The Tweed Seagulls may have relinquished a top four finals position when they were outplayed and out-enthused by a smart and determined PNG Hunters at Bycroft Oval.
The Hunters won 30-18 with five-eighth Ase Boas and centre Emmanuel Waine outstanding as Tweed, with so much to play for, didn’t respect possession or their opponents enough and fumbled their way through with a completion rate of just over 50 per cent.
Coach Ben Woolf refused to blame the adversity his side has faced in recent weeks, that has seen them without a string of key players including halves Lindon McGrady, Toby Sexton and Luke Jurd, all goalkickers, and without a home ground or regular training field or gym because of COVID-19 restrictions.
However, if any Intrust Super Cup team has had as many hurdles to overcome, it has been the Hunters.
The Hunters have played the season away from home at their Runaway Bay complex, had to overcome the tragedy of talented centre Jokadi Bire, who was likely to have been picked up by an NRL club but for a serious health incident suffered while training and plenty of mid-season injuries.
“It was an out of character performance, that’s for sure,” Woolf said.
“We did completely what we said not to and we just couldn’t pull ourselves away from it. It seemed as though we weren’t content being tackled. We just wanted to promote the ball when we didn’t need to.
“We did create a few opportunities but didn’t make enough of them. But full credit to the Hunters, they played well, played smart, had a lot of possession and we couldn’t pull them back.”
