Dolphins break drought against Bears
A STRING of five tries propelled the Redcliffe Dolphins to a 38-16 victory over the Burleigh Bears at the Longreach Showgrounds on Saturday.
Redcliffe had seven individual try scorers on a day where hooker Alex Bishop made his Intrust Cup debut for the Dolphins in picture-perfect conditions.
After an early Dolphins try to Brett Coutts, Burleigh responded with the next two scores to Matt Bell and Shaun Maloney, in what was shaping as close contest after the first 20 minutes.
However, Redcliffe soon took control of the match with tries to co-captain Jon Green, Dalton Phillips and Aaron Whitchurch sending the Dolphins into the break with 22-12 lead.
The Dolphins’ halves were at their ball-playing best, with Zach Strasser and Cameron Cullen regularly getting their outside players into space against a struggling Burleigh defence.
First points of the second half went to the Dolphins, when a slicing run and pass from Cullen put Oliver Regan over in the left-hand corner before moments later David Hala crashed in under the posts for the Dolphins’ fifth in a row.
Steve Michaels broke the drought for Burleigh when he ran through the Dolphins’ defence to score with 13 minutes to fulltime, but it was to be the Dolphins with the final say as Cullen made the Burleigh defence look second-rate, weaving and dummying around players before passing for Strasser to bring up Redcliffe’s seventh try.
The Bears will look to rebound next Saturday when they host Souths Logan at Pizzey Park, while the Dolphins travel to Browne Park to take on the CQ Capras also on Saturday.
by Callum Dick
Redcliffe Dolphins v Burleigh Bears at Longreach Showgrounds on Saturday, August 9 - 3.30pm
REDCLIFFE DOLPHINS 38 (Oliver Regan, Aaron Whitchurch, Brett Coutts, Zach Strasser, David Hala, Jon Green, Dalton Phillips tries; Adrian Davis 5 goals) def BURLEIGH BEARS 16 (Steve Michaels, Matt Bell, Shaun Maloney tries; Khan Ahwang 2 goals) at Longreach Showgrounds.
Final teams:
Redcliffe Dolphins
1. Adrian Davis 2. Oliver Regan 3. Aaron Whitchurch 4. Brett Coutts 20. Marty Hatfield (c) 6. Zach Strasser 7. Cameron Cullen 8. David Hala 9. Alex Bishop 10. Jon Green (c) 11. Jake Marketo 12. Dalton Phillips 13. Tom Geraghty 18. Harley Aiono 15. Joe Bradley 16. Constantine Mika 17. Martin Cordwell
Burleigh Bears
1. Henare Wells 2. Khan Ahwang 3. Jamie Anderson 4. Steve Michaels 5. Jared Te’o 6. Matt Beddow 7. Tyler Chadburn 8. Chris Kitching 9. Dimitri Pelo 10. Matt Bell 11. James Dunley 12. Louis Fanene 13. Darren Griffiths (c) 14. Nafe Seluini 15. Dane Clarke 21. Francis Veukiso 17. Shaun Maloney
