Magpies announce themselves with win over Panthers

The Souths Logan Magpies have announced themselves as a force to be reckoned with after holding off the top-of-the-table West Brisbane Panthers at Davies Park.

Led by an awesome foursome of tries to bench player Kobe Tararo, the Magpies ended West Brisbane’s six-game winning streak and sent a warning shot to the rest of the In Safe Hands Cup with a 38-22 victory.

Souths Logan had all the possession in the first half, and they converted that into points when Joey Lalagavesi took an offload from his inside man Ilekena Vudogo to touch down in the leagues club corner in the fifth minute.

Josh Bowyer-Bowen strolled through some poor defence eight minutes later to put the Magpies up 10-0.

It took 20 minutes for the Panthers to venture into the northern end of Davies Park for the first time. A sweeping backline movement and the West Brisbane men had a four-pointer through Eddie Tautali, his sixth try for the season.

That was only a small hiccup for the home side however, as the Magpies unleashed the big unit Kobe Tararo off the bench to score three tries before halftime.

The first came as he charged onto a short ball two metres out. The second came after Phil Dennis put him through a gap on the halfway line. The thundering No.17 stood up fullback Kyle Van Klaveren to touchdown under the cross bar.

The third had him in the right place at the right time as he lurked inside Jerome Veve for the inside ball for the Tararo treble and a halftime lead of 28-4.

The serenity of West End on a Sunday afternoon was broken as the Panthers were on the receiving end of a brutal tongue lashing from the coaches, who were once again called upon to lift the men in red and black.

While the Panthers hearing may have been affected, it had the right result. They responded with a try in the 46th minute when Keelyn Edwards barged over after a wealth of possession.

Zach Strasser had been switched to the halves and was changing the traffic of West Brisbane. Taking the footy to the line on the left side, he drew the defence before sending Edwards over for his second.

Strasser was once again involved as he put Evander Cummins through a gap to score under the crossbar and the Panthers were within six with 20 minutes remaining.

Both sides would slug it out for another 10; Souths Logan opted to keep the ball in hand on the last tackle, catching the Panthers defence by surprise.

Starting inside their own half, prop AJ Tuimavave joined half Hayden O’Hara in a wrap-around move before sending left winger Tommy Sa’u down the sideline as Van Klaveren looked to have him covered.

Sa’u sent the pill back to O’Hara, however Panthers flyer James Olds was closing. Sa’a was still in play and gladly received the pass to finish the try of the match off in the left corner.

Kobe Taroro had only just come back on to Davies Park and his first touch 30 metres out after an inside ball from Lachlan Cooper had him crash over in the arms of Van Klavern for his fourth and match-winning try.

Tararo went within inches of a fifth meat pie right on full-time but fell short.

“Our first half was perfect footy, however the first twenty of the second half we only had three sets of football but we still defended alright,” Magpies coach Darren Ferricks said.

“We were hustling and at the end we kept going and put those two tries on at the end.”

On Saturday night at Kougari Oval Easts Tigers kept the premiers Wynnum Manly Seagulls scoreless to post a 34-0 win to stay in the top four and push the Seagulls back to third.

Finally, Redcliffe Dolphins and Valleys Diehards took to Bishop Park in a fiery clash, eventually going to Valleys with a 29-14 win.

BRL A Grade In Safe Hands Cup Round 10 results

Tigers 34 (Justin Fai 2, Curtis Dansey-Smaller, Jack Walters, Jesse Uhlmann, Connor Jones tries Brandon Downey 5 goals) defeated Seagulls 0

Magpies 38 (Kobe Tararo 4, Josh Bowyer-Bowen, Joseteki Lalagavesi, Vesi Sa’u tries Hayden O’Hara 5 goals) defeated Panthers 22 (Keelyn Tuuta 2, Eddie Tautali, Evander Cummins tries Khan Awhang 3 goals)

Diehards 29 (Sam Collins 2, Ethan Richards 2, Joe Bradley, David Fauid tries Jack Miers 2 goals Dylan Tavita field goal) defeated Dolphins 14 (Oscar Carter, Faitotoa Faitotoa tries Oscar Carter 3 goals)

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