I think the boys are starting to see the benefits of how we are playing in some of the outcomes we are getting.
The focus
We've got to try things, we have got to have things up our sleeve. Especially as the season progresses and teams start to figure each other out. So, we are just trying a few different calls. The players know them, but it's different when you've got a execute in a game, so we'll persist with it and keep building on it over the next few weeks. And when we need those calls, we can go to them.
Bull Sharks Football
We know we have a really strong set piece. So, any time we went to a scrum and lineout we were looking for opportunities.
Trademark Player
Fergus Gillan was awesome. We put him in a position where when they were kicking off, he was continually taking the ball. He scored a couple of tries and his set piece was strong. Charlie Macauley had one of his better games too.
With Rico Gear
Premier Women
Bull Sharks won 17-10
How it was won
It was a mix of 'sleeves rolled up' and no-frills grunt work from our forwards which resulted in points from a rolling maul and some inspired backline play. A pick and go backed up by some enterprising play from a set piece strike by the backs led to the Eva Doblo try that sealed the result.
What made you happy
Securing the win and the points that come with it to ensure we stay competitive and in the hunt for what will be a very tightly contested season.
Bull Sharks Football
We have a lot of experienced campaigners in our forward pack who possess good rugby IQ. These players were able to steer and navigate our young group through what was a good litmus test of what they can expect in the coming rounds. Being reigning premiers comes with a very large target aimed squarely at us.
The work to do
Our discipline let us down and we were lucky to secure the win having given up 21 penalties. We will need to be better in that space if we are to give ourselves a fighting chance in the games to come.
Trademark Player
Dianne Waight was solid on both sides of the ball and threw the final pass that led to the match defining try scored by Eva Doblo.
The final word
Coming off a bye we were eager to get back to winning ways. We came up against a formidable opponent in our grand final opposition from 2022 and 2024. It was an arm wrestle made more difficult by the amount of penalties we conceded. But there was enough resilience and grit within the group to eke out an all important victory, which may prove more important down the track.
With Setu Naseri