Round 8 Sunday wrap: Tigers, Falcons return to winner's circle

"I just really liked our resilience today," Church said.

"The Blackhawks got back into the contest after halftime but we showed a lot of resilience, especially after we lost Kane Bradley and Jonah Pezet.

"We just found a way to win.

"There were some areas we wanted to work on out of the Burleigh match. I still think we can be better but there was a marked improvement today."

Bradley was sidelined through a HIA while Pezet came off with a suspected broken collarbone and was replaced by Jack Miers.

Meanwhile, on the Sunshine Coast, the Falcons also showed plenty of grit to claim the two points over Norths Devils, coming from behind to win 28-24.

After losing to Redcliffe in Round 7, the Sunshine Coast fought back from 18-10 down at halftime, scoring a total of five tries to four.

Coach Brad Henderson said he still wants to see improvement from his team, but he was happy to be back on the winning side of the scoreboard.

"It was really pleasing to get the win," Henderson said.

"We certainly made life hard on ourselves but eventually the penny dropped and we had to come from a fair way behind to get our nose in front. We lost the lead again but did enough to get home.

"It was a pretty high standard footy game but very rarely do Norths get run back down when they have their nose in front so I’m really proud of that.

"We do need to be smarter. The bottom line is we made life difficult for ourselves and we’re really lucky to have survived. It’s the classic cliché but we just need to keep things simple.

"It’s when we get into a mindset of overplaying or someone thinks they have to solve the problem on their own. If we stick to the script, our footy is really good.

"It’s only Round 8 but it will only be another few months and it’ll be Round 16 so we need to get close to our best."

Henderson said it took all 17 men to get back into the game, but he was particularly impressed with forwards Max Bailey and Javvier Pitovao, and fullback Sualauvi Faalogo.

The Falcons will next week enjoy a bye while the Tigers will take on Norths Devils on Sunday, May 14.

For a wrap of Saturday's results, click here.