HERVEY Bay Seagulls are the only team with two wins after two rounds of the Bundaberg Broadcasters A Grade Premiership after out muscling hosts and fellow first-up victors Wallaroos at Eskdale Park, Maryborough on Saturday night.
Earlier in the afternoon, last year's beaten finalists Isis Devils, who had had the round one bye, started their campaign in style with 50-4 thrashing of a 14-man Waves Tigers.
Then on Sunday, Brothers bounced back from their fighting loss to the Seagulls eight days earlier to put big previous week's winners Easts Magpies to the sword in their first ever premiership home game at Brothers Sports Club, with player/coach Mat Templeman running amok with four tries in a 94-4 massacre.
But the Seagulls again looked the complete package and claimed early favouritism for their maiden BRL A Grade title after upstaging Brothers a week earlier.
They put their stamp on their game in the first half, establishing a 16-4 lead by oranges and going right on with the job despite Roos having a boisterous home crowd behind them.
Twenty-four-year-old second rower Tye Ingebrigtsen, who was signed in October as the club's first captain-coach since Dean Pay guided them to Group 1 glory in 2001, led the charge with a double in a powerhouse all-round performance which wetted the appetite of long suffering Bay supporters.
Ingebrigtsen, a Norway International who played two seasons with the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles, has returned to Queensland after one-year stint in Western Australia with the Rockingham Sharks.
Five-eighth and club junior product David Leapai, who has also played in the Intrust Super Cup for Northern Pride and was signed by Melbourne Storm in 2013, also dazzled in tandem with his halves partner and former Bundaberg A Grade Player of the Year Clinton Horne, who has returned home, and they repeatedly unleashed their lethal back-line.
Hooker Jaiden Reynolds, their other high-profile recruit and a former Redcliffe Dolphins junior, was also very good.
Brothers were ruthless against the Magpies, hitting the ground running and putting the writing on the wall with three converted tries in better than even time and finishing with more than a point a minute.
Apart from Templeman's big haul, others to dine out included fullback Jake Karl, one of 10 new or returning faces in their side.
Karl, a former Caboolture Snakes player, racked up a 38-point splurge from two tries and kicking 15 of 16 goal attempts.
Ex-Waves Tigers workaholic Daniel Finter also crossed twice, along with his second row partner Joel McCrea and interchange dynamo Bryce Holdsworth.
Meanwhile, the Devils were always going to have too much fire-power especially with the Tigers having just one player on the bench, but while Waves never shirked the issue, Isis took an 18-4 lead to the break and they never relented, with three local juniors each bagging doubles, 17-year-old winger Warrick Fay on his A Grade debut, barnstorming front rower Royce Blair and tough-as-teak lock Aaron Ratcliffe.
Isis will need to step up a notch when they cross swords with the high-flying Seagulls this Saturday night but they always take a power of beating at home at “The Furnace” at Childers Showgrounds.
Isis 50 (Warwick Fay 2, Royce Blair 2, Aaron Ratcliffe 2, Faavesi Lilo, Ashley O'Donnell, Taylar Barritt, Robert O'Donnell tries; Robert O'Donnell 5 goals) d Waves 4 (Patrick Robinson try).
Hervey Bay 40 (Tye Ingebrigtsen 2, Alex Braun, Terry Horne, Billy Stefaniuk, Jaiden Reynolds, Angus Fitzgerald tries; Clinton Horne 6 goals) d Wallaroos 14 (Dennis Sandow, Cecil Sullivan, Joshua Crowley tries; Lincoln Willmot goal).
Brothers 94 (Mat Templeman 4, Jake Karl 2, Daniel Finter 2, Joel McCrea 2, Bryce Holdsworth 2, Chris Rose, Jayden Alberts, Kevin Sherriff, Taulonga Naupoto tries; Karl 15 goals) d Easts 4 (Cody Stibbards try).
