Dogs’ day out: Collegians score comprehensive win over Sutherland-Loftus to remain unbeaten
Collegians have moved to a 2-0 start in the Illawarra Rugby League’s Harrigan Cup competition, courtesy of a 29-6 win over the Sutherland-Loftus Pirates at Collegians Sports Complex on Sunday.
The fast-starting Collie Dogs turned a 19-0 half time advantage into a six-tries-to-one victory, with centre Cooper Barnes and five-eighth Zach Herring scoring doubles in a comprehensive team performance.
Collegians started fast, with centre Joe Sale going over in the second minute, before Barnes scored his first off a simple shift from an attacking centrefield scrum.
That 10-0 lead grew soon after, with Herring crossing untouched after beating the defence with a show and go. He went on to sweep around the back of another backline movement to double up in the corner 12 minutes later.
After landing just one from four with the boot in the opening half, halfback Blair Grant extended the margin beyond three scores with a field goal in the shadow of half time to give Collegians a 19-0 lead at the break.
The Collegians’ dominance continued upon the game’s resumption, with a freakish Nic Hall flick pass sending Barnes over for his second, before lock and captain Blake Phillips beat three Sutherland players to join in on the tryscoring action.
Finally, 71 minutes in, the Pirates broke their duck, with former Canterbury, Manly, and Parramatta outside back Morgan Harper racing in to reduce the final margin to 23 points.
Collegians coach Jimmy Grehan said the most pleasing aspect of his side’s victory was their defensive performance, with the side holding the Pirates to nil for the majority of the contest.
“The defensive effort, that’s what I’m looking for, especially [in the] first half of the year,” he said.
“Our attack is good enough to score some points, but is a bit clunky, and we are making a few errors – but that’s just getting to know each other [and] getting to the right spots.
“We are a bit frantic in attack sometimes, we’ve got to chill a little bit and not keep trying to score on every single play.”
One of the unsung heroes of the victory on Sunday was fullback Nic Hall, who was rock solid on kick return and in defence, and also produced a freakish flick pass to send Barnes over for his second try.
Grehan said that after the departure of previous custodian Callum Gromek to the Burleigh Bears in the Queensland Cup, Hall has transitioned seamlessly from the centres back to his preferred role at number one, where he won a Group 9 premiership with Young in 2024.
“Nic’s been unreal,” he said.
“[After] losing Callum Gromek last year and then Nic goes back to his preferred position, he’s always 10 out of 10.”
Aside from Hall, the Collegians coach also gave praise to a number of players, including back rower Kapene Karaitiana and halves Herring and Grant, but said there are still plenty of things to improve on.
“We had some good efforts. The young fella, Kapene, he’s going really well. Our halves are directing traffic pretty good, our middles are rolling,” Grehan said.
“There’s a few little areas that I know that I need to improve on. I’m not going to say it too out loud because teams might attack it, but the effort from the boys I’m rapt with.”
Next up for the Collegian Dogs is a trip to Thirroul to face the competition’s other unbeaten side: the Butchers. Grehan has said that this match is a potential danger game for his side, given the strong home record of the opposition.
“I call it the Bermuda Triangle out at Thirroul because funny things happen out there,” he said.
“They got us [in] a big win last year, that was their first win, so we know what to expect out there.
“I’m hoping we can change the result from last year.”
On the other side of the ledger, the loss is the second in two weeks for the Pirates after last week’s 30-16 defeat against Thirroul.
Sutherland-Loftus coach Paul Nakhle said his side’s biggest problem has been its starts to matches, with the Pirates simply missing the jump and giving their opponents too much of a headstart.
“[It’s] not ideal at all, none from two. We do have some work to do, but it is a long season,” he said.
“For us over the last two weeks, I feel we’ve missed the jump at the start of games. [In] both games we’ve given the opposition early points and early momentum, that’s something from our end obviously to improve on next week.”
“The biggest thing for us is just making sure we’re good at our fundamentals, we need to get back to the drawing board on that obviously and be better next week and go from there.
“It is a long season though, and I’m quite positive we’ll bounce back next week and the weeks following.”
Looking at other results from round two of the Harrigan Cup, Thirroul remains unbeaten through the opening fortnight after a gritty 12-4 win over Corrimal at Ziem’s Park.
The Cougars opened the scoring early through Joe Duggan, before the Butchers replied with winger Dane Courtney to take a narrow 6-4 lead into the break.
That score remained through a tense start to the second half, before Thirroul extended the margin to eight when centre Luke Maddaford crossed in the 63rd minute – the score remaining the same until full time.
Meanwhile, defending premiers Wests Devils opened their account with a narrow 18-14 win over the Dapto Canaries.
The Devils opened up a 6-0 advantage early through a try to Tepai Moeroa, before the Canaries hit back through fullback Justin Jones to reduce the margin to two, three minutes before the break.
Wests then clicked into gear on the other side of the break with two tries in the opening 13 minutes of the second half to Lachlan Hurst and Justin Rodrigues, before a Dane Chisholm penalty goal extended the lead to 18-4 after 67 minutes.
However, Dapto had one final fight-back left in the tank, with late tries to Jack Gibbons and John Bonham seeing them get within four points. This gave Wests a scare, but ultimately left the Canaries just short of a victory.
Next week's action sees Wests host Corrimal in a Friday night fixture at Parrish Park, before Thirroul take on Collegians on Saturday, and Sutherland-Loftus welcome Dapto on Sunday.
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