In the thick of it. Cam Crawford was one of Norths’ best on Saturday afternoon
Photo: Jock Cameron

by Brendan Bradford –

Headed by a strong performance at outside centre from Cam Crawford, Northern Suburbs eased to a 36-14 defeat of an understrength Penrith side at North Sydney Oval on Saturday afternoon.

Crawford had a hand in four of Norths’ tries and scored one himself as the Shoremen exacted revenge on Penrith for a Round 11 loss at the foot of the mountains last month.

“It was really good to get Crawf a bit closer and his leadership really helped us today because we had 19-year old Corey Tulloch at flyhalf and it was Andrew Woods’ debut at halfback,” said Norths coach Scott Fava.

“Crawf really steadied the ship with those young guys and Will Miller who played at 12 for the first time. We wouldn’t have had that if he was still at fullback and he really could play anywhere across the backline and you’d hope Michael Cheika could see that and put him on the bench for his versatility. We’ve had it in mind to play him at ten and from flyhalf out he can do a job.”

Young Norths flyhalf Corey Tulloch looks for an opening
Photo: Jock Cameron

After going out to a 19-0 lead in the first quarter, Norths allowed Penrith back in the game with a couple of quick tries either side of halftime, but were steady enough to grind out the win.

“Penrith are a good team, they’ve shown this year that they can’t be taken lightly and they came out after that first 20 minutes and fought back,” said Fava.

“This was about making sure the game-plan we put in place was executed and they did that this time, where it was a major criticism of our loss a few weeks ago.

“Will Miller was good today, he really fights in the tackle and in defence and Tulloch – for being straight out of school last year – he really showed some maturity today. He’s a tough guy and his defence was good, especially with those Penrith forwards coming around the corner.”

Penrith were decimated by injury before the match and although the depleted side fought back gamely, they were always going to fall short.

“It was disappointing. We didn’t fire for the first 25 minutes and you just can’t give away 19 points,” said coach, Teki Tuipulotu.

“The guys need to believe they can do it because Norths weren’t better than us today but we let ourselves down. We just didn’t man up and execute what we did at training and yeah we’ve got about five guys out, and you miss them because they make things happen, but you can’t rely on them all the time.”

The game was barely five minutes old when Tulloch opened the scoring for the Shoremen with a well-taken try next to the sticks before Cam Crawford’s quick hands set-up the home side’s second for winger Richard Woolf after 13 minutes.

The Melbourne Rebels-bound Crawford laid on Woolf’s second just minutes later with a bustling midfield run and calm offload for a 19-0 lead after almost as many minutes.

Winning Debut: Halfback Andrew Woods got his 1st Grade career off to a fine start
Photo: Jock Cameron

The Emus stemmed the flow of points while proving their attacking prowess, a swift move down the right finished off by Sione Fifita-Pusiaki and a difficult conversion from out wide pegged the gap back to 19-7 at the break.

A halftime spray saw the Emus bolt out of the gates after the restart and they were held up in goal before Malakai Zelezniak scored to narrow the gap to five.

Jolted back into action, the Shoremen responded with a set-piece try for converted rugby league winger, Paul Rokolati. Crawford and Tulloch were again involved in the set-up and when Norths won a turnover at a maul, the new combination linked up for Rokolati’s second and a 29-14 advantage.

With five minutes left on the clock, the man who’d been involved in all Norths’ backline attack – Cam Crawford – took the last pass, slipped the last defender and got on the scoreboard for the 36-14 victory.

The result draws Norths closer to Eastern Suburbs on the table after the Beasties went down to Gordon at Chatswood Oval. The Highlanders’ win sees them extend their advantage over last place Penrith to eight points with just three games to play.

Northern Suburbs 36 (Richard Woolf, Paul Rokolani 2, Corey Tulloch, Cam Crawford tries; Corey Tulloch 3 cons) defeated Penrith 14 (Sione Fifita-Pusiaki, Malakai Zelezniak tries; Robbie Mate 2 cons)