The Brahmans out played the competition leaders last Saturday at Binalong, when they beat the Tuggeranong Bushrangers 28-12 in a no holds barred game of rugby league. The home crowd pitched in for the entire game which saw the Brahmans scoring six tries to two in a very convincing win.
The Bushrangers received back to back penalties in the opening minutes of the game that allowed them to mount a lot of pressure on the Brahmans defence. Despite some punishing tackles the Bushrangers converted that pressure into points after only four minutes when they crossed the line wide out to score the first points of the match. The Bushrangers converted the try and Tuggeranong lead six points to nil.
The next 15 minutes produced some of the best football the Brahmans have played all season as they wore the Bushys down with sledgehammer hit-ups and pounding defence. The forwards tore into their opponents like a starving Dingo running into a chicken coup at every opportunity.
With twenty minutes gone on the clock the Bushrangers defence cracked when Abed Atallah finished off a good move with a strong run that got him in behind the Bushrangers defensive line and crossed wide out to score the first try for the Brahmans. The try was not converted and the score was six points to four.
Both sides were desperate to put the next points on the board and play went from one end of the field to the other as they tried to find the opening that would give them that edge. With three minutes remaining in the first half Shane Picker crashed over alongside the posts. Attallah converted the try and the Brahmans went to the break leading ten points to six.
From the start of the second half the crowd began to sense that an upset was in the making and they urged their side on with renewed vigour and the Brahmans responded in the best possible way in the second half when they out scored the Bushrangers four tries to one.
The constant pressure that was applied by the Brahmans was starting to have the desired effect on the Tuggeranong side. As Tuggeranong started to flail in their tackling the home side started to make good metres every time they got the ball.
The Brahmans speed demons like Andrew Jones, Adam Byrne and Nathan “Musky” Muscat caused the Bushrangers defence all sorts of trouble as they stretched the Bushrangers out wide to the edges of the park. Andrew Jones opened the scoring in the second half to take the lead to 16 points to 6. The Tuggeranong side scored next but when Adam Byrne scored back to back tries in the corner the crowd knew it was all over for the Bushrangers who would soon join one of their name sakes Johnny Gilbert, and come to the end of their run in Binalong.
But the Brahmans still had one last surprise up their sleeve for the visitors, when in the last minutes of be game they got a rare scrum feed thirty metres out from the Tuggeranong line. Up went the perfect chip kick to which Andrew Jones and Nathan Muscat raced in hot pursuit. Musky won the race to the ball gathered it cleanly up and topped off a great game with the final try of the match. With the cat well and truly in the bag, Mick Quinn who was celebrating his 300th game of senior football was given the honour of taking a punt at goal. The conversion was unsuccessful, but it really didn’t matter as the Brahmans were runaway winners with a final score of 28-12.
With the win the Brahmans drew with Tuggeranong on the table with both sides now on 29 competition points but Tuggeranong has a small advantage in the for and against points which will keep them ahead of the Brahmans on the table. With both Tuggeranong and the Brahmans being drawn against bottom sides in the final round of the competition this week (barring some major upset) the two sides may meet again.
The try scorers for the Brahmans were Adam Byrne (two), Andrew Jones (one) Abed Atallah (one) Nathan Muscat (one), Shane Picker (one) and Abed Atallah two goals.
Players’ player went to Adam Byrne, Coaches Award went to Shannon King and the raging bull award went to Josh Glover who had a magnificent game.
This week the Brahmans play Harman over at Harman in Canberra and that completes the home and away series and then its finals time!
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