Mason Cernoy
Maitland Pickers have won their fourth consecutive premiership in dominant fashion after scoring a 30-8 win over Cessnock Goannas in the Denton Engineering Cup Grand Final at McDonald Jones Stadium yesterday (Sunday 21 September).
It was a memorable day for Maitland with the record-breaking run coming off the back of premierships to their Women’s and reserve grade sides earlier in the afternoon.
The Pickers got the ball rolling quickly after Brock Lamb held up the line with some good footwork before shifting the ball to Daniel Langbridge who put Matthew Soper-Lawler over the line.
They found their next points down the same edge shortly after Langbridge took the playmaking role down the short side. He put on a shimmy and tipped on to Soper-Lawler, who put William Nieuwenhuise over in the corner to give the Pickers a 12 point lead in as many minutes.
The Goannas fought hard to claw back field position and eventually put enough pressure on Maitland to force a dropout.
Unfortunately, a good chance for Lewis Young went begging in the set that followed after he did all the hard work to cut inside and beat a few defenders before losing the ball whilst trying to crawl over the line.
Netane Masima created some space for Young once more in their next attacking set, but this time he zipped the ball out to Joe Woodbury who raced into the corner to tighten the scores.
Momentum appeared to have finally swung the way of Cessnock, but a knock-on from the kick-off took the pressure off and the Pickers were quick to capitalise.
The halves summed things up nicely when Chad O’Donnell shifted the ball out right to Lamb, who found James Bradley steaming through a gap in the Cessnock defence to take an 18-4 lead into half-time.
The second half started in very similar fashion to the first. Maitland were awarded a scrum from 40 metres out with O’Donnell scoring a brilliant individual try after selling the defence a dummy before slicing straight through and then showing a clean pair of heels to race away.
The game was getting away from the Goannas, and their search for points started to become more desperate. Whilst attacking Maitland’s line, Masima threw a cut-out ball that was picked off by Luke Knight who raced 80 metres to score and send the Pickers 24 points clear.
Cessnock continued to play with heart before frustrations boiled over. They conceded some penalties off the back of unseemly contact but refused to throw in the towel.
Eventually Angus Ernst would produce a second try for Woodbury off the boot, when he put in a pinpoint cross-kick out to his wing.
That was as close as the Goannas got. O’Donnell slotted a penalty goal before another attempt from Soper-Lawler paved the way for Maitland to see things out until the full-time siren.
