West End Bulldogs claimed a surprise 30-22 victory over Brothers in the Ipswich Rugby League Mayor Paul Pisasale A-Grade Cup on Sunday.
Heading into round 13 Brothers were on top of the ladder with West End coming last.
But come game-day, ladder positions meant nothing, as the underdogs from West End did what only true Bulldogs fans believed they could do.
When a Jason Connors try gave Brothers a 6-0 lead after only five minutes, it looked like West End could be in for a long day.
But West End fought back in the 10th minute when Joel Swan launched an attacking raid for the Bulldogs, which lead to a try for West End winger Hal Oram.
Both teams were showing great qualities in attack and defence until errors started to increase a quarter into the game.
Although both teams were making errors, both teams were also creating chances and it was West End who capitalised on the chances being created.
West End took the lead in the 15th minute when Brook Alofipo scored a try.
Soon after, West End forced Brothers into a goal-line drop-out, the drop-out was kicked out on-the-full resulting in a West End penalty.
The penalty was costly for Brothers as it gave the Bulldogs good attacking position which allowed Samson Hookey to score and extend West End’s lead to 14-6.
Trailing 14-6 at halftime Brothers looked determined to be the first to score in the second-half.
Vincent Seve and William Oloitoa scored for Brothers in the 55th minute and 62nd minute respectively, to grab the lead for Brothers at 16-14.
West End showed good attitude to make sure that losing a solid lead did not result in a blow-out score line.
In the 69th minute the lead began to swing back and forth.
West End front rower Christmas Fuiavalili scored in the 69th minute for the Bulldogs to take back the lead.
But Brothers front rower Jack Boettcher scored only three minutes later for the Brethren to get back in-front 22-20.
With five minutes remaining the Brethren conceded a penalty, which allowed West End to start an attacking set in Brothers territory.
Attacking on Brothers line, West End set their backline deep and it looked like the ball would be spread wide in an attempt to snatch a late lead, but Joel Swan got into dummy-half and crashed over for a try from short range to give the Bulldogs a 24-22 lead with only three minutes left on the clock.
With one minute remaining Brothers were 30 metres from their own try-line when they knew they had to try something different if they wanted to score from such a long distance.
Brothers started to throw the ball wide before West End second-rower Lionel Foote intercepted a pass and scored under the posts to seal the win for West End 30-22.
In the other Ipswich Rugby League Mayor Paul Pisasale A-Grade Cup round 13 games; Fassifern defeated Norths 54-14 and Goodna defeated Swifts 22-8.
