Wynnum Manly Seagulls beat PNG Hunters 28 - 10

THE Papua New Guinea Hunters went down fighting as their hopes of making the Queensland Cup finals were all but dashed by the Wynnum Manly Seagulls with a 28-10 loss at the BMD Kougari Oval yesterday in Brisbane.
The win did not come easy for the Wynnum team though as Michael Marum’s men fought until the last whistle, showing that they were certainly not out of their depth in this competition.
Competition leading try-scorer Gary Lo was denied a four-pointer on two occasions but scored in his third attempt early in the second half to bring his tally to 23 tries.
The sixth-placed Hunters’ (on 29 points) loss means their hopes for cracking the top five appear unlikely
even though the fifth-placed Tweed Heads Seagulls (on 31) were beaten by the Easts Tigers 40-4 and fourth-placed Ipswich Jets (on 32) picked two points for the bye.
Tweed Heads take on last-placed Sunsine Coast Falcons next round, while the Jets face a big challenge in minor premiers, the Northern Pride. The Hunters take on the Souths Logam Magpies in their final game of the regular season.
The Hunters were their own worst enemies as penalties mostly for slowing the play of the ball were given away.
This cheap territory and possession for the home side enabled them to establish a lead and hold on to it for the game.
The visitors looked likely to score early on with lock forward Brandy Peter breaking the line before offloading but the pass was called forward.
The Wynnum pack responded by surging down field and drew a penalty which got them to a good attacking set.
Hunters could not keep out the barrage, with hooker Jake Granville and halfback Matthew Seamark collecting runners and applying pressure on the Hunters defence.
Wynnum crossed the chalk but was called back for obstruction.
The Hunters defence was finally cracked when second-rower, Graham Clark slipped in for a try and Seamark converted in the 21st minute for a 6-0 lead.
Hunters centre Thompson Teteh got his side back in the game with an opportunistic effort against the run of play 10-metres out from the Seagulls line.
Skipper Israel Eliab missed the conversion to trail 4-6.
Marum made a positional switch, sending Albert Patak to fullback and Eliab at five-eighth but with the Hunters defending for most of the half the ploy did not have a chance to work.
Wynnum’s wave of attacks, saw No.6 Ben Cronin step past several flailing defenders to score his side’s second touchdown.Seamark converted for a 12-4 lead.
Seamark slotted another penalty on halftime for the Seagulls to take a 10-point lead into the break at 14-4.
The second half started disastrously for the Hunters as Wynnum fullback Daniel Ogden scored after only two minutes. 
Hunters replied through Lo eight minutes later, but his second attempt was disallowed after the final offload from utility Noel Zemming was called forward. The score was 18-10 at that stage.
Consecutive penalties milked from the ruck sapped more strength from the Hunters.
That was compounded with disallowed tries to Stanton Albert, Adex Wera and Timothy Lomai frustrating the Hunters, who were losing touch with the game.
Seamark stepped past Willie Minoga and raced 80-metres before being dragged down by Zemming.
In the ensuing play, Lawrence Tu’u was caught off-guard as Granville burrowed in to score a converted try at 24-10.
Jordan Kahu then scored in the corner to seal the victory 28-10.

 

PNG Today/ The National