Brahmans take a beating

Matt Pearce is on his way down and Anthony Pearce supports Matt Brown in the tackle as this Coast attack is wrapped up.

Chris Ison

IT IS hard for a coach to remain positive when his team has just been beaten 83-0 but to his credit Jack Lloyd junior would hear no criticism of his players.

At Rugby Park on Saturday the Thrifty Brahmans had no answers to the power of the Sunshine Coast and even suffered the disappointment of having its one scoring opportunity, when Oliver Mayo got over the line, turned down by the officials.

The season began before Christmas with plenty of optimism and, on paper, a very competitive squad.

By the time the Brahmans made the trip to Blackwater for the opening trial of the year, many of those names had departed for one reason or another.

On Saturday only 14 of the 24 who went to Blackwater still remained and many of those in the starting team would ideally have been bit players, coming on from the bench.

The boys from Blackwater tried harder than anybody but making the transition from Rockhampton Reserve grade to play football against one of the better teams in the Brisbane Premier League is a massive ask.

Both teams found it hard to settle with the match played in a tricky breeze and watched by a handful of spectators.

The Coast had first use of the breeze and scored after eight minutes when fly-half Tane Puki linked with Josh McPherson for Adam Gavergan to score.

From that point there was only one result possible.

The game was played with a bit of passion with Tom Hale in the centre of a few disagreements with members of the opposing forward pack.

With the score at 19-0 another little boilover led to the officials deliberating long and hard, which resulted in flanker Royce Beitzel enjoying a lonely shower.

By half-time the score had ballooned to 26-0 and even an optimist would not have expected the breeze to be that much of an advantage.

With lock Denham Wicks running freely through massive gaps and even racing away to score himself, Coast added 58 unanswered points by the time the referee blew to end the Brahmans’ misery.

It was an afternoon where the Brahmans would have difficulty in claiming superiority over the Sunshine Coast in any department.

“With the guys we had we tried the best we could,” Lloyd said.

“I really appreciated their effort.”

Sunshine Coast had already posted more than 90 points on the board against Townsville and so it could be reasoned the result for the Brahmans was not too bad.

Lloyd is still confident for the future of union in the area saying the Young Brahmans have shown the area has potential.

Flanker Ryan Brownlie was again the pick for the Brahmans.

“He’s into everything, no matter how hard it gets he keeps on going,” Lloyd said.

Anthony Pearce also battled well before coming off with a neck injury, while full-back Mitchell Smith looked good when he joined the back line although some of his defensive work was ordinary.

“There is a massive gap between ourselves and teams like the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast,” Lloyd confirmed.

“We need to put together a five-year plan to help bridge the gap,” he said.

The Young Brahmans had a marvellous win over the Sunshine Coast by 24-12 and this match will be reviewed by The Morning Bulletin during the week.