The evergreen Mick Snowden bagged a double for Eastwood – Photo: Karen Watson

by Paul Cook –

Ordinarily, two bonus point wins, 15 tries and 115pts from the first two games of a title defence would have a head coach purring but, despite such stats, Eastwood supremo John Manenti wasn’t exactly waxing lyrical after he watched his side see off Gordon 62-28 at Chatswood Oval on Saturday.

The scoreline belied the scratchiness of the performance; a mixture of early season rustiness from the visitors and early game doggedness on the part of the Highlanders – so much so that the score was still only 27-21 after 50 minutes. But the Woodies finally clicked, their bench contributing plenty as Gordon faded in what proved to be a lethal combination, five tries in the last half hour telling its own story.

“I didn’t see any progress from last week to this week,” said Manenti. “A couple of areas were good, lineout and scrum, but it should have been better. We probably didn’t respect the opposition enough. There were stages there through that 1st half where, if the rub of the green had gone their way they might have been able to build some really good pressure on us. We still scored 60 but I think we comfortably bombed five or six tries as well. I was more disappointed with how we used the ball and how we pushed passes, too many blokes wanted to run it, not enough blokes wanted to do the hard yards.”

Gordon had started the season with a stout defensive display at Woollahra Oval to upset Eastern Suburbs last week and assistant coach Tim Wallace was unsurprisingly frustrated that they weren’t able to back that up seven days later. “It’s a positive that we put 28pts on the Premiers but obviously, we need to improve defensively. Last week we were good, I think we tackled just under 90% and this week, well, I’d hate to see what the figure is, but our tackle efficiency was certainly down and that’s something we’ve just got to keep working on.

Eastwood fullback Ben Batger racked up 22pts through eight conversions and two penalties – Photo: Pat Dunne

“We were pretty good for 50 minutes but the last half hour, I wouldn’t say we caved in, but we gave them opportunities down our end of the field and they’ve got so many players all across the field that can hurt you,” the former Wallaby continued. “Our challenge is to maintain the consistency for longer but we will get better.”

The visitors were out of the blocks early, impressive young winger Ben Shorter backing up his opening day hat-trick with another in the first minute. But according to Woodies’ scrumhalf Mick Snowden, it had an adverse affect. “It was actually the worst thing we could have done because everyone just shuts down and thinks the game’s done,” he explained. “It was pretty poor to be honest.”

Perhaps preying on Eastwood’s sudden complacency, the home side stuck to their game plan, flooding the breakdown, choking the Woodies behind the gain line and unafraid to run the ball when the opportunity arose. Such was the case in the 9th minute, a quickfire counter from deep finished off by Terry Preston for Henry Carmichael to convert and level proceedings.

The score imbued an increasing rustiness from Eastwood, sloppy passes to ground or behind runners were prevalent and a reluctance to build phases and hold possession kept a frustrated Manenti vocal on the sideline as he implored his charges to show greater patience.

A Ben Batger penalty edged them ahead somewhat against the run of play but as they finally started to settle, find space down the flanks and create some overlaps, Gordon creaked under the pressure and one offside too many saw fullback Lachlan Mitchell go to the bin. Eastwood took the scrum option, shifted it wide and used the numbers for Shorter to bag his second.

Gordon were starting to fall off tackles and it wasn’t long before Eastwood’s deadly backs struck again, a lovely step from Tom Hill and centre partner Michael McDougall was in support for try number three. But just as the game was slipping away from them, the Highlanders cut a significant break.

Eastwood should have scored again when they had numbers on the left flank but a loose pass from flyhalf Jai Ayoub was plucked from the air by Matt McDougall, who went 70 metres to score. John Grant’s valiant chase forced him to the corner, which scuppered Carmichael’s conversion to leave the scoreboard showing 24-12.

A Batger penalty after the bell restored a healthy advantage for the visitors at the break and a good opening quarter from the Highlanders had seemingly gone to waste. But Manenti’s half-time call for discipline seemingly fell on deaf ears as Eastwood returned to the fray and subsequently coughed up three kickable penalties in 10 minutes to gift their opponents a route back into contention.

Terry Preston was involved in most of Gordon’s best moments – Photo: SPA Images

Henry Carmichael slotted all three with aplomb and at 27-21, and with Gordon’s confidence rising, we were set fair for an interesting last half hour. Or so it seemed.

Instead, Gordon were guilty of switching off from the restart and with their next attack, Eastwood’s forwards piled on the pressure to skittle the Highlanders defence and leave the ever alert Mick Snowden to pounce for the bonus point try. Revolt suitably quelled.

It was almost game over when the Woodies forged the move of the match on 62 minutes. A terrific counter attack which went coast to coast and through several pairs of hands ended with the predatory Shorter beating the desperate lunge of a flying Highlander to dive for the corner, flag and all.

But just as he began to celebrate his second hat-trick in two weeks, the touch judge intervened to rule that he had in fact touched the line before grounding the ball. Rules is rules but it was one of those tries that you wished could have been awarded for sheer style if not its ultimate execution.

No matter, the Woodies shrugged it off, kept their foot on the throat and a few minutes later, saw Snowden take the plaudits once again for his fine opportunism to make it 41-21.

The wheels continued to fall off the Gordon chariot as both coaches went to the bench and Eastwood exhibited their greater strength in depth, kicking down the home straight at a canter with another three tries.

First up was big, bad Jared Barry, the Woodies’ enforcer returning to 1st Grade after breaking his hand in a pre-season trial, and celebrating with a trademark ‘Don’t argue’ and the swatting away of three defenders on the line to go under the posts.

With the job now done, Eastwood switched off in defence, Gordon replacement Mark Johnson rumbling home for a consolation. But a minute later the tiring hosts conceded another, Eastwood going through the hands for Michael McDougall to grab his second.

Winger John Grant grabbed the last try for Eastwood – Photo: Invictus Photography

The agony was complete for the home side when the long, loping strides of John Grant took him clear for the 11th – and final – five pointer of the day a couple of minutes from time. But while the ‘winners’ mentality of Manenti and Snowden left them ruing a lacklustre performance, the warning for everyone else in the competition is that Eastwood still won at a relative canter and still have several more gears in their locker.

“There’s far worse ways to start your season but we want to win it [the title] again, we know everyone is going to aim up against us and you can’t let yourself have too many bad weeks because people start picking you off,” Snowden summised. “I’m not going to lose any sleep over winning by 40 but there’s certainly a lot to work on. You can’t do that against Uni, Warringah or Manly.”

Eastwood 62 (Ben Shorter 2, Mick Snowden 2, Michael McDougall 2, Jared Barry, John Grant tries; Ben Batger 8 cons, 2 pens) defeated Gordon 28 (Terry Preston, Matt McDougall, Mark Johnson tries; Henry Carmichael 2 cons, 3 pens)