Seagulls Take Down Cutters in Sarina

The BMD Wynnum Manly Seagulls and the Mackay Cutters made the trip to Sarina for Activate Queensland Country Week.

Hosted the by the Sarina Crocodiles Rugby League Club, the Cutters enjoyed the majority of the support being only 30 minutes south of their home ground.

The Seagulls arrived on Friday night in order to participate in kids football clinics on both Saturday and Sunday morning.

With both teams coming off consecutive losses, and their most recent games each being upsets, there was a strong eagerness from both teams to take home the all-important 2 points.

The Seagulls started with a bang when, on the back of a high shot penalty, Luke Gale burrowed his way through multiple defenders to score next to the posts. This was a popular try within the Seagulls, with Gale slotting into the team seamlessly since his debut a few weeks ago.

Wynnum were in again after 23 minutes when Deine Mariner received the ball near the right wing, stepped back inside and exploded through the line to score under the posts. Conversion successful by Ben Farr for a 12-0 lead.

The Cutters got on the board through right winger Brenton Baira, who scored the first of his three tries in the 27th minute with a spectacular diving finish.

Max Plath forced his way over in the 32nd minute, and Ben Farr converted to restore the Seagulls 12 point lead.

Luke Gale bookended the first half to give the Gulls a 24-6 half time lead after a brilliant full-field play. Ben Farr caught a bomb on his own 10m line and split the oncoming defenders to run 60m, with Gale finishing off the play by running the last 30m to score.

Baira was in again for the Cutters in the 51st minute after a nice kick from halfback Brandon Finnegan out to his wing.

Sione Hopoate crossed for the Gulls out wide on the left to wrestle back the momentum. Hopoate looked like scoring again only for the ball to be intercepted by Baira before it could reach him. Baira then ran 95m to complete his hattrick.

At 30-18, the Cutters were coming home strong with the crowd behind them.

However, the Seagulls managed to dominate the final 10 minutes and continuously made good metres throughout their sets. With the final play of the game, Captain Sam Scarlett deceived two Cutters and put Deine Mariner over in the corner to ice the game.

Final score 34-18 to the Seagulls. Special mention to Shaun Packer who made his debut in the Hostplus Cup for the Seagulls.

Following the bye weekend next week, the Seagulls will travel to Redcliffe to take on the Dolphins in a top 4 clash.