The BMD Wynnum Manly Seagulls made the trip down the coast on Saturday to take on the in-form Tweed Seagulls at Piggabeen Sports Complex.
Tweed had earlier defeated Wynnum Manly in Round 5 at BMD Kougari in the first edition of the ‘flockbuster’ in 2023, and the Bayside boys were out for revenge.
Some significant team changes occurred in the week leading into the game. The Broncos took an extended squad over to New Zealand for their match against the Warriors, meaning Josh Rogers was the only Broncos-contracted player to join us on game day.
While the Gold Coast Titans, with the bye in NRL’s Round 13, dropped extra players into the Tweed team for the game.
Wynnum Manly faced a big challenge on paper, but were not overawed by the occasion and came out swinging from the first whistle.
Ollie Pascoe opened the scoring in the 9th minute when he scurried over from dummy half 10m out.
Tweed hit back with 2 tries in 7 minutes to hit the front 12-6.
This triggered Wynnum Manly to switch into top gear, going onto score through Josh Rogers, Josh Simm and Matt Milson in the next 11 minutes to blow the game open.
Wynnum Manly took a 24-12 lead into the break against a shocked Tweed team.
Josh Rogers, playing his best game of the season, and standing tall in the absence of the other Broncos-contracted players, scored again in the 59th minute.
Tweed scored 5 minutes later to give themselves some hope. However Wynnum Manly defended incredibly well to keep Tweed at bay.
Debutant Stanford Talita put the cherry on top when he scored in the final minute to seal the game.
Josh Rogers completed his Bartons Player of the Match performance by kicking the last goal from the sideline in front of his teammates.
Rogers scored 2 tries, made 2 line breaks, ran for 140m, broke 9 tackles and kicked 7/7 goals.
This was a great win by the boys from Wynnum Manly to even the ledger with Tweed this season and confirm their spot in the Top 8.