Last-minute heroics see Eagles steal victory in local derby against Stingrays

The Albion Park-Oak Flats Eagles left it late to secure their second straight win to open the Group 7 season with an 18-14 victory over Stingrays of Shellharbour at Flinders Field on Saturday.

A last-minute try to winger Mitchell Potts saw the Eagles emerge victors from a back and forth local derby between the two round one victors and finalists from last season.

The Eagles opened up a 10-0 advantage after 42 minutes, with Drew Hutchison firing a cut-out pass to Potts to open the scoring in the 24th minute, before a brilliant individual run from centre Billy Hayburn extended the margin after the break.

The tide turned soon after, with Stingrays narrowing the gap to six through a burrowing effort from prop Liam Scott, before Isaac Morris found Tuma Te Koi with a grubber kick to level the match at 10-all.

The sides then traded penalty goals, before Stingrays added a second to hold a 14-12 advantage.

However, with a minute to play and the last tackle signalled, Hutchison fired a pass out to Hayburn, who drew the winger and found Potts to steal a last-gasp victory and send the travelling Eagles fans into raptures.

Reflecting on the incredible finish, Albion Park-Oak Flats coach Josh White said that he thought the match may have been over after his side failed to take advantage of earlier opportunities, only to be pleasantly surprised when they stole victory in the final moments.

“[With] three minutes to go, we got the ball and were throwing everything at them,” he said.

  “We went down the left hand side and they knocked the ball down and I thought that was our massive chance to win the game.

“I thought we’re done here, it’s going to end up 14-12, and somehow we got the ball back with a minute to go, and Hutcho took them down the left hand side, [where] we had a bit of joy early on, and with 30 seconds to go he threw a beautiful ball and Billy Hayburn got it and sent the winger over.

“It was erratic on the sideline, everyone was just jumping around, everyone was going nuts, it was a great feeling, but again we shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.

“It was a really good game contest wise, no one gave an inch, as you do in [those] rivalry rounds.”

The win over the Stingrays came after both sides impressed in the season opening Magic Round at Kiama the week prior, with the Eagles defeating Nowra while the ‘Rays took down defending premiers Kiama on their home turf.

Heading into Sunday’s clash, White said that he prepared his team for a match that would go the distance, ultimately being both rewarded for his approach and proven right by the outcome.

“I said all week ‘this game’s going to go for 80 minutes’ and that was in my notes I handed to the boys,” he said. 

“I said be prepared to play for 80 minutes because that’s where it’s going to go, and we went there with no false hope, we knew it was going to be a tough game.

“Stingrays at Stingrays is always tough and as it panned out, that’s how it ended up, 80 minutes of football and we scored in the last 30 seconds.

“You’ll take any win at Stingrays’ ground, it’s a hard ground to play at, so a win’s a win, and the good thing is we won all three grades, 18s, reserve grade and first grade, so it was a good day for the club.”

One of the big attractions across the opening two weeks in Group 7 has been the clashes between Albion Park’s star duo Drew Hutchison and Rhys Kennedy and the fellow former NRL players in the competition in Dylan Farrell (Nowra-Bomaderry) and Tim Lafai (Stingrays).

Although his side didn’t get the win on Sunday, Lafai’s performance was of such quality that he earned praise from the opposition coach for his impact on the match.

“Tim Lafai was fantastic out there, he’s just so big and strong, and he’s a danger every time he gets the ball, and you get two and three in the tackle on him,” White said.

“I said to him after the game, ‘you were the best on field I thought’.”

Meanwhile, despite emerging with the two competition points White said that his own star playmaker in Hutchison was disappointed with his performance.

However, the coach was quick to remind his halfback that his last-minute heroics were exactly why he was signed to return to his junior club after a decade in the NRL.

“He was pretty annoyed with the second half of his performance and I said to him, ‘mate, you’ve come to the club as a player to get us around the field and you’ve done exactly that and you’ve won us the game in the end’,” White said.

“This time last year we wouldn’t have won those games, so I said ‘that’s what you’re there for’, and he came up trumps and we got the win.”

In other results from round two of Group 7, defending premiers Kiama bounced back from their round one loss with a 46-6 win over Jamberoo, while Nowra-Bomaderry got its first win of the season against Milton-Ulladulla 40-24, Gerringong cruised to a 60-0 win over Berry-Shoalhaven Heads, and the Shellharbour Sharks took out the local derby against Warilla 38-6.

Editor’s Note: You can find more sports coverage by Tallon Smith on battlersforbushfooty.com