Ipswich's final bid to stay in title hunt

Nothing else matters if the Jets want to play finals football.

THE Ipswich Jets enter the penultimate round of 2018 needing to win. Nothing else matters if the Jets want to play finals football.

Ipswich's last home game of the year is against Tweed at the North Ipswich Reserve on Saturday.

The Seagulls cannot make the finals but would love to make sure their rivals from Ipswich are watching finals action as well.

The overall record between the two clubs has the Tweed winning 20 while Ipswich has come out on top 13 times.

The Jets have won seven of their past eight games against the Tweed in Ipswich.

The Jets also hold the advantage on home soil over the Tweed Seagulls, 10 wins to five.

IMPRESSIVE PLAYER: Ipswich Jets speedster Jayden Connors has caught the eye of a rival coach. Picture: Cordell Richardson

The last time the Tweed came to Ipswich was round 16 in 2017 and the Jets won 40-14. Michael Purcell scored three tries before half time.

In last weekend's win, Ipswich co-coach Ben Walker was impressed with the Jets bench.

"Our bench had an impact,'' Walker said.

"Huskie (Teutau) had a strip that led to a try. Cameron (Moran) was strong on debut. Rowan (Winterfield) scored his first try in a long while and Mitchell Carpenter offloaded and ran hard."

Tweed had a physical loss to the Hunters on the Coast. However, Tweed coach Ben Woolfe was happy with his side's defence and will be looking to bring that attitude to Ipswich.

"Jayden Connors has impressed me,'' Woolfe said. "He's playing some great football at the moment and we just need to prepare as we have all year.

"We can go into next year on a positive and that's important."

Top play

MY play of the day against the Capras last Saturday was the subtle dummy half work of Jayden Connors and the running of Nat Neale.

Jets set up to the right of the posts and Connors goes to dummy half. He signals behind his back he wants Neale to come around to the right of him. Connors jumps out of dummy half shaping to give the ball to Dane Phillips.

Connors talked me through the try.

"I called the move but wasn't sure if Nat heard me so I went to pass to Dane but saw Nat coming so threw the dummy and popped it back to him and there is no stopping him that close to the try line,'' he said.

Connors finished the game with two line breaks and a try from his man-of-the-match performance.

Great honour

THE Courier-Mail Medal has been awarded to the best and fairest player in the QRL since 1960. It will now be named after Petero Civoniceva.

"I couldn't believe it when the QRL asked,'' Civoniceva said.

"It's a great honour and one I am very proud of. Some of my best football days are in the Intrust Super Cup for Redcliffe."

Players like Arthur Beetson, Ross Strudwick, John Lang, Paul Green and Greg Inglis have won the award.

I asked Petero what the chances were of Jets' Nat Neale being added to that list.

"He is a great chance, the way he's led a young team around this year and he has just been tremendous every week. It's a hard job and he does it very well for the Jets.

"I'll be there on the night to present it and I'd love to get it to my fellow front row brother."

Old boys day

OLD Boys day is Christmas Day for Jets and their fans.

Five hundred and ninety-two players have lined up for the Jets and Saturday is their day to come together and celebrate.

I get excited about it every year.

As it's been 10 years since the 2008 grand final, I spoke to several Jets from that side and asked about what Old Boys' day means to them.

Scott Ireland played on the wing in the 2008 team: "I think it's just great to catch up. Anyone that has played footy knows how close a good team can be. Then you get old and life gets in the way, you go from seeing these bloke five times a week to maybe a few times a year. The best part is though, when you catch up, it's like things never changed."

Kevvie Walters was the Jets' coach in 2008: "It's always important to remember your past. In addition, it is nice to catch up with those that you have played with. It is also nice to see former staff members as well; most of them are volunteers and are paid very little. They are as committed as the players."

Remember that Jet?

IN 1986, Goodna junior Ben Olsen became Jet number 91 when he made his debut for the Ipswich Jets.

"That year in 1986 was such an exciting time,'' Olsen said.

"To play for the Jets and to get to play against people like Wally Lewis. That Wynnum team was star-studded."

Olsen left the Jets in 1987 to play in Beaudesert but returned in 1988 and 1989 to be part of the Jets' grand final efforts.

"1988 we should have won, still don't know how we lost. 1989 we just didn't prepare properly and we got beaten.

"I loved it at the Jets, I left again in 1990 for England and was only going one year but stayed five."

Olsen is a stonemason by trade and lives on the Sunshine Coast where he watches the Jets whenever he can.

"I coached against the Jets when I was helping at the Sunshine Coast Falcons. That was a strange feeling,'' he said.

"I am good mates with Steve Parcell so I watched Matt Parcell when I could. I was really happy for Matt in 2015 when Jets finally got the job done."

Magic milestones

WES Conlon needs two points to be the Jets second highest points scorer.

Brendon Lindsay currently has 474 and Wes Conlon 473.

Dane Phillips will equal Brendon Lindsay's 135 games for the Jets and be the equal- fifth most capped Jet.

Cooper's stat

BILLY Slater will retire at the end of the year with one try against the Jets in 2002.

That was in Norths' 26-18 win.

Norths 26 (Dallas Johnson, Trent McKeough, Fifita Moala, Billy Slater, Semi Tadulala tries; Cameron Smith three goals) def Ipswich 18 (Aaron Bulow, Michael Jack, Steven West tries; West three goals).

A cold beer with . . .

In 1972, Dave Roderick played his first game for Queensland in the front row. His job was to stop the Blues juggernaut that had not lost a series since 1959 and would not lose again until Origin. I sat down with Dave and talked about the 70's and Ipswich League.

They weren't great times for Queensland were they? No. They were not we were belted; it was hard against the Blues. I played for Queensland then back playing for West End on the weekend. We had a six-week camp at Lang Park for that series and I got $60 a week it was great times just not too many wins.

Immortals Langlands, Fulton and Beetson were in that Blues side in 1972. Yeah it is not a bad line-up. They just had such depth and we could not compete with that. Arthur was the best and my idol. To play against him was unbelievable.

Did you ever get an offer to go to Sydney? I did get a three-year offer from South Sydney, which was pretty big money. But with the farm my parents couldn't afford to put someone on and if I had got hurt it would have meant the farm was suffering so I said no and stayed and played in Ipswich.

Who is your favourite Ipswich player? I coached the Fassifern under 12s when I stopped playing and we came up against the Norths under 12s. Our gun player was Steve Parcell but Norths had Allan Langer. I think between them they scored eight tries. Alf was doing the same things at 12 that he was at 30.

Originally published as Ipswich's final bid to stay in title hunt