Cairns Falcons hand Cyclones first loss of NQ Gridiron season

A much-improved Cairns Falcons have turned the tables on the Townsville Cyclones to hand them their first defeat of the NQ Gridiron season.

THE Cairns Falcons have turned the tables on the Townsville Cyclones to hand them their first defeat of the NQ Gridiron season.

The Falcons defeated the Cyclones 17-14 in a thrilling contest at Vico Oval on Saturday night, with a late Jake Leumann field goal all that could separate the two sides.

Quarterback Brendan Kruger makes a pass in the NQ Gridiron match between the Cairns Falcons and the Townsville Cyclones, held at Vico Oval, Mooroobool. Picture: Brendan Radke

The win keeps the Falcons in the hunt for a Reef Bowl berth with just the one game against Mackay to go.

The victory also marked a tremendous turnaround from the Falcons’ morale-crushing 57-7 loss to the Cyclones just over two months ago.

Falcons coach Jim Garcia said the heavy loss was an eye-opener for the side.

“It was, ‘people are here to win, you need to wake up and prepare yourself properly for games’,” he said.

“There’s probably still a little bit of a lingering attitude in the side that it’s just kicks and giggles, but the rest of the competition’s decided to move forward and so we have to go with it.”

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He said the win was a reward for the hard work the side had been putting in on the training paddock.

“They had a few bad games before Christmas and it’s taken them a game or two to hit their straps again,” he said.

“It’s kind of typical Falcons football. It always seems to be that second part of the season is when they switch on, which has hurt us before, but they’ve worked hard and they earned that win over the last month.”

Bobby Mifsud faces up against the Townsville defenders in the NQ Gridiron match between the Cairns Falcons and the Townsville Cyclones, held at Vico Oval, Mooroobool. Picture: Brendan Radke

Garcia said the defence played a big part in the win on the weekend, only allowing the Cyclones to score two touchdowns.

“Our offence contributed a little bit more this week, which is something we need to improve, but our defence is absolutely outstanding at the moment,” he said.

“The scoreline the week before (35-14 to the Cyclones) aginst them probably didn’t represent how close that game was. I think both teams are quite evenly matched when you look at individuals and their talent, it’s just the boys switching on and playing as a unit rather than playing as individuals.”

He said the side had plenty to work on with their season on the line against Mackay in Townsville this weekend.

“We need to focus on the little things,” he said.

“We probably blew three touchdowns on the weekend so the offence needs to step up again, and the defence just needs to keep doing what they’ve been doing. It’s hard to lose games if you can restrict sides to low scores, which is what they’ve done over the last couple of weeks.”

Originally published as Cairns Falcons hand Cyclones first loss of NQ Gridiron season