Souths Logan announced themselves as a top six threat with their 24-18 win at Barlow Park over the Pride yesterday.
Their victory reaffirmed popular opinion that the Intrust Super Cup is more even than a spirit level.
“It’s a congested ladder ... (but) I thought in pre-season we had a finals side,” Souths coach Josh Hannay said.
“There’s a long way to go, but we feel like we can play finals, but there are a lot of other teams that think that as well. We are trying to earn some respect in this comp and we’re taking steps towards that.
“That (win) wasn’t a fluke — we have been playing well. “Some people might see that as an upset; but we turn up thinking we can beat anyone.
“This sort of win puts us in that picture.”
While Hannay was justifiably please with the outcome – saying his side had outplayed their opponents – frustrated Pride coach Joe O’Callaghan questioned his squad’s desire to play finals.
The hosts actually led 18-16 with nine minutes to go before Magpies giant George Fai stepped through weak defence to enable the victory.
A home win would have been unjust given how much the visitors bossed the match, with the Pride relying on a freak deflection to gift Khan Ahwang a runaway try and late lead.
“I’m really frustrated and I don’t know what the answer is,” O’Callaghan said.
“Definitely (they were the better side), but sometimes you win ugly and I would have taken the two points.
“It reminded me of the Wynnum game where they out-enthused us.
“They are a young group and you try and motivate them, but they need to motivate themselves.
“I want to play finals and I know a few of them want to, but they need to start putting in a little bit more effort.
“But I only know one way – we’ll work harder.”
The Pride showed some resilience to claw back a halftime deficit that was enabled by Marion Seve running 90m after an intercept as the buzzer sounded.
The hosts also lost Brayden Torpy to a head knock early in the second stanza, but the halfback will rue his return after he the spilt kick-off which led to Fai’s match winner.
“I thought the rollercoaster would be over by now,” O’Callaghan said.
“Last time we had that sort of game we bounced back.
“Every time you lose at home you have to win one on the road. Hopefully a big crowd next week lifts them.”
See the full scoring details and final team line-ups for this game via QRL Live
SOUTHS LOGAN MAGPIES 24 (Luke Archer, Marion Seve, Scott Doyle, George Fai tries; Scott Doyle 4 goals) def NORTHERN PRIDE 18 (Jared Allen, Linc Port, Khan Ahwang tries; Khan Ahwang 3 goals) at Barlow Park.
