Hills Bulls five-eighth Dylan Marshall scored the match-winning try in a thrilling 22-18 victory over Penrith Brothers in the Sydney Shield Preliminary final at HE Laybutt Sporting Complex today.
Brothers had led for nearly the entire game before Marshall danced around defenders to score near the posts in the 77th minute.
“To come back from 18-0 down is a pretty big effort,” said Hills Bulls coach Matt Kelly.
Bulls kept Brothers scoreless in the second half after Brothers were looking comfortable with an 18-6 halftime lead. They had also beaten Bulls 34-16 in Week One of the finals.
But Hills Bulls now move forward to next Sunday’s (3 September) Grand Final at Nestrata Jubilee Stadium to face defending premiers St Marys.
Preliminary Final: (3rd) Hills Bulls 22 def (2nd) Penrith Brothers 18
Centre Mitchell Owen gave Penrith Brothers a good head start.
He intercepted a Marshall pass in the opening minutes to race 90 metres untouched. Then five minutes later Owen put winger Jack Kenny over in the corner.
The match was 12 minutes old and Brothers were up 12-0.
They extended the lead (18-0) when a Donovan Boney corner kick was batted back for second rower Siaosi Sisifa to crash over. Boney was on-song with all three conversions.
Hills Bulls pulled one back 10 minutes before the break, when hooker Kruz Niutili-Schmidt ducked under three defenders to score near the posts (18-6).
A missed penalty by Josh Rizk right on halftime left the score at 18-6.
But Brothers would start the second half a man down with forward Eddie Ene sin-binned for late contact that prompted the penalty.
In the second half Niutili-Schmidt was in the thick of the action again, grabbing his double in 44th minute – fullback Brad Avery took over the kicking for the conversion.
Bulls were now getting into their groove and putting some scoreboard pressure on Brothers (18-12).
Their forwards were phenomenal in keeping momentum the Bulls way.
“That’s where we won the game today – our big men,” Kelly said.
“I don’t think anyone else can match our forwards. When they get rolling, everything is alright.”
The entire Bulls team had to work extra hard, especially when Avery and then second rower Mitchell Gardiner were both denied tries in the second half.
“That was hard but we knew we just had to stay in it because we had all the momentum,” Kelly said.
The breakthroughs came largely off the back of Bulls halves Ceiza James and Marshall.
It was a Marshall harbour-bridge pass that put winger Isaac Gorman over in the 64th minute and then Marshall accepted a James pass before stepping off both feet to score himself in the 77th.
“Dylan has been great; he was fabulous today. Dylan’s actually played fullback most of his life so has (halfback) Ceiza,” Kelly said.
“So they’ve become creative halves that can handle pressure situations.”
