Swans flying but penalties a worry

TOO big, too strong, too fast.

Maroochydore left-centre Laina Matautia barges over for a try at Cotton Tree Oval. Picture: WARREN LYNAM

TOO big, too strong, too fast.

That was the consensus at Cotton Tree Oval yesterday as Maroochydore squeezed the life out of Caboolture on its way to a 52-10 Caloundra RSL Premiership win.

Last year's grand finalist looked in fine touch, scoring eight tries in a match that failed to reach any heights.

Swans outside-centre Cole Dalton, who crossed twice in the 42-point rout, said he and his teammates felt it was a danger game as they knew the Snakes were desperate to keep their finals hopes alive.

“In the sheds (before the game) we spoke about trying to put them away,” he said. “We did let them in a couple of times, but we're happy with the result.”

Maroochydore's Blair Rawlins opened the scoring before man mountain Laina Matautia and Dalton stretched the Swans' lead to 19-0.

Caboolture had reduced the deficit to 19-5 at the break, after Mark Bazzo scored, but Dalton did not waste any time in adding to his account early in the second half.

When Pauraic Boland hit back for the Snakes it looked like a comeback could be on the cards, but Beau Lamond quashed that when he put the ball down over the line on the back of a textbook rolling maul.

Matautia, Nick Patrick and Brock Gibbon scored in the back end of the match to give the Swans a more than comfortable victory.

Dalton said the Maroochydore's discipline was a major problem and the Swans gave away a stack of penalties.

“The amount of penalties we're giving away is the only thing letting us down at the moment,” he said.

“It's good to see our defence is reasonably strong and we can obviously score points.

“We tried to play the whole 80 minutes. We've been getting beaten at the end. To play the whole game was good.

“We need to keep the penalty count down. We work our way up the field, then give away penalties and we're defending again.”

Originally published as Swans flying but penalties a worry