Kicking woes cost Rebels

By Tim Howard

South Grafton Rebels captain Grant Stevens made a heartfelt apology to team fans who had just witnessed their team slump to a heartbreaking 24-18 loss to the Coffs Harbour Comets at McKittrick Park on Sunday.

With both teams scoring four tries apiece, it was goal kicking that was the difference. And a fearsome penalty count in favour of the visitors.

Twice Rebels players were sin binned, bizarrely with one player leaving the feld as the other came back on.

First to go was prop Bailey Sinclair whose marginally late hit on Comets half Nathan Curry left him stretched out on the ground for several minutes just before half time.

Ten minutes into the half it was centre James Torrens who was binned on a touch judge’s report after the Rebels were pressuring the Comets line.

Playing 20 minutes of the game a player down cost the Rebels just eight points on the scoreboard, but it drained them and eventually they fell just short as they tried to rein in the Coffs Harbour lead.

The game began in promising fashion for the Rebels who were quickly into the attack and scored after four minutes.

Five eighth Hugh Stanley unleashed a towering torpedo bomb which neither fullback Ayden Baloh nor winger Bennet Bar Reech had any interest in catching on the full.

The Rebels pounced on the mess at the back and from the next play the ball centre James Torrens sprinted onto a short pass to dive over and score.

The Rebels seemed to be in total control and were soon pressuring the Comets line again, but this time a Stanley kick exploded in their faces.

Attempting a delicate chip over the ball bounced into Bar Reech’s hands and with no-one ahead of him, he sprinted 90m to score.

Curry converted and the Comets, who had spent most of the frst 10 minutes of the game defending, were in front 6-4.

A few minutes later the Rebels were treated to the sight of talismanic skipper Stevens returning to the feld, with the number 16 jersey on his back.

Not due to return for another three or four weeks since breaking a hand against the Ghosts on May 27, Stevens suited up and was pacing the sideline ready to resume battle.

He relished the early return.

Within minutes the Comets were pounding the Rebels’ line only to be repelled in a dynamic

Ballina Mahjong 23rd June2023

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5, Coral Lavelle, Lisa Wong 6, Kathy Pickles

7, Bev Lasater 9, Ronda Taylor 10, Lesly Richie

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Mahjong is played on Friday at 12:30pm at the Ballina Bridge Club North Creek Road. Enquiries for new players phone Vanessa on 66874181.

Casino Social Golf Results 25-06-202

The single stableford on the bottom 10 last Sunday was won by Fred Bruni with 23 points from Trevis Jenkins with 20, The putting trophy went to W.Jackson with 15 putts and G.Skennar won the players draw. Nearest to pins: 1st, T.Jenkins.

2nd & 5th, J.Rankin. 3rd & 7th, G.Randall. 4th, G.Skennar. 8th, R.Ruttley. 17th & 18th, Vinny. Next Sunday’s event sponsored by Newstead Automotive Services Casino will be a single stroke on the top 11 holes for the monthly medal and visitors are welcome to play with hit off from 6-30am till 7-30am.

Casino Womens bowls results

2023 Minor Consistency Club

Champion: J. Dwyer

On Wednesday 21/6 J. Dwyer def T. Maxwell in the fnals for the Minor Consistency Club Championship.

Congratulations to J. Dwyer on becoming the

2023 Minor Consistency Club Champion & well done to T. Maxwell for becoming Runner Up. There were 2 social games & Winners for the day were:

C. Doyle, D. Skinner & A. James def J. Cooke, R. Skirrey & H. Lavelle

The other rink winner was:

L. James, C. Haynes & M. Hellyar def J. Creighton, D. Grice & I. Watson

New members welcome if you haven’t bowled before coaching is available, the ladies play on Wednesday from 9.00am to 12.30pm

ASSOCIATION

CROQUET : P. Waters G.Porter 13 d

S.Hume G.Drew 13

L.Hardy 12 d P.Hume

B.Hardy 10

RICOCHET

CROQUET : C.Lane 18 d B.Wellings

17

G.Kerr P.Waters 14 d

R.Poynting D.Scott 11

N.Barnes J.Hannigan

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H.Young C.Lane 13 d

M.Field 6

J.Copeland P.Scott 10 d

P.Bolte N.Poynting 9

R.Poynting J.Hannigan

9 d N.Barnes N.Watts 9

TOURNAMENTS :

NSW Division 2 Golf Croquet Doubles : I.Donald, I McRae 1, J.Wilson, J.Gaskell 2, B.Mitchell, P.Wormleaton 3, J.Howchin S.Howchin 4, E.Friend, C.Cox 5, D.McCann, P Dale 6.

4, A.Matlawski 5, B.McAlray 6, I.McRae 7, P.Wormleaton 8.

NSW ACA Golf Croquet Bronze Medal : J.Gumbrell 1, P.Landrebe 2, M.Powys 3,

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Thursdays event winner G Brown, 2nd T Woods, 3rd A Parr, free game D Vagne, chicken/ball winners J Celich, J Sheridan, T Duff, N Cupitt, G Gibson, T Patch, J Lassig, B Waterson, I Welsh, S McDonough, T Beemster, A Ganter. Nearest pins 3rd/12th R Earnshaw, 6th/15th R Rodda.

