BMD Wynnum Manly Seagulls travelled to Kayo Stadium to take on the Redcliffe Dolphins on Sunday afternoon in the feature match of XXX Rivalry Round.
It was a tough day for the Seagulls across all grades, with the recent Dolphins NRL promotion providing strength across all their junior teams through to their Hostplus Cup team.
Kicking off at 2:10pm, the Seagulls were pleased to welcome Kalolo Saitaua and Brody Tamarua into the team for the first time in 2023.
The Seagulls started strongly with a clean break up the middle by Max Plath, however it was the Dolphins who opened the scoring in the 4th minute. Max then followed his break with our opening try a few minutes later when he bashed his way through multiple defenders to reach out and score.
Some handy footwork by Caius Faatili saw him break through the defensive line and set up Matt Milson who ran away to score on the very next set.
Unfortunately, 3 tries in 6 minutes to Redcliffe blew the game open and saw them lead 22-10 at half time.
Redcliffe opened the scoring in the second half to extend their lead, before the Seagulls hit back through Tony Pellow. Pellow caught a kick from close range and ran 95m to score, beating two diving attempts from Dolphins players to score a great individual try.
Caius Faatili then showed his great footwork again to create space and offload to Plath, who burrowed his way over for his second try.
The Seagulls were right back in the contest at 28-22, with all the momentum, despite losing a couple of key players to injury early in the second half.
However, the Seagulls couldn’t capitalize on their newfound energy, and Redcliffe sealed the win with a try in the final minutes.
It was a brave performance from Wynnum Manly, down to two players on the bench against a talented side.
We are now looking forward to hosting the Dolphins at BMD Kougari Oval on 25 June to even the ledger.
Up next, the Seagulls will enjoy a break for Easter, before hosting Tweed on 16 April and Northern Pride on 22 April in consecutive home games.