Tigers ready to Storm Ipswich's jungle

The Tigers will strut into town with their 15 Storm players while the Jets will rely on locals and the tenacious footballers of the world.

THE Easts Tigers come to Ipswich on Saturday in a match being screened live on Channel Nine.

There's something about the Tigers that makes me keen for some football.

The Tigers are entering our jungle.

The Tigers will strut into town with their 15 Storm players while the Jets will rely on locals and the tenacious footballers of the world.

The Jets got the cash over the Tigers in round three and now these two fierce rivals line up again.

The Tigers have won the past two games in Ipswich with the Tigers winning 52-20 in 2016 and 22-20 in 2017.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Ipswich Jets lock Ben Shea will line up in his 150th Intrust Super Cup game at the North Ipswich Reserve on Saturday. Picture: Franca Tigani

The Jets have not beaten the Tigers at North Ipswich since 2015 when they eliminated the Tigers 44-18.

In that game, Matt Parcell produced maybe the most famous Jet effort of all time with five tries in a final.

Easts (12 wins) lead the Jets (nine) when it comes to games at Ipswich. Ipswich has won only five of the past 15 between these two clubs.

One name that will appear on the Jets' whiteboard this week is Scott Drinkwater.

In the Intrust Super Cup this year, he has been dynamic.

Drinkwater has scored seven tries in his 10 games this year.

With 10 try assists and 10 line breaks, he is having an impact with the ball.

Drinkwater has secured 10 or more tackle breaks three times this year. He leads the competition with 77 tackle breaks.

Drinkwater can be dangerous on the left hand side of the field. He will sweep around to that side looking for a chance.

"The Jets are a special challenge for a fullback, you have to stay on the ball and as it goes side to side,'' said Queensland Residents and Easts Tigers fullback Scott Drinkwater.

"Julian Christian can be difficult to handle and the wingers come in and provide threats to the line.

"I just spent the week with Nat Neale and besides being the angriest man ever, we also have to stop his off-load. He's very smart at when he does it and how he does it."

Jets everywhere

WHAT a weekend of representative football. There was Friday night to watch the Women's Origin, Saturday to see the PNG and Fiji Test followed by Samoa v Tonga, and Sunday it was time for the Residents and Origin game.

I caught up with some Jets that were involved to find out how they found this tremendous weekend.

Richie Pandia: "It was such a great experience and now I have to take that back to Jets. Playing against Pio was a highlight. He played really well. It's really motivated me to get back and play good football for the rest of the year."

Queensland's Kody House only played 15 minutes due to injury still making a brave eight tackles on one leg but will take away so many great experiences from her week.

"The little things were great,'' House said.

"Cooper Conk presenting our jumpers and talking about Origin and the history of where Queensland has come from before Origin.

"The crowd and the dressing rooms, those little things that we don't normally get at our games."

It was great to see so many men and women representing their country and state but also Ipswich.

Luke Page (Jet number 526), Richie Pandia (Jet number 561) and Rod Griffin (Jet number 532) all played for PNG.

Pio Seci (Jet number 586) lined up for Fiji.

Joe Ofahengaue (Jet number 559) played for Tonga.

Gideon Mzembe (Jet number 413) represented South Africa against Malta.

Nat Neale (Jet number 517) and Dean Arbuthnot (Jets' head trainer) represented Queensland Residents.

House, Brittany Breayley, Ali Brigginshaw, Amelia Kuk and Matiua Feterika all played for Queensland on Friday night, from Ipswich Brothers.

Jason Hetherington (Jet number 187) coached the Queensland women's team. His assistant is Nat Dwyer, the Ipswich Brothers' coach.

For the men's Origin game, Allan Langer (Jet 68) was assisting and Trevor Gillmeister (who coached the Jets from 2003-2006) helped with defence.

Others with past links to Ipswich were Ben Hunt (Jet number 582), Gavin Cooper (Jet number 473), Kevin Walters (Jet number 93 and coach 2007-2008), Luke Anning (Queensland physio) and Mick Hillier (QRL media manager).

Magic milestone

BEN Shea will be the 67th footballer to play 150 games in the Intrust Super Cup.

Shea made his Intrust Super Cup debut in round one 2010 against the Burleigh Bears the game is the only 0-0 score in the Intrust Super Cup.

He played 135 games for the Wynnum Seagulls, winning back-to-back premierships in 2010 and 2011, before playing 15 games for the Jets in 2018.

Wynnum teammate Jake Granville had this to say about Shea and his milestone match.

"Benny, GK or Gym King brought some power running to the team with his size up front,'' Granville said.

"Off the field, Ben was big on making the team tight. I always enjoyed a beer and a few of his stories after a game.

"I have some great memories of playing with Ben but the one that sticks out is two premierships in 2010 and 2011."

Cowboys and Wynnum coach Paul Green also paid tribute to his former forward.

"Ben Shea played an integral role in a very successful period for us at Wynnum Manly,'' Green said.

"He was a good bloke, contributed both on, and off the field and every club needs players like that to be successful.

"He was one of those players who put the team first and was good to coach.

"I wish him all the best for his milestone 150th Queensland Cup game this weekend."

Cooper's stat

THE Jets have 548 tackle breaks this season. Seb Pandia has 68, or 12%, of those tackle breaks.

A cold beer with . . .

Author and entertainer Steve Haddan is a rugby league romantic writing books about the history of league in Queensland and currently working on a Wally Lewis project with the King. We sat down on the outer at Lang Park under the scoreboard and talked Ipswich footy.

Do you have a favourite Ipswich player? Two that stand out for me are Bill Pearson at Norths and Hugh O'Doherty, the greatest Diehard of all time. Bill was Bob Bax's right hand man through the magnificent era at Norths. Both came out of Ipswich. Bill was a number six who played in Norths' golden run of premierships and played for Queensland and Hugh was Valleys' and Queensland's tough hooker.

Can you remember a game you watched in Ipswich? The1971 Bulimba Cup at Ipswich. I was at Toowoomba Grammar and we were getting on the bus to go home after playing Ipswich Grammar and our teacher said let's go to the football at the North Ipswich Reserve. I didn't need any convincing. Those Bulimba Cup games were the Origin games of our era. The world was a smaller place then so a game in Ipswich to see internationals was just unbelievable. The green and white butcher stripes of Ipswich, the blue of Toowoomba and the red and white of Brisbane.

Do you have a favourite Ipswich league story? I always say that if rugby league as a game was abolished, they'd still play it in Ipswich. Ipswich is the heartland. Its passion and its history make it the league playing centre of the world.