Rebels bring Comets down to earth

By Tim Howard

The South Grafton Rebels have slammed the door on the Coffs Harbour Comets’ Group 2 rugby league semi-final hopes with a 40-12 drubbing at McKittrick Park on Sunday.

Pre game the players and crowd held a minute’s silence in memory of artist and community figure Irene Daley, who died earlier this week.

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The Daley name has featured strongly in the Rebels playing roster over the years and Mrs Daley’s son, country music star Troy Cassar-Daley sang the national anthem at the 2016 grand final between the Rebels and Grafton Ghosts.

On Sunday Rebels winger Brian Quinlin-Randall, who had an outstanding game, was the latest member of the family to turn out for the Rebels.

The Comets flared briefly in either half, snatching the lead in the opening minutes of the game with an opportunist try to halfback Joey Cudmore and for a brief period in the second half when skipper Nathan Curry scored a well-worked try to get the score to 22-12. But apart from that the Rebels, with star veterans Hughie Stanley and Grant Stevens leading the way, dominated all facets of the game. But not far behind them were a bunch of young guns like halfback Jordan Gallagher and brothers Nick and Tom McGrady and Quinlin-Randall

The Rebels made that dominance show on the scoreboard, scoring seven tries to two in a shutout performance. Although the Comets were ahead on the scoreboard early, it was the Rebels who were making the play.

Their opening score was a piece of Stanley magic when the big number 6 surged toward the line from 20m out then squeezed a pass to Lewis Cooper backing up on the inside, who crashed over.

Nick McGrady brought the scores level with the conversion. A crucial call came a few minutes later when massive Comets prop Peter Wong appeared to crash over near the sticks.

Instead the referee awarded a penalty for a double movement and the Rebels swept play downfield. Minutes later Gallagher was in for a try after a clever interplay of passes from a tap restart gave him a clear run to the line. Another crucial moment in the game was the sin-binning for backchat of Comets halfback Cudmore 13 minutes before half time.

The Rebels, 10-6 up, piled on the pressure and second rower Thomas Walker punched a hole in the defence. From the play the ball a short pass put a rampaging Tom McGrady under the posts.

The Comets almost paid double when a massive Austin Cooper run secured 70m of territory. Running onto a pass from the kick catcher Cooper smashed through the first up tackles then headed up field, pulling free of desperate cover defenders as he surged forward.

Poor ball security soon after cost the Rebels a scoring chance, but they kept applying pressure. A teasing Stanley kick drew a mistake from the Comets winger which the home team duly punished with a second try to Thomas McGrady.

In the second half the Comets rallied on the back of an extended period of possession and their skipper put them back in the game with a neatly taken try on the left edge. His successful conversion put the score at 22-12 to the Rebels with a comeback possible. But the Rebels soon snuffed that out when centre Aidan Hyland after some slick passing put him range of the line and he stretched out an arm to score. From there it came a procession. Stanley twice more to take the score to 40-12. Under-18s star Waylon Caldwell came on to take the kicking duties from Nick McGrady and kicked three from three.

After the game Rebels coach Ron Gordon was delighted with his team’s combination of slick attack and solid defence. The Rebels have not tasted defeat since May and after the game Gordon said a second place finish was possible if results went their way. They have beaten all the top four teams as they charged up the ladder and now share third spot with the  Grafton Ghosts. But the Rebels ahead on points difference and with a game in hand against Macksville have the most capacity to change the look of the table.

The Ghosts edged out competition leaders Woolgoolga 26-24 to continue their rebound to form after a dismal mid-season slump. But with the Rebels facing cellar dwellers, Nambucca in the last game and the Ghosts hosting a Macksville team desperate to get back into the top four, things can change quickly.

The form of both Grafton teams had Gordon licking his lips at the prospect of both Grafton teams meeting in the grand final. “That would be something,” he said. “They have been the only team to really put points on us (42-10) when they beat us over there in the first game of the season,” he said. “But we’ve come a long way since then.”