Photo Tayla Clorley
Dean Treavskis
The Moonshiners coming off the bye headed to Iluka for their third consecutive away game. A revived Cossacks side had thumped Grafton the previous week. The first ten minutes saw an arm wrestle in the middle third of the ground. Then Simon Hutton, in sparkling form, cracked the deadlock with a withering thirty metre run; Seymour Walters provided the support; Dion Vogt with a pick and run took on three defenders and off loaded back to Hutton to bag a five pointer. The boot of dead eye dick Nathan Nicholls took it to seven points.
The Cossacks counter punched through smoking hot speed in the backs and found the line. It proved to be the pattern of the game. Forwards grinding away but failing to break the line while both sets of backs set it alight whenever the ball swung wide. Jacob Johnston on his Moonshine debut playing his first ever game of Rugby was looking like a seasoned campaigner, assured under the high ball, instinctive on the run and fearlessly felling the Iluka tall timber.
Shortly before half time Iluka put a high ball up. It was a googly, flipper and doosra all in one evading five Shiners’ defenders who watched as Iluka pounced to a 10–7 lead. Mullum created opportunities but couldn’t convert when it counted. By the time Iluka had stretched the lead to 13 points the Shiners were looking rushed and lacking cohesion. Despite great games form Jarrod Hicks, an inspired Dion Vogt and a pumped up Mitch ‘Bulldozer’ Arthur the lads endured the first loss of 2013. Competition for positions will be fierce at training this week with a number of players returning. The Shiners are at home on Stan Thomson Fields Brunswick Heads this Saturday against Evans Heads. It is a 2pm kick off with a big crowd expected.
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