Jets and Dirty Reds write a new page in rugby league history

History was made at Wentworth Park on Sunday afternoon when the Glebe Dirty Reds hosted the Newtown Jets in a pre-season trial match. This was in fact the first meeting of these two 1908 foundation rugby league clubs in 91 years, made possible by the re-establishment of the Glebe club in 2015.

The Glebe Dirty Reds now play in the Ron Massey Cup and the Newtown Jets are the reigning premiers of the Canterbury Cup NSW competition.

Both clubs were trialling several new signings, with Newtown having recruited several former Cronulla Sharks and Victorian Thunderbolts under 20s players, while Glebe had secured the prized signature of long-serving NRL player and Kiwi international Greg Eastwood.

A special trophy was instituted for this match – the Alex Bolewski Cup, commemorating the great rugby league pioneer who played with both the Glebe and Newtown clubs, as well as representing NSW. Alex Bolewski also served in World War I for two years.

The match was played in mild weather conditions and it had been agreed that this trial would be played in three segments of twenty minutes each. It was also agreed that there would be no conversion attempts taken for the purposes of this game.

Newtown dominated possession and field position in the opening twenty minutes and led 12-0 at the first break, with the three try-scorers being second-rowers Matt Stimson and Tom Caughlan, as well as burly front-rower Brandon Luamanu.

Fijian trialist Keresi Maya and former Canterbury Bulldogs centre John Olive added tries in the second session. Glebe gained a bigger share of possession and tightened up their defence in what was a try-less third twenty-minutes segment.

While Newtown might have run out winners by 20-0, both coaches had plenty of positives to take away from this match in terms of their teams’ performances in this opening trial game.

Newtown 20:

Matt Stimson, Brandon Luamanu, Tom Caughlan, Keresi Maya, John Olive tries

defeated

Glebe 0.

The Newtown Jets used these players:

Edward Aiono, Henry Patterson, John Olive, Joshua Delailoa, Jayden Millard, Trent Toelau, Brandon Luamanu, Zac Woolford, Sione Afomiu, Matt Stimson, Tom Caughlan, Jackson Stewart, Harry McLellan, Jake Olam, Tyla Tamou, Isaac Thomson, Keresi Maya, Brandon Finnegan, Sevuloni Lutu, Lachlan Scarpelli.

And the following players turned out for the Glebe Dirty Reds:

Troy Hanita-Paki, Brandt Quinn, Nicholas Okladnikov, Latrell Robinson, Anthony Overton, Jordan Chong-Sun, Nikau Williams, Jackson Garlick, Greg Eastwood, Mason McCarthy, Ethan Natoli, Lachlan Stein, Kieran Wyld, Isaac Rabuatoka, Santana Teinaki, Kem Seru, Eddie Faalua, Daniel Arahu, Myles Fowler, Ben Pointer, Ben Jackson, Joshua Natoli.

Newtown’s next trial match details:
Saturday, 22nd February 2020
Henson Park
Newtown v Canterbury-Bankstown
Kick-Off: 5.00pm.

Curtain-Raisers at Henson Park on Saturday, 22nd February:
The Cronulla Sharks play Canterbury Bulldogs in a Jersey Flegg trial match at 3.00pm, and there is a full round of Sydney Roosters junior representative games (Harold Matthews, SG Ball & Tarsha Gale) prior to that.