In unseasonal hot weather, Brothers still found some extra petrol in the tank to tear apart an under strength Normanby side that were outclassed and out muscled in front of a healthy Brothers home crowd.
Even with experienced ex-Wests Panthers BRL coach Wayne Treleaven at the helm, the Normanby side were helpless as a young sharp Brothers side played beautifully orchestrated a win that see them in third spot on the ladder.
Brothers drew first blood in the seventh min when their clever halfback threw a nice ball to his lock who scored beside the posts. The conversion was successful and had Brothers at 6-0. A break by the Brothers fullback saw him find open space and drew the Normanby fullback to send his second rower to score under posts. With the conversion successful, it was Brothers cruising at 12-0.
The Hounds hit back to get on the scoreboard when halfback Jacob Thomas threw a pin point cut-out pass to find his winger Ben Russell who placed the ball down in the corner. The conversion was unsucc sesful and had Brothers still leading 12-4. It was another quick try by Normanby for their huge prop Ashley Harris as he smashed his way through three defenders to crash over beside the posts. The conversion again was unsuccessful and the lead closed at 12-8.
Brothers regrouped and started to go back to basics and it paid off dividends when their five-eighth stepped off his right foot and burst through the gap to find the lock in support who threw the pass out to his centre to score out wide.
It was end to end stuff in the first half and certainly kept the crowd entertained as Normanby hit back yet again with a monstrous bomb by Zack Klein hanging in the air for what seemed like an eternity and was dropped by the Brothers winger near his goal line.
With Normanby high fiving each other up the field it took three repeat sets of six to finally break the Brothers defence and hooker Elliott Parkinson scooted over from dummy half and closed the deficit to 16-12. With the conversion successful by Klein, the Hounds had found that spark to revive the team and edge nearer to Brothers on the scoreboard 16-14.
The Brothers halves pairing worked effectively with the ball and set up Brothers next try as the halfback threw a short pass off the hip to find the fullback in open space and score under the posts. Conversion successful and Brothers had increased the lead to 22-14 to take them to the sheds at halftime with their noses just in front.
The second half would prove to be all one way traffic for the Brothers side. A stern halftime rev up by Brothers coach Paul Payne resulted in the Brothers side delivering a near flawless second half display that would eventually spell out the Hounds death knell. For Normanby, things just seemed to get worse and in the fifth minute frustration was to get the better of prop Ashley Harris as he was sent to the sin bin for repeated infringements and left his team to battle on with 12 men.
With that all said and done, Brothers got on with the job at hand and on the next play had their replacement player find an overlap on the blindside and go in untouched to score. The Conversion was successful and Brothers forged ahead 26-14. Normanby were feeling this rejuvenated Brothers pack and were on the end of some bone jarring tackles that saw at least three of the Hounds players taken off from the sheer force. The Brothers defence went up a level and their formidable attack was outstanding in the second half.
Next to put his name on the scoresheet for Brothers was their livewire halfback who took three defenders with him over the tryline in a gutsy effort. Another quick try to the Brothers hooker had the Brethren taking the lead out to 34-14. With players injured, down and out tired, the Hounds still had a trick or two up their sleeves and great vision from their diminutive fullback saw them reduce the margin to 34-20.
It was never going to be enough however for the Hounds as Brothers with strike players all over the park, saw their last try come off some flimsy Normanby defence and it was their replacement player who ran in beside the posts to score. With the extras added it was Brothers who clinched the win 40-20 in an all round gutsy display.