This Thursday 29/6/23 will be a single stableford hit off time 8.30am please note the barbque has been tranfered to the 6/7/23 from this coming week. AS USUAL TILL THEN GOOD GOLFING.

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Cherry Street Croquet Club Sports Results

NSW Division 2 Golf Croquet Open Singles : B.Mitchell 1, R.Uptin 2, J.Gaskell 3, C.Cox

Coraki Veterans Golf Results

THURSDAY 22/6/23

49 golfers contested set of six which saw the skipper pull off two bone-crunching front-on hits.

Ladies Social Day- 2106-23 - 2 Bowl Triples - J. Beckett, M. Playford, J. Fernance. Club Championship Singles - Semi Finals - T. Cselka defeated E. Gollan. P. Freeman defeated G. Marczan. Final to be played on 5th July.

Midway through the half the Rebels snatched back the lead when another Stanley kick put them in excellent feld position.

A rare chance to execute some quick play the balls split the defence and hooker James Olivero darted over near a torpedo bomb that so thoroughly mesmerised the Coffs Harbour back three they let it bounce twice.

Back rower Aidan Hyland grabbed the chance and crashed over about 10 metres in from the left touchline.

A change of kicker to Stanley did not have the desired effect, missing the conversion.

But the drama was not march upfeld. A couple of passes set Torrens free down the sideline and his pass to winger Jamal Laurie allowed him to shoot down the sideline and run around under the posts to score.

The Rebels were forced to dig deep, with super veteran playmaker Steve Kirby, whose son, Damon was playing on the wing, brought onto the feld with 25 minutes to go.

Coffs scored their decisive try midway through the half when a foating cut out pass found centre Paul Pen Simona, who crashed over near the sideline.

Stanley converted and the South Grafton fans waited for the grand stand fnish.

It almost came just a few minutes later when through from Stanley two plays later.

With time running out, players suddenly started to go down injured and were slow playing the ball.

A Torrens knock on with a minute left summed up the Rebels day.

Spotting a hole up the middle Torrens tried a quick pick up from dummy half, only from the offcials.

“We did plenty of silly stuff ourselves, but every 50/50 call seems to go against us,” he said.

“I know there’s issues with the referees, but every week we get these young refs.

“We’re leading the comp, surely the group could make sure we got the top referee for our games.”

He said the club was looking forward to hosting Nambucca next week for the Indigenous Round.

“We’re got some stuff organised in memory of Auntie Irene Daley and I’m confdent the players will be fred up for that.

He said hard-tackling back rower Nick Torrens would be back for the game.

Stevens had nothing to apologise for. His team will play worse than that some days and get the points.

Scores

Coffs Harbour 24: Tries: Bennet Bar Reech, Kahn Masen, Paul Pen Simona, Lewis Hall.

Goals Nathan Curry 3 conv. 1 penalty def the posts from a deft short ball.

South Grafton: 18: Tries James Torrens, James Olivero, Aiden Hyland, Jamal Laurie.

Goal: Hugh Stanley.

The Grafton Ghosts have grabbed the lead of the Group 2 competition with a 24-10 win over Sawtell.

A missed kick at goal, when McGrady’s kick slammed into the uprights and bounced out was the frst sign the footy gods might be against the Rebels.

Then an awkwardly bouncing, shanked kickoff bounced past centre Jay Boehme to put the Comets on attack and bullocking forward Kahn Mason charged over. Curry’s conversion regained the lead for the visitors.

Eight minutes from half time, the visitors added another four points on the back of a series of mistakes.

A clearing kick that went into touch on the full, plus a penalty for a high tackle gave the Comets a glut of possession, which they turned into points with a try in the left corner.

South Grafton hit back quickly when Stanley hit over.

With a couple of minutes left in the half, Coffs regained possession and Curry kicked high near the Rebels goal line.

Prop Bailey Sinclair launched himself at the half and crunched him with a massive hit.

Sinclair was given 10 in the bin and Curry recovered to slot a penalty goal to give his team an 18-12 lead at the break.

Tries were harder to come by in the second half.

Stanley taunted the Coffs defence with another bomb that forced a knock on from Baloh, but after 10 minutes and with the Rebels close to scoring in the left corner a touch judge made a report.

Just as Sinclair made his return from the bin, the ref had his hands aloft sending Torrens from the feld.

Curry’s successful kick gave his team a 12-point lead.

The Rebels, restored to a full complement for the frst time in began to threaten.

With 12 minutes left on the clock a punishing hit from Nick McGrady jolted the ball free allowing the Rebels to

Stanley sent another torpedo bomb soaring skyward.

The winger never looked like catching it and fullback Keiron Johnson-Heron pounced on the ball only to be held up over the line.

Curry saved the day for the Comets diving to brilliantly catch a chip to fumble the ball. In frustration, he kicked the ball away.

It had been that type of day for the Rebels. A lot of effort, but everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

After the game a frustrated Stevens wondered what his team had to do to get a break

Big prop Mitch Garbutt scored his frst try for the Ghosts and Cooper Woods, Rhys Hambly and Brett Wicks also crossed the paint. Woods kicked four goals.

Scores

Grafton Ghosts 24: Tries Mitch Garbutt, Cooper Woods, Rhys Hambly Brett Wicks.

Goals: Cooper Woods

4 def

Sawtell: Tries: Damon McDonald, unknown.

Goal: Damion Dumas