Round 13 on June 13th sees the return of the very popular All Stars match as a part of our support of Mens Health Week in 2010. The Seagulls are proud to be supporting this event again this year which will be once again hosted by Men of League in support of Mens Health Week. Parties interested in supporting this event should contact Dene Tucker 0405 102210 at their earliest convenience to register that interest.

It was a good day for seagulls supporters last Saturday when we had a convincing win in our local derby match against the East Tigers. After coming off consecutive losses it was important for us to get back on track with a good win.

Once again our forwards laid the platform for the victory with some hard running and strong defence. Our backs capitalised on the work the forwards did with Shea Moylan producing probably his best performance for the club so far. In an ABC man of the match performance Shea bagged two tries and was dangerous throughout the contest with some strong running and clever footwork.

In the lower grade games the colts had a good win over the Tigers. After having a big 22-0 half time lead the colts team gave coach Daniel Frame a slight heart attack with the tigers fighting their way back to at one stage trail 22-16. A late try to Lynton Godden however sealed the victory for the seagulls who now sit third on the ladder.

A try to the tigers in the last minute of the fogs A-Grade match meant the Seagulls lost. In the reverse of the colts game Wynnum Manly were down 26-6 at half time and were looking down the barrel of a heavy defeat. They managed to lead 28-26 with 4 minutes left on the clock which was a huge effort against their much bigger opponents. However some costly errors in possession late gave the opportunity for Easts to snatch a late victory. The loss was even harder to swallow when it was revealed that the Easts player put his foot on the line when scoring the winning try.

Our next two weeks sees us up against the competition pace setters in Redcliffe and Norths. It will be important for us to build on last week coming in to these tough matches which could set us up for the back end of the year.

Easts coach Jason Gainey will stick to the formula that paved the way for the Tigers’ crucial last-start victory over the Northern Pride. The Tigers entered that clash on shaky ground after a string of losses, but a number of positional changes – and better execution – seemed to do the trick in the 32-18 victory. David Georgiou remains at fullback for the clash against his former club after making a successful switch from the halves last weekend, while former winger Junior Ahio gets another chance in the back-row after an encouraging debut in the forwards.

Wynnum Manly coach Paul Green has also tinkered with his side after consecutive losses, with Jake Granville earning a shot at fullback and John Peterson coming into the starting side at five-eighth. Wynnum Manly was comprehensively beaten by the Central Comets last weekend. However, a win over the Tigers in the local derby could see the Seagulls fly into third place and shrug off any concerns of a mid-season form slump. On the statistical front, Cameron Durnford moves past Scott Sipple to become the seventh most capped player in Queensland Cup history with 197 games.

Momentum is a funny thing in a game of rugby league. Once it is lost it is very hard to get back. That is why errors are crucial in the modern game. It seems we didn’t learn our lesson from the week before when we were defeated by the Mackay Cutters. Once again our ball control let us down at critical parts of our game against the central comets on the weekend.

The comets, who previously had lost their last 5 games turned up desperate for a win and were prepared to do anything to get the two points. We were our own worst enemy failing to complete our first set dropping the ball on the second tackle. Unfortunately this set the tone for most of the match for the Seagulls. It wasn’t until towards the end of the game that we started to complete our sets and by that stage the game was beyond reach.

In the first half we only had 35% of the ball or 14 sets. Of those 14 sets we only got to a kick on seven occasions. This means that it is impossible to build pressure. With that sort of possession rate your team is forced to do far too much defence. This starts a vicious cycle. Your team is fatigued from tackling so when you do finally get the ball you are too tired to do anything of any quality.

The good thing about rugby league though is you only have to wait a week until you have the opportunity to remedy any problems. This week sees us playing a local derby against the Easts Tigers in the first round of the Bartons Cup. The Tigers having several former seagulls players will be fired up for the match.