Sea Eagles productive first half ensures win over Jets [18-34]
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5.30 pm. Saturday, 7 July 2007
Brookvale Oval
Stats summary
At half-time, Manly led 26-6.
Full-time-time, Manly 34 def Jets 18.
Vince Mellars, Mickey Paea and Shaun Foley scored tries. Shaun kicked 3 goals.
The Manly-Warringah club's historic dominance over Newtown in matches at Brookvale Oval was maintained on Saturday evening, with the Sea Eagles comfortably defeating the Jets by 34-18.
Manly was in the pole position at half-time with a commanding 26-6 lead, after the Sea Eagles had run up 14 points in the last eight minutes of the first half.
Promising start did not bring results
Manly scored an early converted try in this crucial VB Premier League match, but the Jets equalised in the eleventh minute when Grant Millington, George Ndaira and Iosia Soliola combined to send Vince Mellars in for a most impressive try. When five-eighth Shaun Foley converted from the right-hand sideline, Newtown looked to be very much up for the challenge.
That try, in fact, turned out to be the last time that the Jets set foot inside Manly's twenty-metre zone for the remainder of the first half. The Sea Eagles dominated possession and field position for the next thirty minutes although their own ineptitude limited their scoring chances.
Manly scored again in the 25th minute and then added two converted tries and a penalty goal late in the first half, with Newtown handling errors contributing to both of these tries.
Good second half play could not pull back Manly's lead
The Jets competed well in the second half and showed what a genuine contest this match should have been.
Manly employed a more effective kicking game throughout the half and once again the Jets allowed themselves the expensive indulgence of conceding penalties and easy yardage.
Jets hooker Rory Kostjasyn skilfully positioned prop Mickey Paea for a try in the 55th minute and Shaun Foley scored and converted his own try almost on fulltime, following some typically determined lead-up work by fullback Shaun Kenny-Dowall.
Player performances
Prop Mickey Paea was both the game's and Newtown's standout player, with excellent figures for hit-ups, metres gained and tackles made. Second-rower
Adam Schubert led by example with rugged defence and Steve Meredith also had a high workrate.
Shaun Foley, Vince Mellars and Shaun Kenny-Dowall were the best of Newtown's backline.
The latter part of the second half was notable for an enthusiastic fracas between the two sets of forwards but as veteran Jets Director John Lynch noted wistfully, "it wasn't a patch on the great blue in the famous Newtown-Manly 1981 semi-final".
Next week
The Jets return to Henson Park next Saturday afternoon (14th July) when they are at home to the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, with this VB Premier League match timed to start at 3.00pm.
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Who played?
2007 photo highlights
| 1 | Aaron Lai |
| 23 | Shaun Kenny-Dowall |
| 3 | Iosia Soliola |
| 2 | Vince Mellars [T1] |
| 5 | Troy Savage |
| 6 | Shaun Foley [T1 G3] |
| 7 | Rory Kostjasyn |
| 8 | Frank-Paul Nuuausala |
| 9 | George Ndaira |
| 10 | Shane Shackleton |
| 11 | Grant Millington |
| 12 | Adam Schubert |
| 13 | Mickey Paea [T1] |
| 14 | Steve Meredith |
| 15 | Charlie Tonga |
| 17 | Dale Newton |
| 18 | Antonio Winterstein |
| 19 | Anthony Cherrington |
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