Rugby League Central Coast: Top talking points from round 12

They’re sitting pretty in second place on the ladder, but these premiership contenders are far from happy with their season so far.

The Entrance kept in touch with the top four with a win during round 12. Picture: Julian Andrews

The ladder has started to take shape after some crucial results in round 12 of the RL Central Coast competition.

Catch up on a wrap of the round here, and read about some of the main talking points below.

TOP FIVE BREAK AWAY

A real divide is starting to form in the first grade competition, with the top five breaking away from the bottom half of the ladder.

That was no more evident than in round 12 as four of the top-five teams – Erina, Toukley, Kincumber and The Entrance – won their games against lower-ranked opponents and third-placed Wyong received the two points from the bye.

This has created a situation where fifth-placed The Entrance is four points clear of Woy Woy in sixth with a game in hand.

ERINA KEEPS GRINDING AWAY

Riley Burke scored a double in 10-point victory over Woy Woy. Picture: Michael Gorton

Erina keeps doing the business at the top of the table after accounting for Woy Woy 22-12.

The win keeps the Eagles a remarkable five points clear at the top with a record of eight wins and one draw this season.

Perhaps even more impressively is how the side continues to get results with its lengthy injury list.

After losing Riley Stevenson, Jack Smith and Darby Elton in the first half of the round 10 clash against Kincumber, the team suffered another couple of injuries on the weekend as Dan Peters and Bailey Sigsworth were also forced from the field inside the first half an hour against the Roosters.

This builds the loss of key outside backs Finn Douch and Lincoln Tubridy to injury, and the absence of last year’s player of the year Nate Dwyer and leading tryscorer Luke Maljevac, who are both on holidays in Europe.

Aside from the incredible depth in the club, which is undefeated in first grade, reserve grade and under-19 competitions, the success has been built on a stripped back style of football

“At the end of the day we just continue to play the same brand of footy, regardless of those blokes out there,” said coach Dane Allen.

“We’re not playing really fancy, expansive footy; it’s just about trying to grind out this period and go set for set. It doesn’t really matter who we’ve got in there, the roles are very similar.

“So we’ve shelved a lot of our expansive footy for the time being until we get a few troops back – but we keep losing more.”

Erina is set for a boost ahead of Friday’s night’s blockbuster with Wyong, with Douch and Tubridy expected to return from injury.

TOUKLEY STILL LOOKING FOR THEIR BEST

Toukley is sitting in second after round 12. Picture: Julian Andrews

Toukley returned to the winner’s circle on Sunday with a 28-6 win over Berkeley Vale at Darren Kennedy Oval.

And while it kept the Hawks in second place on the ladder, captain-coach Jake Fitzpatrick is still far from satisfied with his team’s performances so far this season.

In addition to a sluggish start and some wasteful execution against the Panthers, the skipper pointed to the team’s disappointing display a week earlier when it lost 18-4 to an understrength Erina side in a grand final rematch.

“I’ll be fair, that was probably our worst attitude game that I’ve seen us play,” Fitzpatrick said.

“I struggled a lot during the week because of that performance. I couldn’t wrap my head around why we performed that way.

“I was really disappointed and we actually had a bit of an honesty session on the Thursday night with the oval shut. We had a chat about self-accountability and things like that. Because we are sitting second but we’re yet to really put anything together. Like I said to them: it’s crazy to think that we are sitting second but we’re still so far from our best.

“It’s one of those things where we’re five years into this group, we’ve won two competitions and probably should have won three, and it’s hard to keep getting back up. I think we have to own that we’ve dropped a little bit this year attitude-wise and from this moment on we’ve got to fix it and change it ourselves.”

The Hawks have plenty of room for improvement, according to their coach. Picture: Julian Andrews

As for how to sharpen up the Hawks’ attitude, Fitzpatrick said that it needs to start early in the week.

“You can’t just expect to turn up on a Sunday and get the job done. We’ve had it in the past where all the middles would get to training early and deadset run at each other, do contact and wrestle and all that, the outside backs would do kick-catches and we’ve had none of that this year.

“I haven’t really preached any of that and have to own my part in that as a coach; I probably haven’t been drilling that in enough. It starts Tuesday. You can’t expect to turn up Sunday and just win games. And even if you do win, it’s not going to be the way you set out for it to go.

“In the past we’ve turned up Tuesday focused on the job on Sunday. But this year, at this point, we haven’t done that yet. But like I said, we haven’t done that and we’re equal second. Imagine if we turn this around attitude-wise? We could go deep again.”

YOUNG GUNS SHINE FOR KINCUMBER

Local junior Jack Legge (in red) has been one of Kincumber’s brightest prospects this season.

With five ex-NRL players, including former internationals Matt Moylan and David Fifita, in its ranks, Kincumber has attracted plenty of attention this season on the back of its high-profile recruits.

However it was some of the Colts’ local juniors who stood up on the weekend as a youthful Kincumber side defeated Terrigal 36-10.

Local juniors Jake Needham and Josh Brown both made their first grade debuts in a proud day for the club.

“Jake is as consistent as hell,” said Kincumber president Lyndon Duncan. “He turns up every week, he’s at every training session. Sometimes he’s the ground manager as well, he helps as the gate – he’s just the type of club man you want.”

Duncan was equally impressed with Brown, who came off the bench after an excellent season so far in the under-19s.

“We’ve been watching him grow and grow this year. His ability and his awareness of the game is next level, so I was very happy when I heard he was getting his shot. And he stepped up, it wasn’t a typical debut: he ran the ball, he kicked for himself – he did really well and played out of his skin.”

They weren’t the only young Colts on show, with hooker Tom Breen coming into the starting side and young outside back Kurt Halls also back on deck after a shoulder injury.

This is in addition to another local junior in fullback Sean Bullen, who despite not lining up against Terrigal, has played a string of first grade games this year.

Another of the young guns to have shone this year is backrower Jack Legge, who picked up a try against the Sharks. Having played under-19s for the club last season, Legge has been a regular in the Kincumber team all season and has made quite an impression.

“He’s been so consistent, he does his job and the coaches said to me the other week that the best thing about him is if you tell him exactly what he needs to fix, the first thing he does is go out and fix it,” said Duncan.

“In one game they said to him, ‘We need some energy, we need you to go out and put a shot on.’ And the first three tackles were just him putting on big shots, and then he took a run and made metres. He’s just that kind of kid.”

The rise of local juniors is a shot in the arm for Kincumber, which is sitting nicely in fourth place on the ladder. But with a game in hand the Colts could jump up as high as second.