Live stream: St Patrick’s Mackay take on Ignatius Park College in Aaron Payne Cup semifinal

A semifinal that threatened to become a snoozefest suddenly burst into life in one of the most incredible final 20 minutes of the Aaron Payne Cup season. Catch up on the REPLAY.

St Patrick’s College, Mackay waited a decade to raise their first Aaron Payne Cup trophy, but is now just an hour away from being crowned North Queensland’s top footy school in back to back seasons.

Only Kirwan State High or St Augustine’s College stand in the way of a slice of schoolboy sporting history for the pride of Mackay after the school edged past Ignatius Park in Thursday’s semi-final 22-18.

The Townsville visitors ventured south without three of their Cowboys-contracted stars and looked listless in attack until a stunning final surge to the finish line created a nailbiting conclusion.

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Iggy Park scored three tries in the space of nine minutes to swing what had threatened to become a semi-final snoozefest for St Patrick’s.

St Pat’s had built a comfortable 20-4 lead with 20 minutes to play but took their collective foot off the throat, opening the door to an Ignatius Park resurgence with multiple handling errors.

A dropped bomb, a bobbled grubber and a knock on in contact where all immediately punished for four-pointers as the semi-final roared back to life.

Ignatius Park had scored just one try for the match against the run of play when regular winger Patrick Krause, thrust into the centres to cover the injury of Cowboy Kye Connell, broke two tackles and dashed 90m to score the opening try.

St Patrick’s responded with a run of 20 unanswered points, to hooker Joshua Tobey, wingers Kaden Muscat and Reuben Saron and fullback Hunter Harris, to lead by 16 points and seize total command of the playoff.

The ember of hope burning inside Ignatius Park caught flame when lock Jayden Ryan slammed down in the 44th minute, before a Nayte Essery grubber kick ricocheted off a defender and into the path of winger Jerry Mipari in the 47th.

When Krause latched onto a dropped ball with 70m of clear space in front of him that flame exploded into a wildfire.

For eight minutes St Patrick’s would have to defend a two-point lead, eventually kicking a penalty goal through MVP favourite Adam McSherry to seal a tense four-point victory.

PREVIEW

Ignatius Park College will travel to St Patrick’s College, Mackay gunning for a spot in the Aaron Payne Cup grand final without three of their Cowboys-contracted superstars.

To label Iggy Park an underdog for Thursday’s match would be a tremendous understatement.

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Prop and captain Sitiveni Afu and goalkicking fullback Lincoln Baker have been suspended for the sudden death semi-final clash, while a third Cowboy, centre Kye Connell, headlines a list of five injured players from Ignatius Park’s regular matchday 17.

St Patrick’s Brisbane Broncos junior fullback/five-eighth Adam McSherry is favourite to take home the Michael Morgan Medal as Aaron Payne Cup MVP, following in the footsteps of recent Cowboys Jeremiah Nanai, Jamal Shibasaki and Jaxon Purdue to win the award, while unsigned backrower Jack Thorburn is as fine a forward as any in the competition.

Ignatius Park coach Zeb Kyle knows the odds are stacked against his side, but there is a time-honoured reason why favourites fear the underdog.

“We’ve lost a fair few troops - lot of injuries, few suspensions - so it will be a good opportunity for our other squad members to show what they’ve got,” Kyle said.

“Since we’ve come back from Confro we’ve been cursed a little bit, but I have all faith in the blokes coming in.

“It’s about sticking to our system and what we value as a school, which is hard work, so they’ll be right.

Iggy Park face St Pats for the second week in a row.

“The ones that we’ve lost have been a big part of our season, but they’re not going to be there for this game so we’ve got to worry about what we do have.”

Iggy Park will be buoyed by the return of Queensland schoolboy cricket sensation Connor Sadler, who was named in the Confraternity team of the tournament as a front rower, while a host of familiar Cup names are set to replace the injured stars.

The team can also lean on their experience against this opposition.

Iggy Park was 2-0 against St Patrick’s before last week’s defeat, and Kyle said the lessons learned in that 22-8 loss would be a helpful tool when the stakes are raised in the rematch.

“We weren’t ourselves last week; we sort of went away from what’s worked for us leading up to that game,” he said.

“If there was ever a game you want that to happen it’s before a semi, so we’ve looked at what we need to improve on and there’s no excuses. The blokes who are here are going to have to get the job done.”

Originally published as Live stream: St Patrick’s Mackay take on Ignatius Park College in Aaron Payne Cup semifinal