By Adam Sheldon

Brothers head coach Ben McCormack has praised his side’s ability to come away with an important away win against a promising Norths outfit last weekend in the face of adversity, with the visitors playing with 14 men for more than half of the game. 

Norths have been one of the surprise packages this season following their strong start, and with Brothers – last year’s premiers unbeaten this season – it was billed as an exciting match-up which didn’t disappoint. 

While Brothers finished with a comprehensive victory, 34 points to 22, McCormack said the sending off of Brothers winger Sebastian Hanna following a clash in the air with a Norths opponent shaped the course of the match for his team. 

“They way I saw it was Sebastian put a bomb up and followed it through, Norths’ fullback was coming forward to catch it…they collided in the air and it was an awkward fall,” McCormack said. 

“I was surprised it was a red card to be honest. But anytime there’s a collision in the air and there’s an awkward landing, you leave yourself vulnerable and you don’t like seeing people fall like that.

“Our preference is you just don’t put yourself in that position.”

The moment, according to McCormack, made the game “indefinitely harder” for his side, which made the win, against a strong Norths team, extremely pleasing.

“That moment made us really work for it. Believe the hype about Norths, they are really good. We thought they were going to be good and they were, they gave us a red-hot game and they were so competitive. It’s nice we could dig deep with 14 men,” he said.

“Norths have some big boys running around, and then off the back of those big bodies, they have some fast backs and good playmakers. They are a well-rounded team.

“So, although we made the game more challenging than it had to be, I think it feels a bit more fulfilling or rewarding in the end. We are happy to get away with the result.”

The coach of the back-to-back Hospital Cup premiers added this was the toughest fixture this season for his side, who have also beaten Sunnybank and GPS.

“I thought it was definitely the hardest game so far; Norths tested us more than Sunnybank and GPS. I think Norths are going to beat a lot more sides and be very competitive,” he said.

McCormack praised winger Ollie Harvey for his man of the match performance, but said he had a team of players who stepped up and played well every week. 

“Ollie was fantastic and he’s been good every week. Benny Dalle Cort is another one – he played fullback on the weekend but is usually 13. Then there’s Brad Hemopo (8) who just gives you nine out of 10 every week,” he said. 

Elsewhere in the competition, league-leaders Souths continued their strong start to the season with a third win, beating Wests 31 to 27 away from home, while GPS trounced Sunnybank, 38 to 19 at home. The weekend’s other fixture saw Bond loose yet another tight clash – this time against UQ – as the visitors went down 12 points to 10.

“Bond have been really unlucky losing all three games for two points or less,” McCormack said. 

“They are a gun team and they are inevitably going to click soon and put a run together like they did last season. 

“The other interesting results in Wests, they have lost a few on the trot, but you can never count them out. We played them in the grand final last year and the year before, and we expect a good game this weekend.”

Despite Brothers being the clear favourite to win a third straight premiership, McCormack said the next month of fixtures would provide a clearer insight into the trajectory of his side. 

“We’ve got a block of games against Wests, Bond, Easts and UQ. We take every game one game at a time, but at the end of the month we will know more about how we are tracking,” he said.

“We don’t overplay or underplay anyone at this point. I think the results have shown everybody’s capable of beating everybody at this point.

“So, we just stay on our path and make sure we’re not complacent, and just give everyone the respect they deserve.”

Easts, the other unbeaten side in the competition also with three wins, had the bye.